Reevaluating Care

[greenmonkey51]

I am reevaluating the care of my crestie. It doesn't seem like there putting on much weight. The average temp is about 71F. I'm considering putting them in my room where its about 78-80. The only thing preventing me is that 80 part. I turned down my space heater to see if I can get average temp to around 76-78. I'm also redoing there diet. I'm going to try crickets 3 times a week and then try WERs diet the other 3 days. Right now my geckos are 9,6,4 grams and are 6,5,4 months old. What do you think.

[mlededee]

80 degrees is fine you just don't want it to stay above 82 or so for an extended period. in the summer my herp room stays at 78-80 pretty much all the time and my cresteds are doing great. they will definitely eat more if they are warmer--the warmer it is the faster their metabolism. weights will vary some, but just for comparison, i have a 4 month old that weighs 8 grams, but it is kept in a warmer environment and therefore eats more. if you bump your temps up you should notice that your geckos do eat more and grow faster.

[greenmonkey51]

Now that I'm reassured, I think Im gonna go ahead and get a nice male from wild eye reptiles. Has anyone tried their diet it looks pretty good. Also how long of quarentine time is reccomended.

[mlededee]

90 days quarantine is standard.

as far as diet, are you talking about the recipe on this page: http://www.wildeyereptiles.com/catalog/crested.htm ? i have never tried anything with all those ingredients myself. there is a lot of baby food in that mix, which i try to stay away from because it contains a lot of sugar. in general baby food should be avoided unless you are using it to get your geckos onto the cgd. even then you can wean them off of it so they will take the cgd plain. i mix up the cgd with water and a bit of plain fat free yogurt and feed dusted crickets once or twice per week.

[greenmonkey51]

What if you were to use fresh fruit instead of baby food.

[mlededee]

fresh fruit would be fine, just don't use any citrus (it has too much ascorbic acid) and make sure to mash it up really well. my geckos won't eat fruit unless it is pretty finely chopped or mashed. guess they don't like chunks.

[greenmonkey51]

So what would a good recipe.
1 apple
1 pear
1 banana
3 tsp CGD

Could I make it then freeze it in ice cube trays. Also would it be easier to heat up the fruit before I blend it to soften it up.

[mlededee]

bananas, strawberries, mango and watermelon are often used for cresteds. you can make a bunch and freeze it, then just thaw before serving. you shouldn't have to heat the fruit--you don't want to cook it or anything. you could always just use a blender for the easiest mix.

[kavmon]

mine definately grow faster on crickets! if you can get a good steady supply of 1/8-1/4" crickets, feed em 4-5 days a week.


vaughn

[greenmonkey51]

Thats where Im having the hardest time now, the pet store that had the small crickets closed for a few months and petco doesn't really have that small of crickets.