[colinmelsom]

Do you feed your Phelsuma livefood or premade dried food or a mixture of both?
I am interested to learn what commercially available foods are used and if anyone uses these solely as opposed to a treat once a week.
I have a feeling that some of the larger breeders use these soley to get the geckos to adulthood quickly and for ease of feeding.Does this have any detrimental effects in the long run?
It would be nice to hear from anyone who has studied them in the wild to learn how much of their diet is insect based and how much is sap/pollen or the like.

[daggekko]

Hey, I normally feed crickets 2 or 3 times a week and Repashy diets 2 or 3 times a week. Problem is I change things up regularly so I don't have a regular feeding schedule. I guess a better way to start is to list what types of things I use to feed my geckos

1. Crickets
2. Repashy Day Gecko MRP(Cherry/Fig)
3. Repashy Crested Gecko MRP(Mango)
4. Repashy Crested Gecko MRP(Peach)
5. Repashy Crested Gecko MRP(Fig)
6. Baby Food with Repashy Calcium Plus(I have not fed this stuff in a LOOOONNGG time though)
7. Passports Frugivorus Gecko Diet Home Made Fruit Mix (Frugivorus Gecko Diet)
8. Fruit Flies(for the baby/young geckos)
9. Repashy Calcium Plus(for insect dusting)
10. And as soon as it arrives I am going to try the Clarks Gecko Diet Diet
11. And as soon as I can get them breeding I will start using dubia roaches as well!


The Repashy Gecko MRPs are supposed to be able to be used as a sole diet for the gecko and I don't doubt that they would work, but it is good for variety and exercise(enrichment) to give other things like live bugs.

As far as commercial breeders goes, I don't know for sure what they do but it seems like the people that are very seriously into Phelsuma do the variety over just trying to grow the geckos quickly. I personally have noticed that my baby geckos grow much faster once I switch them from fruit flies to crickets. It is an amazing difference. That being said, I firmly believe in feeding live bugs and the other diets so you can avoid deficiencies.

Another quick thought on the whole what you feed your gecko deal-If you raise up a gecko on only one type of food and then one day you can no longer get that food, what is your gecko going to do? Some animals will get set in their ways and when you switch their foods they won't try them. If you always use a variety the gecko will learn to eat different things, so if the company(like Repashy) ever stopped making the product it is no big deal

[colinmelsom]

Thanks for the reply Adam.I tend to feed mine on crickets two or three times per week with a basis banana or fig mash and honey once a week into which I put some multivitamins or calcium.
It seems to work in terms of breeding but then I believe that if you get conditions somewhere near right ithey will breed anyway.
Do you use ultraviolet light with your geckos or rely on supplementation?Do you consider the Repashy foods good or are they the only ones available in the States?They have only recently become available over here in Britain and some people ( especially those with Rhacodactylus)do lrave about them.

[daggekko]

I do not use UV lighting right now. I want to make the change but have to wait for a bit to have the funds to do that(I also might be seeing if I can weasel my way into a distributor to get much cheaper pricing!!!)

I actually really like the Repashy products. They smell wonderful and the geckos all like them a lot! I love the fact that even though they are all basically the same formula/ingredients, there are many flavors to add some variety for the sake of the geckos. I have seen some oddball stuff that is not available in the states from time to time. Mainly off brand diets or supplements. Unfortunately my area has suffered from the economy thing and the bigger reptile petstores have shut down. There are 2 but I have to drive 45 minutes to get to them. So I just order stuff online and have it shipped!

[lauraleellbp]

What insects might be worth culturing besides crickets, dubias, and/or fruit flies for hatchlings?

I'm considering silk moths, though I've never tried my hand at them to date...

[Aerio]

Silk worms I think are tough im pretty sure you need a specific type of leaf for them to eat if im not mistaken.

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[daggekko]

Aren't silk worms bigger than baby Phelsuma?

[lauraleellbp]

LOL yeah I believe so, I was thinking they may be good for the adults though. The breeder I got my P. m. grandis from said that he feeds the worms and the moths to his adults.

They might be good for my fish, too, is another reason I am considering them... Guess I'll have to do some research on culturing them!

[Sgvreptiles]

I feed crickets once a week. usually add 20-30 crickets per tank. I feed on sat with crickets, and have seen them eating some on thursday as well. So dont think because I feed them crickets once a week they arnt getting fed. They still eat. I give repashy mrp once a week. usually on wensday. This is for my adults.
Hatchlings get fruit flys every day, and mrp once a week.
I also started culturing a month that I found in my oatmeal containers. Im going to see if I can keep them producing and feed them off. the moths are only about half inch as adults and larve are about the same size. Good for most phelsuma.

[colinmelsom]

Do you use any additional vitamin supplements or ultraviolet Jeff?