Some questions about Crested Geckos

[marisa]

Eventually I would like to have a couple crested geckos as pets...probably not interested in breeding so I am looking at getting only females.

Anyways I have been doing some reading and there is lots of good information out there but I am confused on the diet part. Some referances say they need crickets, some don't. So out of the three main foods, baby food, CDG and crickets, what do you guys suggest for a diet?

One other thing, for adults, what is the minimum enclosure size? I have two available enclosures for two geckos....a 24 by 24 by 24....and a 14 wide, 14 deep, 3 feet tall. Would either work?

Also, what about life span? How long do they live generally?

Marisa

[Ptindy]

Hey Marisa, yea the diet part confused me as well! I use circkets and baby food diet. Every feeding I use calcium powder and once every couple weeks I'll use the vitamin supplement. Hatchlings I'll supplement once a week with the vitamins. If you use to much vitamins they can overdose. I feed my babies 5 times a week and my juvies and adults every other day. Sometimes every 3 days for my adult if I forget or don't have time to get food or something. I usually avoid the 3 day thing though. I feed 3 meals of crickets and then one meal of baby food. But you can do it however you like. 2:2, 3:1 like me, 1:3....whatever floats your boat. I MYSELF believe that circkets are a necessity tho and should be fed once a week at least. Others have different opnions.
CGD is designed for keepers who don't want to use any baby food or crickets supplemented with calcium or vitamins. Apparently it has the perfect balance for them and it is an original formula by Robert Gundy and his crew (i'm pretty sure). It was orignally a mixture of things and made into a powder version by T-Rex. You could find his site and he states in the caresheet what was in his formula and baby food was included. CGD can be mixed with water as a gel (kinda boring food tho if you ask me) or can be mixed with baby food and water. I have heard that CGD doesn't raise cresties to be as big and robust as a crestie fed off crickets and baby food tho. That is just what I have heard, i've never tested it myself. So basically you can feed CGD, or straight crickets, or crickets and baby food alternating. Supplementing calcium and vitamins for the babyfood and crickets of course. Hope I didn't confuse you I have troubles explaining myself in words sometimes. Everyone will have a different opinion for diets.
For the enclosure I keep my adult in a 18 long by 12 depth by 30 height and some others in 24LX16DX18H. Small kritter keepers for babies. Either of those mentioned would house two cresties comfortably. I would base my decision on the two by looks, maintenance accessibility and ability to keep humidity up.

Hope this helps some.

Mike

[Ptindy]

Either of your enclosures would be fine just consider what I mentioned at the end of my last post when choosing one.

Mike

[marisa]

It does help, thanks.

So if I planned to feed them CGD and baby food on a regular basis, with some crickets every two weeks or so, they would do fine? I have other animals that eat crickets, but I really don't want many more :P :)

Marisa

[Ptindy]

Oh man! I keep reading and fixing. ok last one. Lifespan is really undetermined yet. The crested gecko was thought to be extinct till discvoered on New Calodenia (SP?) island in 1994. Some of those species imported are still alive today so it is proven up to 10 or 11 years now. I would suspect 15-20 if kept healthy. This is a guesstimate so.

Mike

[Ptindy]

Yup. You just have to make sure yours is eatting it. One of my juveniles doesn't seem to touch his baby food when offered but loves crickets. It depends on the individual and if they were offered baby food or CGD from their early life. You know how people are hard to get out of their ways once they've been doing it for so long? I think it is the same idea with a crestie, resist change. I would imagine the majority would readily take it however. It is so fun to watch them hunt crickets though!

Mike

[marisa]

Yeah I see your point. It took a long time to get my Golden Geckos interesting in baby food, but once they start, they literally jump on the dish when I am putting it in!

I will probably feed a lot of variety when they are young, lots of everything, then settle on a feeding routine when they get older.

Marisa

[Ptindy]

Sounds good! Good luck! Cresties are awesome!

Mike

[concept3]

marisa, I use crickets and a very good healthy fruit/vegatble recipe. If anyone wants it gimme a pm. I just feel the dont eat cgd in the wild why in captivity? The recipe I have supplies them with everything they need and more!

[adamofsound]

I mix some cgd with my baby food, every other time I feed baby food. I give crickets 2-3 times a week.i feed baby food on the days I dont feed crickets.

I have food available every day, becasue I keep groups of 3-5 in a tank, so this way Iensure there is food of anyone get s hungry or misses a feeding.

[CDN-Cresties]

IMO, I think that CGD or GGD should be used, it contains other nutrients that may not be present in baby food or crickets.

Marisa, I have a few hatchlings that Im looking to sell within the next couple of months. If you are interested just let me know. :)

[Ptindy]

Quote:

"At Sandfire Dragon Ranch, we have taken advantage of this preference for fruit, and have over the years developed a complete diet for the Crested Gecko. We start with a mixture of baby foods, and add many natural ingredients like Bee Pollen, Spirulina, Kelp, and Electrolytes, along with vitamins and calcium to produce a complete and balanced diet that require no additional supplementation. (Unlike the Leopard gecko which requires live prey in its diet). We have successfully raised several generations of Crested Geckos on this non-prey diet. With a diet like this, the Crested Gecko becomes one of the few small Reptiles that can be kept on a non-live prey diet. And now, thanks to a joint venture with T-Rex products, a powdered version of our recipe is available as the "Crested Gecko Diet" in most retail Reptile outlets. "

Sorry it wasn't by Robert Gundy, CGD is from:

http://www.geckoworld.co.uk/care_r.ciliatus.htm


Mike

[StickyToes]

I find that in terms of diet none of our hatchlings begin to take fruit and GGD on their own until they are at least a month old. Until they begin to do this their diet is comprised mostly of supplemented crickets and a few hand feedings of fruit. I firmly believe that variety and consistency are the best way to provide for these guys in captivity. When you do decide to get your first cresteds talk to the breeder to find out how they were raised and this will give you a good starting point as to what you should do for diet.
As Mike stated, both sizes of cages you described would be fine for a couple of cresteds. If you do decide to go with the taller cage you are going to want to put a ton of climbing and resting surfaces in the cage so that they don't end up developing FTS from hanging out on glass too much.
It all begins with one crested...the love affair for the genus will grow...and before you know it you will be trying to track down the other 5 species in the genus because they are some of the coolest geckos!!! :D