Crested geckos are fascinating and relatively low-maintenance reptiles that have become popular pets. One of the most important aspects of caring for a crested gecko is providing them with the correct diet. Understanding the best Crested Gecko Food is crucial for their health and longevity. While prepared diets have revolutionized crested gecko care, it’s important to understand the nuances of their nutritional needs.
Prepared diets are generally not the ideal primary food source for most reptiles due to fillers and imbalanced nutrition. However, thanks to extensive research, several nutritionally complete prepared diets are available and excellent options for your crested gecko:
- Arcadia
- Pangea
- Blue River Diets
- Repashy
- Black Panther Zoological (BPZ)
- Leapin’ Leachie
- Zoo Med (new formula only)
- Lugarti
These reputable brands offer high-quality formulas in various flavors to cater to your gecko’s individual preferences. If you choose a prepared diet that includes insects (like Pangea With Insects or Repashy Grubs N’ Fruit), you might think supplemental insects are unnecessary. However, even with these diets, insects play a vital role in your crested gecko’s well-being. They provide enrichment, encourage exercise, and are particularly beneficial for juvenile growth and helping underweight adults gain healthy weight. Geckos without insects in their diet may exhibit slower growth, appear less robust, and seem less healthy overall compared to those offered insects regularly.
In short, even with the best crested gecko food in the form of a prepared diet, offering insects remains essential. For optimal results, offer insects 1-2 times per week. If you observe your gecko gaining excessive weight, simply reduce the frequency of insect feedings.
Here are some excellent insect options for your crested gecko:
- Crickets
- Dubia roach nymphs
- Small hornworms
- Black soldier fly larvae
- Silkworms
- Mealworms
- Small superworms
- Discoid roach nymphs
The frequency of feeding depends largely on your crested gecko’s age:
- Juveniles (0-12 months old): Offer crested gecko diet daily and insects 1-2 times per week.
- Adults: Offer crested gecko diet every 2-3 days and insects 0-1 time per week.
For adult crested geckos that are overweight or obese, reduce feeding frequency and portion sizes. In severe cases, feeding once every 5-7 days may be necessary. Obese geckos often display noticeable fat rolls on their sides. Encouraging movement and providing a larger enclosure can help promote exercise. Remember that weight loss in reptiles is a gradual process, requiring consistent effort and time.
Always ensure fresh, clean water is available for your crested gecko in a shallow dish. Misting the enclosure walls daily, ideally before night, allows your gecko to drink water droplets from the walls and decorations, mimicking their natural hydration method.
Unsafe Foods for Crested Geckos
Understanding what not to feed your crested gecko is as important as knowing the best crested gecko food. Early crested gecko diets were often inadequate, relying on baby food and yogurt, sometimes with added protein baby food like chicken. We now know these options are far from ideal. Fortunately, the availability of complete meal replacement diets eliminates the guesswork and ensures your reptile receives balanced nutrition.
Stick to commercially prepared crested gecko diets as the foundation of their nutrition, supplemented with calcium-dusted insects. The variety of prepared diets and insect options allows for some dietary variation. However, some geckos are picky eaters and might develop preferences for specific flavors of crested gecko food.
Incomplete diets, such as fruit purees, baby food alone, or insects only, can lead to serious health issues like metabolic bone disease (MBD) or calcium crashes. Crested gecko diets are scientifically formulated with the correct vitamin and mineral ratios for optimal health. While some geckos may favor insects over prepared diets, insects alone cannot replace a complete crested gecko food. Prepared diets should constitute the majority of their food intake. If your gecko refuses prepared diets in favor of insects, remember that a healthy gecko will not willingly starve itself. If you’re concerned about your gecko’s appetite, review your husbandry practices and consider consulting a reptile veterinarian.
Can Crested Geckos Eat Fruit?
In their natural habitat, crested geckos consume fruits, nectar, and soft seeds. Offering small amounts of select non-citrus fruits as occasional treats is acceptable. However, commercially cultivated fruits are significantly higher in sugar than wild fruits and are unhealthy if given in excess. Wild crested geckos typically consume fruits that are overripe, soft, and fallen from trees. They are not adapted to eat hard, unripe, or crisp fruits. Suitable soft fruits for occasional treats include:
- Ripe or rehydrated figs
- Mango
- Banana
- Papaya
- Overripe watermelon
- Apricot
- Peach
- Pear
Fasting and Eating Habits of Crested Geckos
Crested geckos can survive for 2-3 weeks without food but cannot endure prolonged periods without water. It’s normal for newly acquired crested geckos to refuse food for a few days in a new environment; this is not cause for alarm. Some may take up to 10 days to start eating after being introduced to a new home. Crested geckos are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk, and these are their most likely feeding times. Use a shallow dish with a thin layer of crested gecko food to monitor for lick marks, indicating feeding. Young geckos in large enclosures may have difficulty locating food. If housing a small gecko in a large setup, provide multiple feeding stations to aid in food discovery. In some cases, temporarily housing a young gecko in a smaller quarantine enclosure may be necessary to ensure they are eating consistently before moving them to a larger, permanent habitat as they grow.
Another helpful tip to confirm eating is observing for fecal matter. If you see poop, your gecko is eating! Sometimes, they consume food without you directly witnessing it. Weekly weight monitoring using a gram scale is advisable to track your gecko’s growth. Weight loss, particularly in young geckos, warrants a consultation with a specialized reptile veterinarian.
Avoid hand-feeding your gecko, as it can lead to dependency and prevent them from consuming adequate amounts of food independently. Hand-feeding should only be employed under the guidance of a veterinarian.
Further Support and Reptile Care Resources
To deepen your understanding of crested gecko care, explore the Ultimate Crested Gecko Zen Guide! This comprehensive guide offers over 100 pages of detailed information on crested gecko husbandry.
Zen Habitats provides comprehensive care sheets for numerous reptile species, simplifying the process of understanding your pet’s unique needs. Their knowledgeable customer service team is available seven days a week to answer your questions, offer guidance, and provide helpful recommendations. Furthermore, their website hosts a wealth of articles and videos covering diverse reptile-related topics, including interviews with reptile industry experts and breeders.
