Crested geckos may develop various health issues, such as Floppy Tail Syndrome and Metabolic Bone Disease. Thankfully, these problems can easily be prevented with a healthy diet.
These commercial crested gecko powder foods are specifically formulated to include all of the vitamins and minerals needed by your crested gecko to thrive, eliminating any need for gut-loading or dusting insects or worms.
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Crested Gecko Diet (CGD)
Cresties can benefit from supplementing their diet with non-citrus fruits and gut-loaded feeder insects to ensure maximum nutrition. Many will thrive solely from this source of nutrition; however, others may enjoy more varied feedings like gut-loaded feeder insects or non-citrus fruits for variety.
Repashy was the pioneer brand of CGD food on the market and is still popular today, featuring multiple flavors to keep your Crestie entertained!
Black Panther Zoological (BPZ) is another brand of CGD; their focus on insect-derived protein makes their foods closer to what cresties eat in nature, providing keepers with variety in their feeding rotations. Many keepers utilize BPZ in their rota for maximum effectiveness.
Cresties can become bored of eating their MRP after awhile; when this occurs, adding live feeder insects regularly will add excitement to its diet and ensure it continues to get eaten! A few times each week should do the trick!
Insects
Crested geckos eat insects and worms in the wild, so they require insects as a source of calcium, vitamins A & D as well as protein in captivity. Furthermore, feeding insects offers benefits to young crested geckos who may not be receiving enough food at once. Insects also make great sources of energy.
When feeding insects to your crested gecko, always dust them with high quality calcium powder to combat obesity and mineral deficiency. Some keepers also gut load their feeder insects with an excellent nutrient mix prior to offering them to their crested gecko.
Fluker’s Farms makes an excellent meal-replacement powder, Pangea offers their version and Repashy offers one designed specifically for crested gecko diets with adequate levels of vitamins and minerals for them. You can mix these powders with water or fruit puree before pouring it directly into their habitats to be consumed during night-time feedings when they’re most active.
Fruit
crested geckos should ideally receive a variety of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis to provide enrichment while maintaining a balanced diet for them. Doing this may also speed up juvenile development while helping adults remain fatter for longer.
Many crested gecko owners opt to feed their pet a combination of powdered diets and fresh food, such as salad. Additionally, some also opt to offer gut-loaded feeder insects (provided they do not come from wild sources as these could contain parasites that cause disease) as a treat, along with non-citrus fruit as snacks.
Pangea and Repashy foods are two popular choices that provide all of the nutrition crested geckos require in one convenient scoop. Simply mix these products with water before placing directly in their enclosures – each brand’s instructions on its label must be strictly observed for best results.
Veggies
Crested geckos in the wild may consume items that are harmful to them, while we as pet owners can minimize this risk by offering only healthy insects and fruit as food for our cresties.
Most keepers and breeders of crested geckos rely on CGD food, which consists of a powder that you mix with water to form a wet meal for their crested gecko. CGD is nutritionally complete for their gecko while live insects such as crickets or dubia roaches can add variety.
Zoo Med and Repashy offer several fruit flavored MRPs for their cresties including tropical fruit, plum, watermelon and even blueberry breeder formula for pregnant females.
Your Crestie should receive all of their daily nutritional requirements through supplementing their MRP with darkling beetle larvae diet (commonly referred to as superworms) which has high protein and calcium content as well as numerous essential vitamins.
