Quote Originally Posted by mainbutter View Post
A few crested gecko thoughts:

- I've never used heat sources for my geckos. I prefer to keep them at room temperature, and as low as 60 in winter. Some people keep them as low as 55 in winter. I keep my geckos in the basement because indoor summer temps can break 80 degrees.. not good for cresties.

- I exclusively feed Repashy Crested Gecko Diet ("CGD"). It's a powder you mix with water to the consistency of a thick milkshake, resembles rotting fruit. I buy mine in large bags from Pangeareptile.com

- I keep my crested geckos in planted vivariums using "ABG mix" for substrate, available online from Josh's Frogs or you can look up how to make it yourself, typically on various dart frog and vivarium forums.

- I see mealworms in a picture there. While supplementing a crested gecko's diet with insects can be a wonderful idea, I prefer to stick to crickets or dubia roach nymphs. On the occasion I do offer insects, I gutload overnight with CGD and then dust lightly with calicum WITHOUT vit. D3 prior to feeding. Personally, I stay away from mealworms for cresties, and I would definitely not stick to an all-insect diet.

- For a long time before CGD was developed, crested geckos were kept in captivity with success on various baby foods. It's an old way of keeping them, but it has worked in the past. We have better options now, but I wouldn't scoff at it. The big issue is that the majority of baby foods are not suitable for cresties, it takes a bit of research and looking around to find the stuff that works with crestie biology.
Good to know about the temps, I may ditch the UTH after all. There are also crickets and CGD in the cage with him. I feel like petco severely misinformed me. As for the baby food i researched it one time and most things i read just said it was too sugary for them, but again it has worked in the past. I'll have to look into that substrate, and also the bigger bags of CGD. Thanks