Home Made Fruit Mix (Frugivorus Gecko Diet)

[PassPort]

Alright, I've never really posted this recipe publicly, but I know there's a few of you that have been asking me for it so here it is. This is just a general guideline, the final recipe will need to be adjusted based on your actual gecko's tastes.

fruit mix recipe:

Equal parts of these fresh ripe-overripe (but not rotten) fruits:
-banana
-mango
-papaya
-guava

Add smaller quantities of the following for flavor:
-kiwi
-strawberry
-peach
-apricot
-fig

Blend well and add 1 part plain unsweetened yogurt, Greek yogurt works best (yes, yogurt, trust me on this one) and a season to taste with a multi vitamin powder. I normally add some bee pollen as well, about 1 Tb per cup of mix. DON'T USE CITRUS. For fast growing juveniles and actively breeding adults you can add a bit of raw honey (about 1 Tb per cup of fruit mix). I've recently started using coconut yogurt with excellent results and would recommend trying it with your own geckos.

you can mix and match the above flavors depending on what the store has or your gecko's tastes.

I've found the following to go over very well:
strawberry, guava, kiwi, banana
peach, apricot, mango, banana
banana, papaya, fig

It stores well in the fridge for up to a week* or more. Some of my geckos (Eurydactylodes in particular) prefer it once it's sat in the cage for a day and gotten stinky.

Most of my geckos will eat it, including my Phelsuma and Gekko. All of my Rhacs, Eurys, Anolis, and my buddy's Bavayia and Gheyra love it. My Oedura will even snack on the peach one, but only if I leave the banana out.

*NOTE: if you add yogurt before storing the mixture will jell up like flan so if you plan on making a weeks worth don't mix in the yogurt until it's actually time to feed.

 

[Palor]

We were thinking about trying this out for our geckos as well. I am seeing a farmers market trip in my future.

 

[PassPort]

It's pretty good stuff. Your Lepidodactylus should really grub on the mango mix, as should your Anolis. I even feed the strawberry/banana one to my jeweled lacertas and bearded dragons.

 

[Palor]

So far my anoles have been some what stalwart on their refusal to try fruits. The strangest reptile I have had try eating a fruit mix was a Long Tailed Grass Lizard. I am hoping my anoles will try something one day, I am considering seeing of they will try a bit of raw honey..

My Ll's like Mango and Strawberry CGD.

 

[combadao]

Great, I sure will use it. Thanks.

 

[PassPort]

So far my anoles have been some what stalwart on their refusal to try fruits.

My Anolis leachi is a big fan of blended apricots and peaches just on their own. You might want to try just that for starters.

 

[wench]

is this good for leos............................

 

[rhachic]

is this good for leos............................

...uh...leos are insectivores not frugivores...

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Great post Kevin. I think it should be a sticky somewhere!! ;-)

I quite often tell people how to make a fruit smoothie for their geckos and find myself repeating the process. I was worried about using the Kiwi however as I heard it's a type of citrus fruit.

My staple is the banana/strawberry with whatever else I have thrown in. I have some bee pollen that I sometimes put in as well which seems to attract some of the more stubborn eaters to try it. Other fruits that I have tried with success are cantaloupe, pear, apple, grapes, raspberry, plum ... the list goes on and on really.

I usually try to make a couple of different flavoured batches and freeze them in ice cube trays. I only add supplements when I thaw them out so that they can be given to the kids or used in drinks if desired. I will also sometimes incorporate a fruit cube with some CGD to get the geckos to try it.

This is definitely a great way to add diversity to your geckos diet. And it's fairly cheap and easy to make as well.

Dyesub Dave. :biggrin:

 

[PassPort]

...uh...leos are insectivores not frugivores...

The feces and stomach contents of wild Eublepharis macularius have been found to occasionally contain small amounts of flowers and small fruits. I think all animals are fairly opportunistic. Cheetahs are known to relish certain wild melons. My cat loves avocado, as well as many other un-catlike foods. Anyways, what I'm getting at is that some leos will occasionally take fruit matter. I try to offer my gravid females a mix of fresh VERY ripe strawberries and greek yogurt with some raw honey. Most of them will at least nibble on it and I feel the calcium in the yogurt really helps egg development. Again, the key word here is occasionally. Leos are primarily insectivores and that should make up 95%+ of their diet. Anything else, i.e.: fruit, is a treat and that's it.

I was worried about using the Kiwi however as I heard it's a type of citrus fruit.

Kiwi is not a citrus, but is high in citric acid. As such I normally keep the kiwi content low and feed it no more than once per week. I'm not sure how harmful it would be in higher dosages or if it would even be harmful at all, but better safe than sorry, right? My Eurydactylodes really dig on the kiwi though.....

 

[Palor]

I have a friend who's AFT loves smashed mango

 

[PhelsumaUK]

Anyone know the scientific basis for not feeding citrus as part of a diet? I can only find pseudoscientific explanations apart from an inconclusive report that it might adversely affect iron uptake (but banana might do too). I've found a few references to diahorrea in bearded dragons...but if I had a large meal of solely orange/lemon/grapefruit pulp, I'd probably have it too!

 

[siz]

Can you use frozen fruit?

 

[PassPort]

fruit loses a lot of it's nutrients when it's frozen, so I wouldn't.

 

[Dyesub Dave]

I freeze mine into cubes. I have heard of nutrient loss but I don't know of the degree of loss. There's no way that I could constantly blend up fresh fruit for the number of geckos that I have. And if I made a huge batch it would likely go bad in the fridge.

You can always mix extra supplements in with the thawed fruit smoothie if desired.

Actually ... I just did a search on the net and there's not much evidence supporting nutrient loss when freezing fruits & veggies. Here's what one page said ....

Freezing, when properly done, is the method of food preservation which may potentially preserve the greatest quantity of nutrients. To maintain top nutritional quality in frozen fruits and vegetables, it is essential to follow directions contained in this leaflet for pretreatment of the vegetables, to store the frozen product at 0° F and to use it within suggested storage times.

And here is the link to that page .... Freezing Fruits and Vegetables.

Dyesub Dave. :biggrin:

 

[PassPort]

thanks for the input, Dave!

 

[siz]

Yeah I have heard of a lot of people freezing their diet after making it so I figured frozen would be OK

 

[MauricesExoticPets]

The feces and stomach contents of wild Eublepharis macularius have been found to occasionally contain small amounts of flowers and small fruits. I think all animals are fairly opportunistic. Cheetahs are known to relish certain wild melons. My cat loves avocado, as well as many other un-catlike foods. Anyways, what I'm getting at is that some leos will occasionally take fruit matter. I try to offer my gravid females a mix of fresh VERY ripe strawberries and greek yogurt with some raw honey. Most of them will at least nibble on it and I feel the calcium in the yogurt really helps egg development. Again, the key word here is occasionally. Leos are primarily insectivores and that should make up 95%+ of their diet. Anything else, i.e.: fruit, is a treat and that's it.


Kiwi is not a citrus, but is high in citric acid. As such I normally keep the kiwi content low and feed it no more than once per week. I'm not sure how harmful it would be in higher dosages or if it would even be harmful at all, but better safe than sorry, right? My Eurydactylodes really dig on the kiwi though.....

Nearly all insectivores will consume a bit of fruit or plant matter in the process of catching their intended prey.

Nearly all herbivores will consume a bit of animal matter in the process of eating plant matter.

Stuff happens, some animals are not all that bright and eat things they shouldn't consume, humans for example are the most moronic of all animals and will eat just about anything without regard to the potential detriment to their own health and wellbeing.

Fecal samples only tell part of the story concerning diets, it is what is digested that matters, that which is passed is waste, often unavoidable but waste none the less.

I'm not qualified or rolling in enough cash to test the digestibility of plant matter in leopard geckos, so take the above stated info with a grain of salt, ask your vet, win the lottery and have a qualified lab figure it out for you or consider that millions of leos have done just fine without plant matter as a great portion of their diet.

I will grant that the gut contents of many insects do contain plant matter, and this is the basis for many gutloads, but I will also state that much of the plant matter consumed by insects is partially/fully digested. This could be assumed to aid in the leopard geckos’ ability to digest plant matter and thus extract some level of nutrition from the plant matter. Dedicated herbivores digest plant matter differently than insectivores digest insects, the two are simply not designed to do the others specialized digestion work.

Just some food for thought.

Maurice Pudlo

 

[PassPort]

I agree completely with what you said. All I was saying is that some of my leos will occasionally take a nibble at a fruit mix.

 

[MauricesExoticPets]

I didn't want to come across too strong on this one, yet in my experience there are people out there that will take a small bit of information and run wild with it and end up in trouble.

I felt a bit of clearing up wouldn't hurt the post.

I by no means wanted to discount your point, more so I wanted to make sure people better understood the whys and hows of insectivores getting plant matter in their diet.

Another point I failed to mention is hydration, fruit on average is 80% or greater composed of water. It stands to reason that this source of hydration would not be passed up. In the case of iguanas, they eat flowers more for hydration than nutrition.

Maurice Pudlo