Feeding

How many times a week do cresties eat?A guy at the pet shop says everyday.But caresheets say 4 times a week or 3 times a week,etc.What foods should i buy for them?The same guy says baby food doesnt need to be served,is this true?

I've been following Robbie Hampers book. I feed crickets e/o day (gutloaded and dusted) and her baby food mixture w/ supplements on the opposite days. So I'm feeding my little guy daily. He's 6 months old.

So what did the guy say to feed them?

he said feed them crix and mealies every day.

So do you mix baby food with supplements?(isnt that calcium?or is it the specialized cresty food?)or do you put them in seperate dishes?Do the crix have to be live?or can i get the ones in cans?

always live crikets, you can either mix supplemnts in the baby food or do the crested diet. the crested diet already has vitamins/minerals and calcium in it.


vaughn

so this is what i will do,

Live crickets every other day dusted withCalcium and gutloaded
on the opposite days,crested gecko diet

is this good?I dust the crickets with calcium w/D3 or w/o D3?

Also,how many crickets a feeding?How much of the crested gecko diet?

I believe it's something like 3 or 4 cricket's a feeding, and you'd want to dust calcium w/d3. You want to be careful so that the dust and something else you're using does not has d3 as well though. Too much d3 can cuase problems.

As for the crested gecko diet/baby food, I've read 1/4 of a spoonful. They won't acutally eat that much, but according to the author of the article (I forget who it was), he only puts down that much so it doesn't dry out to quickly.

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Originally Posted by bpkid

so this is what i will do,

Live crickets every other day dusted withCalcium and gutloaded
on the opposite days,crested gecko diet

is this good?I dust the crickets with calcium w/D3 or w/o D3?

Also,how many crickets a feeding?How much of the crested gecko diet?

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Either your vitamins or your calcium should have D3, but not both. If you feed crickets every other day to a baby, you may find that it will skip eating on the other days and just wait for crickets. If I were you, I'd spread it out a little bit further or hand-feed the crested gecko diet to be sure they eat it.

i think that my two baby cresties do prefer crickets right now, but if i put a dab of baby food or CGD on the tip of their noses they will lick it off and then lick more of it off of my finger if i offer it right away. so far i can't tell if they are licking any of it out of their dish, but they get a good amount by licking it off of my finger, so hopefully they will learn to lick it from their dish too. how good is their sense of smell though? it that how they recognize the food that isn't live--by smell?

My little guy definitely eats off of my finger, but I don't think he's eating out of his dish now that he's in his big cage (he ate out of the dish when he was in his smaller cage, but then again I don't think I was offering him food off of my finger then).

I bet he thinks "Wow, every night about the same time the sun sets, it rains and then this giant stick (my finger) appears with food on it right in front of my face!"

so i dust with calcium and vitamins?

Mlededee, I suspect that sense of smell is probably the largest part of recognizing immobile food, but I think it helps that I always put their food dish in the same place, even when I use a different dish. They learn where to look for the food.

TG, yeah, that could be exactly what he's thinking. :) My mister has stopped misting since I used it several times to shoot a stream of water at a couch-clawing kitten, so for the last couple of days I've had to carefully shoot the walls to splash water onto the leaves and avoid shooting geckos. I can't imagine what they must be thinking now when the water cannon appears. :lol:

Shaun, have you tried reading the caresheet I wrote?

ok,this is a revised schedule

4 crickets dusted with calcium or vitamins.if i decide to use both,one must have d3.the other shouldnt.I willl gutload them with oatmeal,apple,potato,corn meal,or dye and chemical free pet foods.EVery feeding will be M,W,F.Is this fine?


OR

CGD with Baby food every M,W,F



Please correct me if im wrong

Shaun, that sounds good about the crickets. I'd revise the other to be "CGD with baby food" instead of the other way around, and feed by hand on at least some non-cricket days so they get used to eating CGD.

thats what i meant sorry :)
What i saw on the caresheet was that i can replace crickets and mealies with CGD and Baby food.Would you reccomend this?or is it not as healthy or something like that?

Marla, I can picture your cresties frantically trying to dodge water bombs fearing for their little lives!

No, it's fine. The most important things to remember, in no particular order, when feeding cresties are that:

*They need both protein and fruit in their diet and babies need more protein than adults, but should not have a prey-only diet.
*If you feed them crickets often enough, many young cresties won't eat anything else and won't have a nutritionally balanced diet.
*If you take away, you should add back -- weakening the CGD by adding baby food may make it taste better but it also makes it more important that you add calcium and vitamin supplements back in to it and/or as cricket coating.

Ok,so ill just mix small amounts of baby food,the CGD,and calcium w/ D3 and vitamins w/o D3

Yes, and stop BUMPing every post! People have other things to do, you know, and the post is already highlighted when they come to check for new ones.

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Originally Posted by Tigergenesis

Marla, I can picture your cresties frantically trying to dodge water bombs fearing for their little lives!

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They don't seem to be quite *that* concerned ;) but I'm sure they're feeling a bit uneasy ...

ok ill quit ;)

Thank you. :whew: ;)

i was wondering why my posts where dissapearing! lol

Because otherwise they were going to get you CHiPped is why.

ok,another crestie question,i see on your caresheet that you use a rubbermaid sterlite or at least pictured one,how big should the container be?

I had one, and still have it available, but the cabinet pictured is what I'm currently using. How big depends on how big the cresties are and how much stuff you're going to put in it. For little guys, it's a good idea to use a small one or have pretty minimal furniture in a larger one so they don't get lost or confused when finding food. Ideally for adult cresties, you want to have at least two feet of vertical space and at least one square foot of floor space (more is better), so it's best to figure out a way to orient the Sterilite lengthwise or use a different cage. For what it's worth, a cabinet similar to the one I used to build my crestie cage is in this week's KMart circular on sale for I think $32.

one more,how many times a week should i feed if im just using CGD and baby food?

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Originally Posted by Marla's Excellent Caresheet

Feeding them is slightly more complicated, but simpler than many other pets. The simplest way to feed your crested geckos is to provide them with a small amount of T-Rex Crested Gecko Diet (a powdered formula designed specifically for crested geckos), prepared according to package instructions. T-Rex Gargoyle Gecko Diet is similar but higher in protein, and some keepers advise feeding it to hatchling or juvenile cresties or to egg-laying females.

Some small cresties may have difficulty finding their food if it doesn’t move, and in this case you can introduce it to him by dabbing a small amount on the end of his nose for him to lick off. Crested geckos have very small stomachs and will not eat very much at a time, but should be offered food at least three days a week, with four or five days being preferable. To make CGD and baby food last longer, freeze it in small ice cube trays, store in freezer bags, and just thaw to serve.

Crickets or mealworms (1-3 times weekly, or replaced by CGD): These can be purchased online or at many pet stores, and should be bought rather than caught to lessen the dangers of pesticides and parasites. "Gutload" either one with nutritious food such as oatmeal, corn meal, potato, apple, or chemical and dye-free commercial pet foods for at least 24 hours before feeding to your geckos to ensure they're getting a healthful meal. Cresties don't eat a lot, so what they eat needs to count. If feeding mealworms, select the ones lightest in color, as they have recently molted and will be much easier to digest than darker ones. If feeding crickets, offer ones that are no longer than the distance between your gecko’s eyes. Dust the mealworms or crickets with a calcium or reptile vitamin supplement before offering to your gecko. Alternating between vitamins and calcium seems to work well. It is very important that either your calcium supplement or your vitamin supplement contain vitamin D3, but not both.

Fruit (1-3 times weekly or added to CGD): Cresties of any age will also enjoy some fruit in their diet. The easiest way to provide this is to use commercially available baby food fruit. Favorite flavors include peach, apricot, banana, and mango. Avoid citrus fruits such as oranges or grapefruit and any processed baby food with added sugar or chemicals. If you cannot or do not want to buy the CGD, you can feed crickets or mealworms one to two times a week and fruit two to three times a week, but you should include calcium or vitamin supplement with every meal if you choose to do this.

Nutritional balance: It is important to maintain balance in the food that you provide your crestie. Since the T-Rex diets are formulated to be perfectly balanced, anything you do to change that balance should be offset by other food. In other words, if you feed the gecko diet with fruit babyfood, you need to offset the protein, calcium, and vitamin reduction you've just made by adding crickets or mealworms as described above or by adding calcium and herp vitamin supplements at alternating feedings. Failure to replace the lost calcium, in particular, can lead to metabolic bone disease (MBD) and death.

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i didnt read everything.lol it was rite in my face,thanx carson