Feeding Baby Cresties

[Colin Vestrand]

i've been feeding my baby cresteds for a few weeks now with a spoon and some CGD. they take it off the spoon pretty well, but they don't seem to ever eat it from a dish. how long does it usually take for them to become a little more independent? i was thinking about hand feeding every couple days to see if they'd eat by themselves.
tips?

[Kristy]

With the babies I have had hatch, I just put a small dish right in their citter keepers and they eat from it within a few days. I have never hand fed them. I haven't had any not eat.

I would just put a dish in there and leave them be. They will find it and eventually eat from it.

[Colin Vestrand]

good to know, thanks. i'm used to some other species that are just a pain in the butt as babies. i guess i'm 'babying' them a bit too much.

[Kristy]

Yeah cresties are pretty easier as far as getting them to eat. I have heard a few stories where people have had trouble.

Main thing is its so hard to recognize that they are eating when they are so small. If you look you can see little lick marks in the CGD. Plus if they are pooping they are eating.

[mlededee]

Last season I hand fed all of my hatchlings for at least the first week or their first 2-3 feedings. This season I really haven't hand fed any of them except just for fun here and there and the results have been exactly the same. As long as you are using a small enclosure and a shallow food dish so that they can easily find the food they should find and eat it on their own with no problems.

If a particular gecko seems to be falling behind in growth separate it and hand feed it a few times just to make sure that it is eating the CGD. Sometimes a larger cagemate will unintentionally dominate a smaller one, getting more of the food and causing the smaller gecko not to thrive. I keep clutchmates together and only run into this every once in a while if one happened to hatch out smaller than the other and doesn't catch up in the first few weeks.

[wendy]

i always kept mine seperated too,the babies. i fed them babyfood in a dish,peach,apricot. i raised my own zoophobes and gave them the little ones, then went to crickets. keep the cage simple and they will find the dish.good luck!