Crestie Weights

[frankykeno]

If anyone has a male crestie about 12 months of age I'd love to know weights. We have a lovely stickie by Emily with pictures on sizes but I'm concerned that our year old male crestie, Sprocket, is an appropriate weight for his age/gender and can't find much info on what's a good weight for his age. Just looking for a general idea as I know it can be variable...just basically a ball park figure.

[mlededee]

at 12 months the average male should be about 30-35 grams. i'd say 25-30 grams is still healthy and doing okay, just a little on the small side. not all cresteds grow at the same rate so it will vary some--some males are late bloomers and have their final growth spurts a little later than others.

[frankykeno]

Thanks Emily. I went back and carefully looked at you crestie growth pics, compared them to Sprocket's first pics and considering we bought him August 13, 06 I've pretty much determined he was about 2 months old then, which would put his current age at 10 months. He's 25 grams so I'm hoping that's about on track for a 10 month old male.

I'm just concerned that he still seems so uninterested in GSD or even human baby food. Crickets he'll take but worms seem his favorites. Any suggestions on other foods to try with him? Can he grow up okay just on worms and crickets (sometimes he loves his crix, other times he just ignores them and I have to catch and discard them). He doesn't care for his vitamins either. If I mix them in his wet food he will not touch it. I can dust his worms but very lightly, a bit too much of the powder and he'll turn his nose up at the worms too.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Sprocket seems very healthy and all but I've always been concerned that he's such a terribly picky eater.

[mlededee]

when you say gsd, do you mean the t-rex crested gecko diet or something else?

have you tried feeding him fresh fruit, mashed up well so it's easy to eat? strawberries, mangos, peaches, bananas and watermelon are crested favorites. you can even make smoothies that keep in the fridge for about a week in an airtight container. here is a good smoothie recipe (i usually use some wax worms or mealworms instead of the chicken babyfood):

"Super Mixture" Recipe:

2 bananas
1 mango
3 med. apricots
2 peaches
5-7 strawberries (I only use the inside of the strawberry...the seeds are cut off)
low-fat plain yogurt
1 jar chicken baby food

Blend everything together and...voila! Super Mixture is born. This recipe was given to me by a friend, and I have to say that it's worked out great. I changed it a little (I cut off the strawberry seeds because I've heard some weird things and they don't like to eat them anyway), but the cresteds love it! Every one of my geckos lick their dish clean when they get this stuff. Keep in mind that the recipe can be reduced and it's not set in stone, you can add another peach, take away a banana, etc. Prepared like this, it lasts me a while, and I have a lot of geckos. Sometimes I'll also add a little Herptivite or Rep-Cal.

obviously you would want to cut back on the amounts since you are only making it for one gecko, but it will still work.

have you tried phoenix worms? they are wonderfully nutritious. i've also head good things about silkworms but not personally tried them. either of the two are much better nutritionally than mealworms and would help ensure that he is getting what he needs.

at 25 grams he is slightly on the small side, but not that far off. i just weighed an 11 month old male and he weighs 34 grams (on a full belly) but he scarfs down cgd and crickets so is probably more on the large side for his age. as long as sprocket is energetic and not actually looking thin i'm sure he is fine. it's odd that he is so picky though because most cresteds really aren't. some can be finicky about switching over to cgd if they have never had it but generally they will switch and then are fine.

[frankykeno]

It's the T-Rex stuff Emily. You know I was just checking out Pangea's site since that's who bred him and they sell something called "Repashy Superfoods by T-Rex". Is this significantly different than what you buy in the pet store called T-Rex CGD? Maybe if that's what Sprocket was raised on I've been buying him the wrong darn thing all along (if they are indeed different).

Now that blended Super Mix I'm wondering if I made that could I freeze it in icecube trays then just defrost one cube at a time. I know banana's turn brown when you freeze them (I used to make and freeze my own baby food) but if you add enough citric acid they won't. Ever tried freezing it this way?

[mlededee]

the t-rex diet is the same thing as the repashy superfood. they just recently repackaged it and that's what the label says now.

you can freeze it--i did this for a while and it worked fairly well.

Useful Idea: Frozen Dinner for your Crested Geckos
Pour your pre-mixed Crested Gecko Diet into these soufflé cups and set them on a tray in the freezer. Once the diet is frozen, place the cups into a zip-loc freezer bag for storage. When frozen in a sealed bag, the diet should last for at least a month.

Be sure the diet is thawed before giving it to your geckos. I've seen a gecko get a "brain freeze" from extremely cold food...it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen happen with my geckos, but I don't think the gecko appreciated it. :-)

see more details about the diet here: http://www.acreptiles.com/supplies_CGD.htm

if you do freeze any sort of mix you make, i'd not recommend adding citric acid to it because cresteds can't handle much citric acid, which is the reason citrus fruits are not good for them.

[frankykeno]

Thanks so much for your help Emily. I just want to see Sprocket be a bit more of an aggressive eater and have a bit more of a varied diet. Hopefully Mr. Picky will like this stuff. I'm also going to order phoenix worms as I cannot find anywhere to purchase them locally. Any suggestions on a reliable supplier for those? One that I looked at had an iffy report on the BOI so if anyone has used a phoenix worm supplier and was pleased with the experience, I'd appreciate a recommendation.

[mlededee]

i order mine straight from the source: http://www.phoenixworm.com. i'd recommend mediums--they are a little small but this gives you more time to feed them off before they turn into little fly things (actually if you keep them in the cup they probably won't turn into flies but will dry up and die. to get them to survive and turn into flies you need to remove them from the cup and place them in a dry container. supposedly some critters love the fly version of the phoenix worm . )

anyhoo, you do have to order a lot of worms if you order from phoenixworm.com but that is the only place i can really recommend because that's the only place i've ever ordered from.

i have considered this place: https://coastalsilkworms.com/ but i see they don't have any phoenix worms in stock at the moment (usually you can order them by the 50ct. cup). you might try one of their silkworm pods--everything the silkworm needs to survive comes packaged in the pod, you just open it each time you need to feed your gecko.

[nebby3103]

How much should a healthy ~4 month old crestie weigh?