Staple Diet!

[Crowley136]

Just wanted to know what people are feeding as a staple diet.

[Alter-Echo]

Pangaea watermelon gecko food twice a week, crickets every other day. My breeder female also gets butterworms

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Crested should not be fed just insect this is not their main natural diet, they eat mainly fruit in the wild.

CGD and insect once or twice a week max is how a crested should be fed if you chose to provide insect, but they do not have to have insect either CGD is a complete diet.

I have raised some crested supplying insect and some never supplying insect.

[Alter-Echo]

Crested should not be fed just insect this is not their main natural diet, they eat mainly fruit in the wild.

CGD and insect once or twice a week max is how a crested should be fed if you chose to provide insect, but they do not have to have insect either CGD is a complete diet.

I have raised some crested supplying insect and some never supplying insect.

Been breeding mine for 5 years now with mostly insects, raised many of the young to adulthood with no issues, the ones my customers have bought have all thusfar been healthy to my knowledge. I remember reading a study done on the diet of wild cresties and it stated that their diet includes large numbers of insects and the fruit portion of their diet tends to be seasonal.

If I can find the study again I will post it here.

[zina10]

Only had my Crestie for 3 weeks or so, so we are still figuring things out.

He has been raised on CGD as far as I know and was eating Repashy Mango before I got him.

I've purchased Repashy Mango and also the Grub CGD. I have also purchased pretty much all the Pangea flavors (smallest size) to see what he likes. So far he has been eating the Repashy the best. I usually mix the Mango and Grub. The Pangeas stay mostly ignored.

Just yesterday he ate a few Phoenix worms.

What I would like for him to do is eat mostly CGD (varieties that also include bugs/grubs ground up in the food) with occasional phoenix worms and dubias thrown into the mix

[Phillydubs]

I’m also new to this world. But my guy has only Been offered the Repashy w bugs. I don’t plan to feed anything else

i dont like bugs and don’t want to deal with that so he’s on smoothies for life

[Alter-Echo]

Here we go, only place I could find it still.

http://www.pangeareptile.com/forums/...um-in-the-wild

Post number 6.

[zina10]

Hm..

going by that study alone, I would think that they eat at LEAST 50 % different matter then insects. It could actually be more then that, because fruit quickly turns into "juice" and exists the stomach quicker. Most studies applied "stomach flushes" to see what was in there.

But to be safe, I would say at least 50% is different from insects.

If something works, I'd say, don't break it.

But for my own piece of mind, I'd rather my Gecko eat the Complete diet, that actually consists of a lot of things, not just fruit. Esp. since some of those diets now include insects. It seems to me, this way around would be safer/easier to make sure they get all they should have? Of course, some seem to prefer bugs to CGD.

I was planning on ONLY feeding CGD, since I'm not a fan of bugs. However, I find the Phoenix worms SO EASY to order and keep, and they seem quite healthy, so why not. The Roaches..I dunno. Kinda creeps me out, but so far the small colony I have in a box doesn't seem to harm anyone or anything, LOL. Sort of interesting, actually..

Like I said, I'm new to this. I just want to make sure all the bases are covered

[zina10]

A lot of the German research mentions a ratio of 3 to 1 plant matter to insects. There seems to be a lot more research written about in other languages. The link in the study is in french, Deborah, can you read it and translate the part about diet ?

Also, where the stomach contents only of Cresties, or other species?

http://jas123jas.free.fr/Etude%20Nat...GER%201843.pdf


I've also read in a German link that in the wild they aren't crazy about roaches. But it seems in captivity they love dubia roaches.

[Alter-Echo]

Also interesting to note, my hatchlings usually will only eat pangea... and when they get to be about a month old they prefer insects, adults eat either with equal gusto.