Questions for Crested Gecko owners

[nocturnalpulsem]

So my wife picked this little guy up, and I have no experience with lizards so here I am.

Habitat is fine from all I've read and the info I got from a respectable reptile shop, but this thing is perplexing me with its feeding/handling behavior.

She spends all her time in the "trees" which is not surprising, but I can't really tell if she's eating. Using the Repashy food, tried different food to water mixes since I hear they have preferences. But strangely, while she refuses to be handled, she WILL let me hand feed her. A friend told me not to do that as it will make her dependent on me (not sure if that's true, but it is for other animals). I tried spreading a little Repashy on the leaves of a couple fixtures, to see if she'd come across it and eat. As of this morning, hasn't happened as far as I can tell.

Also haven't seen a single turd anywhere.

So, do these things just eat so little I don't notice? Is she too afraid to leave the tree and not eating unless I feed her by hand?

 

[jecraque]

They don't eat a lot, for sure. I had this same issue years ago when mine was much smaller; it was really tough to tell whether he ate or not. It didn't help that he'll walk right through the stuff on occasion. I have a rock hide on the bottom that I always feed on. He gets fed in an upturned lid, so he has to both come down to get it and then find it, and he's none too bright--that's why I've tried to feed more or less in the same spot his whole life.

My boy is 8-ish years old and still going strong. I've fed T.rex and Repashy foods both with no problems, but I do add a small amount of baby food to make it more palatable. It's frowned upon nowadays but was pretty standard back when I got him. I hesitate to advise doing this, because it does reward the picky eating and isn't nutritionally helpful, but it makes a difference in how much is eaten, for sure. However, the quality of foods available has come up over the years and I don't think the food/water mixes now are as yucky to them as the first few commercial mixes were. Mine is also really fond of hunting--not very good at it, but fond of it, mind you--so he gets crickets or roaches every so often.

Handling gets easier the more you do it; I've gotten neglectful on that, so there's no way I could handle safely these days. I more or less stopped handling after I got cats who could and would gladly end his life in an instant. I did hand-feed while handling sometimes in the past, but never very often.

The not pooping is probably nothing, and she's probably just not eating much to poo out, but just in case, what substrate is she on? Paper towels aren't pretty but they're probably the best to minimize any impaction issues (particularly if you end up giving prey items on occasion).

My best advice is keep feeding and she'll eat eventually. They can go a very long time without.

 

[RzezniksRunAway]

They take a few days to settle in, and not eating isn't a bit deal for a few days. Mine go on a strike when I move them around into different enclosures. I don't hand feed often, but I have my favorites I will offer things to. I usually offer a new food on my finger to check reactions, if they hate it they definitely let you know.

Keep it well misted, and mist heavier right before lights out. They don't drink standing water as a rule, so droplets on the leaves when they wake up at night are what they drink. Put the food in an accessible place, but not out in the open. There are ledges you can get to put the food up higher, or you can rig something together with bio-vine or coated wire to hang it off of a log. It seems like my babies are less likely to go to the ground in search of food, but my adults will sprawl out on the ground beside the bowl without a care in the world.

They also eat a VERY small amount compared to some other reptiles. I generally leave food in for 2 nights. Put the food in Monday, remove it Wednesday morning. I have some that eat it on Monday night, and others that prefer for it to "age" and eat it on Tuesday. Of course if it gets fuzzy or weird in any way the first night, it's removed. I also put less than a teaspoon in at a time with my little ones, and with 2 in a cage, theres still some left. In comparison, 4 adult females together go through 5+ tablespoons.


What are your temperatures and misting routine like? It honestly just sounds like a new baby adjusting to it's house. They're never easy to handle when they're that little, they're flighty and freak out over the smallest things, but they really do mellow as adults. Even my craziest adult is easier to handle than a baby.

 

[nocturnalpulsem]

I was told too much or too little heat is bad, with too much being worse. On the warm side it's in the higher 70s F and no lower than 70 on the cool side. The substrate I am using is compressed/rehydrated sphagnum moss. I was advised against the coco fiber stuff (which is what I started with since I have it for my inverts) because it's typically sopping wet or bone dry with little in the middle. Plus since it's winter and the heat is on, albeit low, he said the sphagnum holds moisture well. He was right, which takes me to the next part.

I used one of those dipper things from the pet shop and severely misjudged how I set it. The ground below is soaked and I've stopped dripping and misting to get it to dry out a little. It's like a wet towel in the bottom. Now, before someone shouts "that's your problem" I have to say that her behavior was like I described above prior to this. The water-logging was a recent blunder.

So, do I need to try and expedite the drying (or replace substrate) and go back to misting/dripping? I did actually see her use the water dish once, but she clearly preferred the dripper. It was kind of cute watching her try to catch droplets out of the air lol

 

[nocturnalpulsem]

So, on a whim, I put the food on a small white dish instead of the little rock bowl I was using. She immediately ran down and ate, right in front of me. Not sure if they means the bowl is the issue or if she just happened to be hungry.

Trouble is, that Repashy stuff dries out wicked fast, especially on something flat. Any tips besides add water to it periodically?

 

[RzezniksRunAway]

As far as the moss goes, you can just pull it out and squeeze the water out of it and fluff it back up. I like moss because it holds moisture and for the most part doesn't get funky, but I don't like that insects have a better chance of hiding in it. The temps also sound fine, they do die from heat pretty quickly so that is a concern. You're lucky you have one that understands water dishes. Mine may drink out of it when I'm not around, but I usually just find poop in the boys dishes, the females usually just fill theirs with dirt.

As far as the Repashy drying out, you might want to up the amount of water in it just a little bit. I do a 3 parts water 1 part powder with that brand, others are slightly different. I mix it and let it sit for 10-15 minutes, remix it then put it in the dishes. When I put it in the cage I put a very, very light mist of water on it if it's a small amount. Since you only have one, you can mix up a weeks worth at a time and keep it in the refrigerator, you might get a better mixture that way with less rapid drying out. I mist 2x a day, once in the morning, and heavier at night. I spray a little bit onto the dishes on the 2nd night and it seems to help it last that 2nd day.

 

[nocturnalpulsem]

So, a quick followup. She still don't eat the Gecko diet stuff unless I spoon feed her. Crickets, on the other hand, she will chase to the underside of hell. I've never seen her move so fast.

Now, I'm told this species isn't supposed to have an all insect diet, so what do I do? Should I spoon feed her and toss her a cricket occasionally, or can I just gut load the feeders with the Gecko diet and feed them to her? She really seems to have no interest in anything that's not moving.

 

[RzezniksRunAway]

Maybe try a different Gecko food. If it's a juvenile, they do seem to be more attracted to insects than the adults. Pangea complete diet is my go-to food now, although I am trying to get through the rest of my Repashy by mixing with about a half dozen other kinds of foods. It also depends on how often you're feeding and what. If you feed insects on Sunday, there's a good chance it won't be terribly hungry by Monday night, so it won't eat the Gecko Diet. If you do insects two days a week, and crested diet the rest, you should be good. My usual schedule:

Sunday - Crested diet
Monday - leave crested diet in
Tuesday - remove crested diet in AM, put roaches in their roach dishes in the afternoon
Wednesday - Crested diet
Thursday - leave diet in
Friday - remove diet, add roaches
Saturday - add a little crested diet

I pre-mix diet for the week, so by saturday night I'm usually running fairly low, and they sometimes have some roaches left so it works out. I feed roaches in ceramic individual bake-ware, so they don't get all over the place. Sunday, they get a fresh batch of food mixed up and it starts all over.


The only issue with having an all insect based diet at this age is making sure that the crickets are getting dusted with calcium, and that they're fed a good diet before getting fed to the gecko. They will grow SUPER fast on an insect only diet, I've seen 6-7 month old cresteds at 30+ grams. I grow mine slower, taking 18+months to get to adult size on ones I'm raising for my personal breeders.

As for the spoon feeding, I wouldn't get into the habit of it. Once in a while is OK, but they do seem to start expecting it to happen.

 

[nocturnalpulsem]

Maybe try a different Gecko food. If it's a juvenile, they do seem to be more attracted to insects than the adults. Pangea complete diet is my go-to food now, although I am trying to get through the rest of my Repashy by mixing with about a half dozen other kinds of foods. It also depends on how often you're feeding and what. If you feed insects on Sunday, there's a good chance it won't be terribly hungry by Monday night, so it won't eat the Gecko Diet. If you do insects two days a week, and crested diet the rest, you should be good. My usual schedule:

Sunday - Crested diet
Monday - leave crested diet in
Tuesday - remove crested diet in AM, put roaches in their roach dishes in the afternoon
Wednesday - Crested diet
Thursday - leave diet in
Friday - remove diet, add roaches
Saturday - add a little crested diet

I pre-mix diet for the week, so by saturday night I'm usually running fairly low, and they sometimes have some roaches left so it works out. I feed roaches in ceramic individual bake-ware, so they don't get all over the place. Sunday, they get a fresh batch of food mixed up and it starts all over.


The only issue with having an all insect based diet at this age is making sure that the crickets are getting dusted with calcium, and that they're fed a good diet before getting fed to the gecko. They will grow SUPER fast on an insect only diet, I've seen 6-7 month old cresteds at 30+ grams. I grow mine slower, taking 18+months to get to adult size on ones I'm raising for my personal breeders.

As for the spoon feeding, I wouldn't get into the habit of it. Once in a while is OK, but they do seem to start expecting it to happen.

A friend of mine suggested that I dust the crickets in the Repashy. Do you think that would be a decent compromise? Also, I feed the feeders the other gecko food (Flukers? I forget) if that matters. I just want to make sure she's getting proper nutrition. If she won't eat food from a bowl but will eat a bug, seems like "build a better bug" is the best option. Good food is meaningless if she won't eat it.

 

[RzezniksRunAway]

I would dust the crickets in calcium. Repashy is too chunky to effectively stick to the crickets. Crickets Ca (calcium to phosphorus) levels are wonky. Ideal is 2:1, common crickets are something around .14:1, so they need extra calcium added. When I do have crickets, I feed Zupreem Parakeet fruit blend pellets as my main diet, fruits and veggies for water content. The day before I feed, I give them some mixed up crested diet to make sure they're packed with nutrition. I do dubia's now, and they eat the zupreem parakeet diet and fresh veggies and fruits, with left over crested food once in a while.

Repashy is a good food, but there are known issues with v3.0 and geckos not wanting to eat it. No one made another food for so long because there wasn't a reason to, but with geckos going off of it left and right it became necessary. Pangea watermelon flavor has mine completely emptying their dishes, and that hadn't happened since I opened my bag of v3.0. There's a real possibility of hating that particular food, for whatever reason.

 

[nocturnalpulsem]

I would dust the crickets in calcium. Repashy is too chunky to effectively stick to the crickets. Crickets Ca (calcium to phosphorus) levels are wonky. Ideal is 2:1, common crickets are something around .14:1, so they need extra calcium added. When I do have crickets, I feed Zupreem Parakeet fruit blend pellets as my main diet, fruits and veggies for water content. The day before I feed, I give them some mixed up crested diet to make sure they're packed with nutrition. I do dubia's now, and they eat the zupreem parakeet diet and fresh veggies and fruits, with left over crested food once in a while.

Repashy is a good food, but there are known issues with v3.0 and geckos not wanting to eat it. No one made another food for so long because there wasn't a reason to, but with geckos going off of it left and right it became necessary. Pangea watermelon flavor has mine completely emptying their dishes, and that hadn't happened since I opened my bag of v3.0. There's a real possibility of hating that particular food, for whatever reason.

I was referring to the Repashy still in powdered form. I'll check out the other foods though!

 

[RzezniksRunAway]

I know you meant the powder. It seems like a good idea, but in practice I don't think it would work. If you ever look through the powder it's not very finely or evenly ground compared to a calcium that's meant to stick to the crickets.

 

[leaveittoweaver]

I was referring to the Repashy still in powdered form. I'll check out the other foods though!

You definitely don't want to get away from the powdered diet and do only crickets. These geckos can't thrive on just crickets.

I would second the other users suggestion to try Pangea's Crested Gecko food. My geckos had amazing feeding responses to this. I was doing Repashy 2.0 initially which worked out well, then Repashy changed the formula, geckos stopped eating, geckos started dying, etc. Went on to the Pangea food and never looked back.

 

[Texas T]

I have been a Crested Gecko owner for just over a month. The one I got was an adult. I started with Repashy which he ate with no problem. I wanted to offer him a variety of food so I alternated with Pangea. When I went back to Repashy he did not seem as interested so now I am just sticking to Pangea. As far as handling I let him settle in for the first two weeks and I started handling last week and he was still skittish but this week when I put my hand in front of him he has crawled into my hand and he also seems alot calmer. When I first set up his tank his feeding tank was on the ground. Last week I did a full cleaning and also added a Pangea Ultimate Gecko ledge for feeding and it seems to be working really well and he also enjoys jumping from the ledge to the different branches. He did freak out a little bit when i put him back in his tank after doing a full cleaning but I was told that sometimes its normal for them to do this. I keep me temps between 70 t0 75. My humidity fluctuates between 40-80%. I do a light mist in the mornings and a heavy misting at night.

 

[mmfh]

As babies and juveniles I found mine ate crickets with much more relish then the meal replacement, although they would eat some. As adults they seem to enjoy the meal replacement more. My adults only get 3 tsps every other day and they eat it all. I wouldn't leave it in more than an evening. I mix mine to thin pudding consistency and feed them in a G2 lid. I've always kept mine at room temp. Which is almost always around 70. I mist twice a day, they will not drink from a dish. Good luck, they are fun!

 

[jsteadm1]

I am in a similar situation OP. I have recently picked up a Crested and it is my first reptile.
I was so worried because it lost weight after about three weeks of owning it. So in order to get him to eat again I hand fed him a few times and began providing food in three different places in his enclosure.

First, I have developed a procedure of showing him the food and letting him smell it before i set the food dish down. This encourages him to go find where the smell is coming from. I only hand feed when I notice a drop in weight.

Also, he wont eat everyday so I provide new food everyday in a large elevated dish and put the day old food in two smaller food dishes on the floor of the enclosure. I have noticed food missing from both but he will only eat when the lights are off unless I hand feed him or give him a cricket/dubia.

Finally, I have been withholding all live food since he started losing weight because I was worried that he was not eating the CGD because he was holding out for another cricket.

 

[RzezniksRunAway]

I wouldn't with hold food, I'd think about getting a different crested gecko diet. There's a known issue with cresteds not wanting to eat version 3.0 of Repashy, so yours may be one of the ones that doesn't like it.