Crested geckos need specific nutrition in order to be healthy, so their keepers usually feed them complete crested gecko diets (CGD) designed specifically to meet these lizards’ dietary requirements.
Some cresties stop eating altogether, which could indicate health issues. You can create homemade crested gecko food using various ingredients.
Contents
Insects
Crested geckos in the wild typically rely on insects and worms for protein, making their diet very diverse. While some keepers opt to exclude live feeder insects altogether from a crested gecko’s diet, others feel offering various insects stimulates a natural hunting instinct while providing needed variety in its diet. Crickets, roaches, dubia roaches and hornworms all make suitable feeder insects; feeder insects should no wider than between your pet’s eyes, and dusted with calcium powder to balance their Ca:P ratio.
Commercially prepared crested gecko food (also referred to as complete diets) are nutritionally balanced mixes designed to replace feeder insects. Available as either powder or pellet form, these products consist of dried fruits, vegetables and crushed insects for protein as well as additional vitamins and minerals – most also come with added vitamins/minerals for gut loading purposes if necessary. Once mixed with water they should then be gut loaded using fresh leafy greens or premade recipes if required.
Meal Replacement Powder (MRP)
Meal replacement powder is an easy and cost-effective way to provide your crested gecko with essential nutrition. This form of diet typically consists of meats, vegetables, fruits, minerals and vitamins; and can often be found for sale both locally and online.
Crickets, roaches and dubia worms are popular choices of insect protein sources for Cresties but must be fed sparingly as they contain high amounts of fat. Just ensure the feeder insects do not exceed the gap between their eyes to avoid choking hazards.
Crested geckos in the wild are omnivores, yet fruits only make up a minor part of their natural diet. Therefore, many pet owners give their cresties fruits as treats every once or twice each month for maximum digestive benefit and to limit fiber intake that could cause digestive issues for reptiles. Most fruit should be chopped into chunks rather than being offered whole to prevent digestive upset from too much fiber being digested at one time by the reptile.
Baby Food
Crested geckos are omnivores and will consume a range of foods. While diet premix powder and dusted insects make up their staple diet, many owners also provide their crested gecko with additional treats like worms or fruit on a weekly basis.
A healthy and well-balanced crested gecko diet should consist of greens, vegetables, fruit, insects and worms. For optimal results, greens high in calcium while being low in phosphorus or antinutrients like oxalates or goitrogens such as oxalates should be chosen – some examples include escarole, endive, alfalfa or dandelion greens as examples of such choices.
Fruit should be offered as treats, and should be low in phosphorus to protect their ability to use calcium effectively in their bodies. Examples of appropriate fruits are figs, papayas, berries and prickly pear leaves.
Misting of the habitat on a regular basis will help maintain an ideal level of humidity for crestied geckos, while some keepers also choose to spray it with dechlorinating solution to ensure its cleanliness. While crested geckos can be taught to drink directly from bottles, most prefer drinking from drops falling off of their habitat walls instead.
Fruits
Cresties geckos must supplement their natural food sources with other sources to meet nutritional requirements due to hard exoskeletons on prey items like insects. Fruit is an ideal source of extra nutrition; citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruit should be avoided due to high concentrations of oxalic acid that could prove dangerous; lime has similar consequences, while fresh bananas should only be offered occasionally as treats as these act as calcium binders.
As conventionally grown produce is often treated with chemicals that could make their pet sick, it is advisable to rinse any fruits with water to eliminate pesticides or chemicals before feeding them to a crested gecko.
Vegetable foods should also be part of a crested gecko’s diet when using meal replacement powder, especially since vegetables contain plenty of essential vitamins and minerals while being low in phosphorous levels and free of antinutrients such as goitrogens. Some great examples are escarole, endive, alfalfa and carrots as possible choices.
