Dusting with CGD

[8b8ll]

Does anyone dust crickets with CGD?

My guy isn't the biggest fan of it so I've been thinking about dusting his crickets with CGD....he won't be turning down crickets anytime soon so maybe this will work?

Thanks


Mike

[mlededee]

dusting crickets with cgd for those geckos who don't like it too much by itself is a great idea. some have had success getting their geckos to acquire a taste for it this way. definitely give it a try and if nothing else it will get some of the goodness into his system.

[Kagez28]

i tried it because i forgot to buy the regular cricket dust. i dusted them a little and sprayed once with the mister hoping to gel it up alittle. all i got was a mess. but grendel seemed to love it. i noticed my new guy hasn't been near his CGD so i put alittle on my finger and dabbed him on the nose, and boy did his little tongue go to work. hopefully he'll figure out this stuff is the good stuff.

just another quick question... does the stuff you normally dust crickets with pretty much the same as the CGD? i mean can't they live off of dusted crickets all their life?

[mlededee]

no, cresteds can't live off of crickets alone. a diet of just crickets would cause mbd and likely other nutritional deficiencies. that's why it is so important to get them on the cgd--it is a complete diet that contains everything they need. while cresteds are hardy little geckos they do have nutritional requirements that must be met--lucky for us we have cgd to make that easy.

the powder that you dust crickets with like herptivite and reptivite isn't the same as cgd. if you want you can lightly mist the crickets first and them dust them--that will help it to stick better without such a mess. when you dab some on their noses you can hold up a little spoon with more on it or just use your finger and let them keep licking. after a few times of doing that they should start eating it on their own out of the dish.

[Kagez28]

ok so how about this...

i feed my lil guy cgd, and i feed him crickets once a week that are dusted with cgd. if cgd has all the nutrition he'll ever need, then he should be able to live off of cgd and cgd dusted crickets all his life? does that make sense?

i am about to make an order and if i can just do this i will just order a large bag of cgd from matt at pangea, and not have to order the supplements, just cricket quenchers and cricket food (high in calcium).

[mlededee]

you should still dust with a calcium supplement. you can order a small bag of it from pangea (http://www.pangeareptile.com/products.htm#gutload) or get the repti-cal calcium from a petstore.

[Kagez28]

even if i feed the crickets quencher with calcium added, and cricket diet thats high in calcium. they won't be getting to much calcium.

i don't mean to be picky and all this i just want to do things right. i will still duct with calcium (with D3) on top of all the calcium the crickets will be ingesting.

thanks for the help Emily, you're really helped me out this this guy. grendel is thankful.

[mlededee]

yep, dust those crickets at least once per week with the calcium regardless of what you feed them. i'm not sure how much the calcium that they injest affects the amount that your gecko will get by eating them. by dusting with the calcium powder your gecko is getting pure, good stuff.