WildWildMidwest
New member
Hello from Wisconsin. I've been reading this web forum several weeks before our kids bought their two crested geckos last week. I have also been reading several highly recommended gecko books and numerous other web pages, such as jbscresties.com.
Our first crested gecko, Ziggy (aka Ralph), weighed 7 grams at his arrival eight days ago. (We'll call Ziggy a boy for convenience, though Ziggy's gender remains unknown.) Ziggy is a pig for calcium-dusted crickets, taking up to 3 of them at an offering. He can barely make the legs to go down but he still looks eager for more. He is quite bold and not easily disturbed by hands entering his 5 gallon terrarium. We had him initially in a 20 gallon long terrarium, but he seemed to get lost in there... he's definitely happier looking in his 5 gallon tank (for now).
Our 35 gram female, Manila, arrived four days ago. She lives in the 20L terrarium, and she moves about plenty during the night. She is more reserved than Ziggy, preferring dark hides instead of climbing the Hagen plastic Ampallo plant in her tank. Ziggy loves climbing his plastic Ampallo.
Manila took two medium sized dusted, gut-loaded crickets last evening but she rejected a freshly molted mealworm and two other crickets. I don't know if she ever saw a mealworm before; we don't plan on offering mealworms often. She ate one cricket the previous night. She took two bites of a banana wedge two days ago but she barely touches her Repashy Crested Gecko Diet. Ziggy also doesn't seem to like Repashy CGD much. Both geckos consume approximately 1/8 tsp Repashy CGD per 24 hours.
Our terrariums are set at temperatures between 70-75 degrees, with Ultratherm UTH heaters connected to homemade rheostats. Humidity is around 80% in both terrariums. We mist the geckos lightly each night. Both tanks have filtered daylight only – no artificial light, no direct light except room lighting when humans are about. Our two geckos never met each other, nor have they been in the same room together. We do not share any equipment between them. We are scrupulous about hand washing and not carrying germs / parasites between geckos during their 30 day quarantine.
I have a colony of dubia roaches on order. I plan on using dubia nymphs as a primary live food and using crickets and other insects for occasional food diversity. I am well aware of the risk of impaction from mealworms, and Ziggy won't get offered any mealworms until he's much bigger. My original plan was to offer a couple dubias 2-3 times a week, but I may need to modify that plan based on our geckos' preferences / needs.
I look forward to suggestions people may have to get our cresties interested in Repashy CGD. They don't seem to touch the stuff unless we offer them a cricket first to put them in the mood for eating. We mix CGD freshly every evening and remove it in the morning. We handle our geckos less than five minutes every other day, before cricket feeding. The geckos go straight back into their terrariums with no more handling as soon as they finish eating crickets.
One thought: the store where we bought our Repashy CGD is a high volume Milwaukee pet store with multiple crested geckos and a reptile department Manager who knows tons about crestie care and biology, since she owns multiple crested geckos herself. I assumed the 1.75 ounce CGD bottle I bought there to be fresh; the inner plastic bottle seal was unopened. Looking at the label now I begin to wonder. Above the UPC code on the back it says "(c) 2008 Product of USA". The front label is yellow with the name Repashy Superfoods. I see from the web the current label is purple and is labeled Sandfire Superfoods. Are our cresties rejecting their CGD because it's stale? It doesn't smell stale to my human nostrils.
I thought about turning up the temperature on Manila's terrarium a few degrees to see if that will make her hungrier. Any other ideas?
Thanks in advance. I love Geckos Unlimited!
[Moderator, please feel free to move this thread to the Crested Gecko subforum if you feel it's more appropriate there.]
Our first crested gecko, Ziggy (aka Ralph), weighed 7 grams at his arrival eight days ago. (We'll call Ziggy a boy for convenience, though Ziggy's gender remains unknown.) Ziggy is a pig for calcium-dusted crickets, taking up to 3 of them at an offering. He can barely make the legs to go down but he still looks eager for more. He is quite bold and not easily disturbed by hands entering his 5 gallon terrarium. We had him initially in a 20 gallon long terrarium, but he seemed to get lost in there... he's definitely happier looking in his 5 gallon tank (for now).
Our 35 gram female, Manila, arrived four days ago. She lives in the 20L terrarium, and she moves about plenty during the night. She is more reserved than Ziggy, preferring dark hides instead of climbing the Hagen plastic Ampallo plant in her tank. Ziggy loves climbing his plastic Ampallo.
Manila took two medium sized dusted, gut-loaded crickets last evening but she rejected a freshly molted mealworm and two other crickets. I don't know if she ever saw a mealworm before; we don't plan on offering mealworms often. She ate one cricket the previous night. She took two bites of a banana wedge two days ago but she barely touches her Repashy Crested Gecko Diet. Ziggy also doesn't seem to like Repashy CGD much. Both geckos consume approximately 1/8 tsp Repashy CGD per 24 hours.
Our terrariums are set at temperatures between 70-75 degrees, with Ultratherm UTH heaters connected to homemade rheostats. Humidity is around 80% in both terrariums. We mist the geckos lightly each night. Both tanks have filtered daylight only – no artificial light, no direct light except room lighting when humans are about. Our two geckos never met each other, nor have they been in the same room together. We do not share any equipment between them. We are scrupulous about hand washing and not carrying germs / parasites between geckos during their 30 day quarantine.
I have a colony of dubia roaches on order. I plan on using dubia nymphs as a primary live food and using crickets and other insects for occasional food diversity. I am well aware of the risk of impaction from mealworms, and Ziggy won't get offered any mealworms until he's much bigger. My original plan was to offer a couple dubias 2-3 times a week, but I may need to modify that plan based on our geckos' preferences / needs.
I look forward to suggestions people may have to get our cresties interested in Repashy CGD. They don't seem to touch the stuff unless we offer them a cricket first to put them in the mood for eating. We mix CGD freshly every evening and remove it in the morning. We handle our geckos less than five minutes every other day, before cricket feeding. The geckos go straight back into their terrariums with no more handling as soon as they finish eating crickets.
One thought: the store where we bought our Repashy CGD is a high volume Milwaukee pet store with multiple crested geckos and a reptile department Manager who knows tons about crestie care and biology, since she owns multiple crested geckos herself. I assumed the 1.75 ounce CGD bottle I bought there to be fresh; the inner plastic bottle seal was unopened. Looking at the label now I begin to wonder. Above the UPC code on the back it says "(c) 2008 Product of USA". The front label is yellow with the name Repashy Superfoods. I see from the web the current label is purple and is labeled Sandfire Superfoods. Are our cresties rejecting their CGD because it's stale? It doesn't smell stale to my human nostrils.
I thought about turning up the temperature on Manila's terrarium a few degrees to see if that will make her hungrier. Any other ideas?
Thanks in advance. I love Geckos Unlimited!
[Moderator, please feel free to move this thread to the Crested Gecko subforum if you feel it's more appropriate there.]
