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Gecko not feeding

L

LaxGekko25

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Recently I bought a crested gecko from a Repticon Expo (Houston June 25). It has only eaten 2 mealworms, a little papaya, and a little mango in 7 days.
I bought it from a unreliable dealer(I discovered this after I had bought it).
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get him how to feed?
Thanks,
Kevin

Thanks, the papaya and mango are real fruits. He hasn't touched the CGD(the pellet kind) I don't know if he doesn't like it or he just isn't eating enough to tell the difference. Also I am assuming that the breeder got him hooked on roaches and crickets which I can't feed mine since my mom won't let me.
Any advice?
Thanks,
Kevin

Thanks for the advice, I bought liquid CGD today. Also I know that you don't need to feed cresteds anything but CGD but I want to diverse his diet.
 
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you should probably post this in the gecko discussion topic forum. You'll have more of an input.

Are you saying Mango/Papaya baby food? Or CGD flavor?
Mealworms are NOT for crested geckos, crickets/roaches only. The chitin in mealworms makes it hard for them to digest.
 
Crested geckos do not NEED to eat insects if you feed them the powdered Repashy diet. It's better than you stick to 100% CGD than give him meal worms. The pelleted kind is not good for them and they will not eat it!
 
In addition to what others have said, remember that it's not a gerbil. :) When you buy a reptile it's not unusual for them to not eat AT ALL for a few days, so I wouldn't worry if it doesn't eat much for the first week.

Other than that, CGD is made specifically to be a stand alone food for rhacodactylus genus animals. If you want to feed insects, I recommend bug burger from Repashy Ventures (same place as the CGD) to gutload your insects prior to feeding.
 
Is the humidity high enough? You should be spraying at least once in the morning and once at night, they get their water by licking off the water droplets.

What substrate are you using? If it's a small animal, you might not even notice the poop in question, depending on the substrate.

Point three, if they eat, they will poop. If it were me, I wouldn't worry about it. Keep asking questions and reading old threads, you'll get the hang of it.
 
The average humidity is about 70%. I'm using paper towels but he defecated the 1st day and it was visible. He is 5 in. long and about 5 grams
 
If he's eating, he will poop. No way around it. :)

Switch him over to the CGD and give him very tiny amounts so you can see if he's eating it or not.
 
I wouldn't worry about him not eating or pooping for at least the first few weeks- this is really normal with new Cresties.

I agree with everyone else that you need to get him primarily on REAL CGD (not the pellet junk)- I wouldn't feed any more live or plain fruit at all until you're sure he's eating CGD, as this is the best way to ensure he's getting proper nutrition. Otherwise he runs the serious risk of ending up with nutrient deficiencies, especially MBD.

Some geckos take longer to start on CGD than others- but I would NOT recommend feeding anything else at all during the time period it takes for him to make the switch- no matter how long that may take, and be prepared for that to take a while if he'd never been on CGD before...

www.Pangeareptile.com is another place to buy Repashy CGD (plus other crestie supplies), plus I highly recommend the Pangea forum for more info about crestie diet and care. It's unfortunately still all-too-common to recieve Cresties who have never been on proper diets, so what you're going through and going to experience with this new little guy is something many others also have experienced...

ETA- Oh I forgot to add; you want to make sure that you have a humidity cycle in the tank, not high humidity all the time. You want 80-90% at night, but to allow the tank to dry out to about 40-50% during the day. Usually takes a bit of trial and error with your misting to figure out how heavily and how often you need to achieve that, and keep in mind that your misting needs may change according to the season and weather. However, both too wet and too dry can cause various health problems for Cresties, and IMO both diet and proper humidity cycle are two of THE most important things for a keeper to understand.
 
Yea, I tried the pellets 1st but I got liquid CGD yesterday. I have a humidity cycle going in my naturalistic terrarium but not in quarantine. Should I start one up in there?
Thanks
 
The T-Rex Repashy kind. After a few hours in the tank it solidifies. I add a little water and stir it but it happens again after another few hours. Is this normal and do you have any suggestions?
 
I'd recommend limiting the spoon feeding, sometimes they can used to it and it can get difficult to get them to eat out of a container. Just be aware the potential is there and use your judgement
 
Thanks, I'll take that into suggestion but I'm just trying to get him to feed at the moment. Once he is adjusted I will stop unless the need is necessary such as medications.
 
LaxGekko25 said:
The T-Rex Repashy kind. After a few hours in the tank it solidifies. I add a little water and stir it but it happens again after another few hours. Is this normal and do you have any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like either your mixture is off in the first place (are you adding 2x the water vs amount of CGD) or the humidity is off in the enclosure (what are you using to measure humidity)?

Mine will often be a bit crusty around the edges by the next evening, but just adding in a little water softens it right back up.
 
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