Crested geckos are omnivores that subsist on insects, fruits and vegetables. Their favorite prey includes crickets, feeder roaches and waxworms.
Live insects should be fed 1-2 times a week with calcium and vitamin D3. Vegetables like leafy greens, broccoli, carrots and prickly pear can also be included in their diet for added benefit.
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Insects
Crested geckos feed on a variety of insects in the wild. This includes roaches, crickets, spiders and moths.
Maintaining your gecko’s health and wellbeing requires providing them with appropriate food. Crested geckos should be fed live feeder insects semi-regularly or at least three times a week.
Feeder insects are beneficial to your lizard for several reasons. Most importantly, they supply it with essential vitamins and nutrients.
Second, water can be beneficial to gecko’s hydration. Make sure they get misted frequently and their water dish remains filled with liquid.
Always buy live feeder insects from a trustworthy supplier. Wild-caught insects may be contaminated with pesticides and carry harmful parasites and diseases that should never be eaten.
Fruits
Crested geckos in the wild eat a variety of fruits, such as bananas, grapes, figs, dates, peaches and pears; watermelon; strawberries; blueberries. They may also feed on insects like crickets or mealworms.
Fruits make a nutritious addition to the crested gecko’s diet and should be offered daily in small portions. Before feeding them to your pet, be sure to wash and peel them thoroughly, taking out any inedible stems or seeds.
Unfortunately, some fruits should never be given to a crested gecko. Apples contain low calcium-to-phosphorus ratio and should be avoided; bananas on the other hand can be beneficial but should never be left over for too long as this could prove hazardous to your pet.
Vegetables
Crested geckos typically feed on insects for protein, but they will also consume vegetables and fruits in small amounts. Their natural preference for soft fruit that falls from trees in the wild can be fed to them as long as it’s not overly sugary.
Bananas and apples are two of the favorite fruits for crested geckos, as they’re soft and easy to chew for even the tiniest creatures. You can offer these items whole, cut into bite-sized pieces, or blended into a smoothie-type formula.
Mangoes are a go-to snack, as they’re sweet, low in calories and packed with fiber. Enjoy them sliced, mashed or both once or twice a week for maximum benefits!
Greens
Crested geckos are frugivores, meaning they eat fruit and vegetables. Common fruits they consume include cantelope, dates, figs, guava, kiwi, mango and papaya.
Many of these fruits are safe for crested geckos to eat because they contain a high concentration of calcium but low concentration of phosphorus. This allows them to absorb calcium more readily, avoiding the common issue with calcification in their bones.
Mangoes make an ideal diet choice for geckos due to their soft consistency and ease of consumption. You can offer them whole, mashed in a food dish or cut into halves for easy bite-size pieces.
Premixed Food
In the wild, crested gecko diets consist of a mix of fruits and insects. Fruits like banana, fig, mango and papaya are commonly included in captive-bred crested gecko diets since they are considered highly palatable.
Many leading brands of crested gecko diets contain dried and powdered fruit as ingredients in their recipes. These can be blended or mashed into a slurry for your gecko to lick.
Commercial crested gecko diets typically consist of meal replacement powders mixed with water to form a paste or slurry that your lizard can consume three times a week. They usually consist primarily of crushed feeder insects and fruits plus added vitamins and nutrients.
