Dusting with CGD?

[Hardknox]

So I have an extremely under weight adult gecko I adopted and am putting through rehab. He is a little over 2 years old and has settled into his new home very nicely. He is 10 inches snout to tip and only 27 grams, poor guy. I have started feeding him small but frequent feedings in order to fatten him up without over taxing his digestive tract until he gets used to larger feedings. Just for the record I have 5 other leopards in excellent health that I got as eggs so I am not looking for basic husbandry advice. I have been dusting the crickets and mealworms (I feed them on a 1:3 basis respectively) with the normal calcium and calcium/D3 dust. Today I took one of the mealworms and moistened it by spritzing it with water and then rolled it around in some Repashy CGD to the point it was covered slightly more than a typical light dusting of calcium. He took it quite happily and then took another mealworm without CGD.

So let me go over my reasoning:

1. CGD is the exact same nutritional makeup as quality gutload (Repashy bug burger, Fluker orange cubes etc.)
2. CGD does not digestively mimic plant matter/fruit it is only made to taste like it with an ideal nutritional breakdown (ie its low in fiber referenced to the fact cresties and gargs fed with it tend to have slightly runny poo)
3. As he is underweight much like malnourished people large volumes of food can be sickening and even deadly.
4. CGD would supply an ideal supplement of nutrients without requiring large volumes and without being taxing on his digestive tract.
5. Mealworms are nutritionally a little weak in terms of ideality and this can bring them closer to the right spot.

Does anybody have a valid argument for why this would be a bad rehab program assuming extreme moderation is practiced in its application?

 

[MeiK]

I have done this on a rescued gecko pair, and it put weight on the geckos very quickly. We misted mealworms with water and dusted them with MRP (shook them in it 'till they were coated). They looked like solid brown mealworms afterwords.

Regardless. It worked for us. Like you said tho - moderation, etc etc. We figured moistening the mealworms first so they'd be coated in the wet MRP would be better than dry MRP, since dry could pull moisture away from the gecko once it's in his/her belly. I could be overthinking that, tho.

I know no scientific backup for this - I just know it seemed to help us save 2 geckos in the past for us.

 

[Hardknox]

I also wet the mealworm beforehand otherwise the MRP wont stick to it. I am glad somebody else has tried it, I tried to consider every reason it could be bad and ultimately determined it should be an excellent way to help put on weight.

 

[Lenewen]

I am doing the same thing with female leopard gecko I just rescued and from the research I have done, I can't find anything wrong with it....I think you're okay. Moderation, obviously, is the only recommendation. I also wet my mealworms so it sticks better.