Crested geckos require a diet rich in essential vitamins and minerals. While many owners provide their gecko with feeder insects as supplements, others opt for meal replacement powder (MRP).
Repashy or Pangea MRP products provide crested geckos with all of the vitamins, minerals, and nutrition they require for healthy lives. When mixed with water, they thicken into a delicious meal for your reptile to devour!
Contents
Feeder Insects
Crested geckos are adaptable feeders in the wild, taking advantage of any opportunity that presents itself to them to eat insects and fruits. Crested geckos tend to thrive when fed a diet composed of complete powdered diets supplemented with live feeder insects or any combination thereof; often prepackaged mixes will have multiple protein sources with distinct amino acid profiles, plus lower oxalates levels and other antinutrients so as to optimize calcium absorption.
Cressed geckos often feed on Dubia roaches, hornworms, and wax worms – these insects can be found at most pet stores or online insect suppliers. When choosing feeder insects for crested geckos it is important to be mindful of their size; larger insects could potentially choke or impace your gecko; insects should ideally fit within the gap between its eyes.
As well as insects, some cresties also enjoy snacking on kiwi fruit or watermelons for their nutrition; both contain high concentrations of vitamin C. Kiwi fruit can be more challenging to prepare than watermelon; thus treat your pet to one occasionally as a treat!
Fruits
Crested geckos are opportunistic feeders in nature and thrive when provided with an assortment of fruits and insects to eat. As such, we suggest offering two or three fresh fruits every two weeks as toppings to supplement their prepackaged diet to provide additional nutrition and hydration to your pet. This will provide essential hydration.
Papayas, strawberries and mangos are excellent fruits to offer crested geckos as they contain both fiber and vitamin C while being low in calories. Simply slice or mash these fruits up before placing in their food bowl for them.
Avoid fruits that contain seeds or pips as these could choke your pet and block their digestive tracts. Furthermore, citrus fruits are too acidic and could cause severe discomfort to reptiles.
Exo Terra offers a ‘Complete Gecko Diet’ formula which provides all of the nutrients crested geckos require in one convenient package, ideal for busy owners who do not wish to waste time feeding insects and cutting up fresh fruits for feeding purposes.
Calcium Powder
There are various ways you can increase the calcium in your gecko’s diet. Crickets, mealworms and waxworms are excellent sources, while certain fruits such as figs and kiwis also contain plenty of calcium. You could also opt for commercial complete crested gecko diet mix which will contain both vitamins D3 and calcium for easier feedings.
Before feeding live insects, lightly dust them in calcium powder with D3 content before doing so. Doing this at every feed will help lower the risk of impaction from hard exoskeletons of these insects.
There are a wide range of complete commercial diets on the market. When selecting one for your gecko, ensure that you compare its Guaranteed Analysis charts carefully – these will be listed on its label. Alternatively, homemade fruit purees could temporarily suffice if a commercial complete diet mix runs out – just make sure that any homemade purees do not contain citric acid and added sugars which may cause diarrhoea in reptiles, nor foods with high levels of oxalic acid which could bind and hinder calcium absorption.
Baby Food
Crested geckos may initially appear fearful, but with proper training can become manageable pets – an excellent option for beginners or people with limited time for caring for reptiles.
Cresteed geckos in captivity should be fed a complete powder diet like Repashy or Pangea three times weekly, in addition to live feeder insects such as locusts, crickets or dubia roaches two or three times each week; locusts should be lightly coated with Calcidust while crickets or roaches may be dusted with vitamin powder for extra health benefits.
Fruit should make up approximately 75% of their diet. Ideally, the fruit should be blended or mashed to create a smoothie-like consistency for ease of consumption by crested geckos. Overripe mango is often preferred because its soft texture allows easy munching without needing to bite into pieces. Vegetables may also be added; however, it is advised not to feed crested geckos foods that they wouldn’t encounter in nature such as dairy products or meat products.
