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Worried About Crested Gecko

M

Mico7716

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Help! I'm having trouble getting my new crested gecko to eat.

The set up I have right now is a 20 gallon long. The bottom of the aquarium is lined with live grass that I grew from a kit, and I have several live plants, as well. The terrarium is nice and moist, collects beads of moisture on the inside, and the temperature stays around 70 degrees, probably 75 during the day when the light is on.

I've only had this crested gecko about four days. I keep live crickets in the terrarium, but he hasn't eaten any on his own. The first day, the only way I could get him to eat was by offering him baby food (apricot and peach mixed with vitamins) on my finger. When he got full (he ate a lot), he started wiping his face off on the grass and walked away. The next day, I tried the same thing, and he ran off, like he was scared and he didn't eat a bite. The third day, I finally got him to eat a cricket only because I injured the poor cricket and then sat it directly in front of the gecko. Tonight, I tried giving him more baby food and he refused and seemed petrified of me. Every night I put baby food out on a little dish for him, and every morning, it is all still there and he didn't eat any at all.

He just seems very lethargic and not very willing to eat. I'm getting really worried, and I'm not sure if I can keep this force-feeding up every night. Am I doing something wrong? Could the environment I have set up for him be too moist, or too cold, or too warm, or...?? Please help ASAP!!! I don't want him to get sick.

-Mico
 
Hi,
My guess is, since you have only had him for 4 days, that he is still a little stressed out. He needs to have time to be left alone to adjust to his new surroundings. Keep putting the baby food in his cage every night, and get yourself some of the Crested Gecko Diet from the store and mix some of that for him as well. Just leave it in there at night and dont take him out to give him anything else. Don't take him out and hold him to feed him, that is just causing more undue stress. Because right now, he probably IS petrified of you ;) Just give him time, leave him alone and dont handle him very much. Let him get comfortable and then he will have no problem eating for you. Good luck! :)
 
One more thing...how big is it? If it is a teeny baby, you might want to put it in something smaller than the 20 gallon for now until he grows into it. The little ones seem to do better in a smaller enclosure and its easier to monitor them, and easier for them to find the food. :) You can get one of those little critter keeper things from the pet store pretty cheap to keep him in for now.
 
Hey Mellissa.

Thanks so much for your quick reply.

I kinda figured that part of it was due to stress. I have been holding him a little bit, thinking that he would get used to it, but obviously he hasn't. He freaks out and tries to jump away frantically.

He is maybe 6 months old (?) I'm not very good at judging their age. His body is only maybe 3 inches long? Plus tail probably 6 inches? I know he's youngER and not an adult. His crowded cage has lots of places for crickets to hide---so I'm thinkin that for feeding, taking him out and putting him in a smaller cage with nothing in it but food. Good idea or bad idea?

Also, I know that there are some little white worms that I've seen them feed crested geckos in pet shops. What are these?

-Mico
 
Hi Mico,

Seperating him to feed him his crickets is a good idea, but just know that it may take him a while to get used to it. with my first crested, thats what I did for his crickets was put him in a little seperate container to feed them. He took to it right away, though, and yours MAY be different, but it wont hurt to try ;) Still just put your baby food right into his cage though. But only put a very thin layer of it in there, so its easier to tell by morning if he ate some or not (you can see thier little tongue marks).

The little white worms might be waxworms, they are the only worms i can think of that pet stores have that are whitish. These guys are pretty much mostly fat though and not much nutrition. They are fine as a treat, if you give them one or two worms once or twice a week, but do not feed them too many or that will be all they want to eat.

And, he will calm down with time and handling, it just may take a little while for some of them.
 
IS my crested Gecko sick

I just got a pair of crested geckos 4 days ago and the red one lost its tail today because I picked it up to look at it and it is bony I can see all of its ribs and it is refusing to eat and so is the other one but that one does not look so skinny what do I do?
 
i would highly suggest Repashy formula Crested Gecko Diet. it is a powdered diet that you mix with water- also sold as T-rex CGD. i would stop feeding crickets, to get the gecko to eat the CGD. this is a total Meal replacement formula that has vitamins and minerals all balanced to prevent MBD and Calcium crashes.

Crickets can and will chew on any reptile if there is no food for them in the cage. be aware of this. it can take a while for a Crested to start eating the CGD, so you have to go cold turkey, no babyfood, no crickets, no roaches. just CGD. dab some on the nose every night and feed a dish every other night until he/she begins to eat.

Good Luck. if you can't find it, Gecko Ranch sells it so does Pangea Reptile.
 
I agree, I would go with the powdered meal replacement. I use the type sold by Clarks. But others are great as well. It works great, and the geckos seem to love it. I don't like the crickets, as mentioned before, they will eat on any reptile if they have nothing else to eat. Plus they stink.
 
Thank you Collen T so do you think this will start to make them gain weight and start acting normal when they eat this? I am really glad you answered because I am pairnoid because I only had a leopard gecko so this is my first time having a crested gecko but thank for the advice I will go and get some tonight
 
I totally agree with Colleen. I've gotten into crested in the last few months and have fallen in love with them.
CGD is very good and as you put it by his/her mouth it will like it and just keep doing that until he starts it on his own. Feed it as it is starting to get dark as I have found that the mix tends to get more pasty then can dry up and they are more apt to move around more at night.
Mine wait now for the dish to come in every evening.
Good luck and keep us posted and pics are always a good thing :)
 
i have 9 breeders, 14 eggs and 7 babies plus one juvie. no health problems, ever. All my eggs hatch. no MBD, no calcium crashes, no skinny geckos.

What i do need to warn you about is if you buy Clarks' it is not a total meal replacement and you do need to add insects to it. the Repashy is better. you can keep them on it with no insects. Good luck.
 
I can feed them on the T rex diet and they will be fine? The yellow one is doing great he ate a face full of baby food last night I could not stop laughing because he gave me a funny look when I seen his face like what I'm eating! The red one is still kinda scared but hopefully in time it will warm up and see that I am not going to hurt it. Before I had these guys I had 2 Leopard geckos so it is getting used to the creseted. I will post pictures soon. I named my geckos Ren and Stimpy because one is red and the other one is yellow. I thought it was funny. But thanks for your advice.
 
ColleenT said:
YES but stop the babyfood. it is full of sugars and preservatives. Just feed CGD plain.
Click to expand...

I know that they like baby food and some do feed that but when I first got mine I stuck to the plan of not giving baby food and just gave the food and they still will eat the food if put on them and not get so spoiled by the baby food. I had read what Colleen wrote before and what other breeders told me. They have since graduated to crix, roaches and sometimes mealies along with their food and are growing fine and are hardy. I have four now and all are doing very well :)
 
Hey Colleen,

Di you ever sell your crested gecko babies? and how much? I stopped giving them baby food and they are just on the crested gecko diet by T Rex
 
You can click on post reply. Then once there there is a landscape yellow, mountains, sun, if you put your cursor there it will say insert image. Click on there then put the link in there, hit ok and what I usually do is preview the post to make sure that it is on properly :)
 
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