New cresties! - need some advice

[DanaD]

Well, I just received a new pair of crested geckos, from a friend. I should have been getting them next week, but he brought them to me sooner, so now I took a break in setting their terrariums down - I wasn't quite prepared for them yet.
Some history: he had them for 6 months or so, both were eating fine, and were kept together until 2 weeks ago. Male is 10-11 months old, and female is a little over 1 year old. He separated them because he noticed some signs of aggression between them. Since the separation, the female had been eating very little (1-2 mealworms or so), and I indeed noticed that she is a little thin. I will weight both of them later tonight and take some photos. They were fed only mealworms and once a week fruit baby food. I will try some crickets after 1-3 days of accommodation, hoping that she will start eating again.

So...does anyone have any advice for me?

 

[LoungeLizard]

To be honest I'm surprised the female's eating mealies, crickets are much better as they're faster and catch their attention. I suggest you get some CGD (Crested Gecko Diet) and offer it to her in a dish when its her nighttime, you can get it at most pet stores that sell crested anymore.

 

[strakey]

Hi there: LL is right, actually mealworms have no nutritional value to them at all, they should not be even fed. To fatten her up (him also) feed only cgd and keep the crickets to the minimum. Crickets are good for extra protein but nothing else. As the lizards get older they lose interest in chasing them around. She might take time warming up to the cgd, but be patient she'll eat when hungry. Just make sure the cage isn't too cluttered so she can't find her food. You might also half to have her lick it out of your hand or off her nose to get acclimated to the taste. Provide her with some calcium powder to lick also. Good luck

 

[DanaD]

Thanks for the reply!
Well, they both eat only mealworms until now, and baby food.
As for CGD, there is no such thing in my country. In fact, the only reptiles sold here in pet-shops are iguanas, leopard geckos, cornsnakes and red eared sliders, at a huuuge price (almost 125 euros for a NORMAL leo). Ah, and they keep them in really awful conditions. And none of them sells food for those reptiles, except for some iguana dry pellets and turtle food. Almost all my reptiles I bought from a neighbor country, and the live food for them also, but not even there I can't find CGD, not even cricket food or gutload for them. So, I'm having a very hard time here keeping these guys, and I have to improvise alot, but I think it's worth the effort!

 

[DanaD]

Well, the female is 19 grams, and the male is 21 grams. What do you think about that?

I finished my set-up for the female, and put her in:

I hope she'll be ok in there.

 

[LoungeLizard]

Ah, in that case you can feed baby food its just not as good for them. If you want to add some nutritional value you can get some fresh fruits like banana, papaya, peaches, apricots, and figs which are great as they eat them in the wild. To offer the fresh fruits just puree them in a blender and you can mix it in with baby food or just have the fresh fruit puree once a week or so.

 

[DanaD]

Ok, thanks, I will try that!
She is quite active and seems ok, and now she's almost red in color!
(Those are not my first cresties, but still I'm very-very exited about the new additions!)

 

[DanaD]

I have good news! Tonight both of them ate some peach baby food from a teaspoon! I don't really now if handfeeding them was such a great idea, but I thought it might get them started...
Actually the female ate a little more than the male (about half a teaspoon or more). And the male just shed his skin the other night and everything went ok with that.
I forgot to mention that when I got them I checked the calcium sacks of both of them and they seem quite large, so no calcium deficiency problems. Now I'm waiting for some poo to have a fecal exam done....

Ah....just wanted to ask you one more thing: I find that adult geckos (not only cresties) seem to be harder to acclimate than babies...is this happening to you guys too, or did I just had some sort of "bad luck" in the past? I mean....every time I got babies and adults of the same specie, the babies started to eat sooner than the adults....

 

[StickyFeet.]

Just thought i'd chime in here after reading through this thread..

I would highly recommend that you stop feeding them baby food. Baby food is high in added sugars, and in no way is it a complete diet for your Cresteds. If you go the Crested Gecko Diet route, or the MRP Repashy base with the fruit nectar selections, THAT is a complete diet and it is said Crickets are not needed. Consistently feeding only baby food and keeping crickets to a minimum runs the chance of MBD developing. You need additional calcium, proteins and vitamins. You can feed a fruit smoothie blend, I recommend the one off of Rhacs Canada which Hilde came up with (she goes by Hilde on this forum aswell) that one is to be used with crickets. Considering the fact these 2 were eating on diets that consisted of sugars and high fat, I would definately be introducing crickets.

Crickets that are gutloaded properly offer various benefits to Cresteds, not only Protein and they also enjoy hunting them. All of my Cresteds, including my 4 oldest Cresteds love crickets very much and enjoy hunting them so if they will take them, I would definately be offering them.

Just because they weigh 19-21 grams doesn't mean that weight was put on in a healthy way. It's like an underweight person that packs on the pounds eating McDonalds. Look out for "wavy tail", which looks like kinks in their tail, also look out for Floppy tail, so if you notice them sleeping nose facing the ground and their tail is hanging down over them. If you notice these, these are signs of lack of calcium.

Variety is key in their diet, and I find that for myself, variety with all my geckos has helped keep them happy and healthy.

This is *my* feeding regime that I use, and I've never experienced any calclium crashes, wavy tail, floppy tail, or any of the other signs that exhibit MBD. (Metabolic Bone Disease)

Day 1 - Hilde's Fruit Smoothie, supplemented with Vitamin D3.
Day 2 - Gutloaded and dusted Crickets(dusted with Multi vitamins) and whatever fruit smoothie was left from the night before.
Day 3 - Break (remove fruit smoothie in the AM to prevent spoiling, fruit flies)
Day 4 - MRP Repashy, passionfruit or mango flavours are preferred
Day 5 - Gutloaded and dusted Crickets (dusted with pure Calcium) and whatever Repashy is left.
Day 6 - Break. Remove Repashy
Day 7 - Plain old gutloaded crickets

Also as a treat once a month, i'll mash up a bit of over ripe fruit just as is for them to munch on (bananas, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, mangos, blackberries) and I also will offer them some straight yogurt. (Probiotic brands, low in fat but no aspertame, the ones that consist mostly of fruit) So Activia, Source, Danone.. etc.

There are many other healthy alternatives than baby food, so hopefully this helps you out! The enclosure looks great and you've got some cute looking geckos. Good luck!

 

[DanaD]

Heather, thanks a lot for your advice, but, as I said previously, I can't find any gecko pre-made diets and none of the US or Canada online shops would ship to my country.... And even if supposedly I find one that does, I don't think that is such a great idea to rely on that. So baby food or blended fruits are my best option. I'm using now Hipp baby food, 100% natural, no added sugar and it's a bio-product (double the price of normal baby food, but...). As for guttloading crickets, I also had to come up with my own recipe, many ideas I got from this forum actually, because I can't find any of this to buy either. I envy the thing that for you over there it's quite easy to raise almost any kind of geckos, you have special supplement and food for them, feeder insects food, guttloading food, all kinds of feeder insects and worms, and many other things, that you mostly can buy online....as for me, I have to go the "old-fashion way"

As for their tails, they look healthy and strong and they use them quite a lot when climbing, so I think they are ok.

 

[StickyFeet.]

Wow! Sorry I must have missed the post lol!

It sounds really difficult to raise them where you are, but it sounds like you're doing an awesome job so far! The baby food you're using sounds like it's a good brand aswell, so they're definately going to be some spoiled little geckos keep us updated on these two, hopefully you see some weight gain and their appetites continue to grow.

 

[strakey]

You can order off of ebay, there is always a way. Just buy enough to last ahwile eg 1pound bag. Just use the baby food in the interm.

good luck

 

[Dyesub Dave]

I feed fruit smoothies along with the 2-part repashy gecko diet and crickets. I usually get a bunch of fruit (NON-CITRUS) and blend it up ... sometimes I add some plain yogurt or bee pollen. Then I pour the blended mixture into ice cube trays and just thaw them out when I need them. I can always add supplementation to the mixture after I thaw it if I so choose.

You can just leave a small dish in the enclosures with the geckos and they should be able to find the food throughout the evening hours. (Just in case you weren't doing this already.)

I fed baby food for a short time when I first got my two cresties but from the advice of others stopped using it. However I've always wondered why it's any different than blended fruit. Many say that it contains added sugars but wouldn't it have to list that on the ingredients label? The baby food I was using just said puree (whatever type of fruit it was) and ascorbic acid (which from my research is just vitamin C that is synthesized from sugar).

Almost all of my geckos love the fruit smoothies but it would definitely be a good idea to try and find some of the gecko diet. Sometimes I even mix any leftover gecko diet that I have in the fridge with some thawed out fruit smoothie so it has a bit more nutrient boost. This also helps with finicky eaters that won't eat the diet on it's own. You can just keep increasing the amount of gecko diet while lessening the smoothie so that over time you're just feeding the gecko diet.

Good luck with your new geckos and keep us posted on their progress!

Dyesub Dave. :biggrin:

 

[DanaD]

Well I'm trying to do my best here! I mean....how did people managed to raise and breed them before the invention of CGD? It can't be that hard...
And yes, Romania is quite a difficult place to raise reptiles of any kind. But this is a very new hobby here, so I hope it will get better with time. I mean, perhaps 90% of the population is terrified by reptiles and consider me some king of a freak because I raise/breed them. Some people I know are even afraid to pass my doorstep. Ahhh....and we also don't have any herp vets here as well. Luckily for me, I'm a vet student, so I have a little advantage here, but without someone to guide you and teach you in reptile medicine, it's not that easy, I have to figure out a lot by myself.

Ordering from eBay sound like a good idea, I'll definitely try to do so!

I'll keep you posted!

 

[DanaD]

Thanks for the advice Dave!

I just did what you said with the fruit smoothie, and hope they will eat some of it tonight.

Anyway, I'm very optimistic about these two little guys!
And thank you all again for your help!

 

[AnnaH]

Hello, I have just bought my first two crested geckos. I am from the Czech republic and I have also problems with getting CGD here. I have ordered some from US, but it is quite expensive with the shipping cost :? Now I feed them dusted crickets and some bio baby food without sugar with vitamin and mineral supplements.
Last year I have finished the veterinary university in Brno and I am staying here as a PhD student of exotic pet medicine - especially reptile medicine. Every year we have here an international summer school of exotic pet medicine, last time there was also one young veterinarian from Romania And I really like your country, especially the mountains ;-)