# Crested gecko - which insects are the best



## liwia1177 (Oct 9, 2017)

Hi I own a 4 months old crested gecko for about a month. I feed him/her Pangea banana and papaya flavor. I decided I’m going to start and feed him/her some live insects to help it grow healthier. 

My question is, which should I pick? I do want him/her to put on some weight as he/she doesn’t eat much of the Pangea.

- Small crickets, gutloaded with Repashy superload insect gutload and dusted in Repashy 

-Wax worms also gutloaded and dusted 

- Calci worms (which apparently don’t need to be gutloaded or dudsted ) 

-Repashy grubs and fruit or Pangea with insects

I know the insects are only supposed to be a treat and not to be fed every day. I don’t mind feeding wax worms or calci worms I do have a problem with the crickets as they jump and they tend to scare me a lot so I don’t know if I’d be able to catch them and give them to my gecko, I put it there as an option as I can try it just wouldn’t be very pleasurable.

Also I read about the Repashy fruit and grubs/ Pangea with insects and i was also considering it, what are your opinions on it comparing to live insects?

Thank you everyone : victory:


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

Calci worms, Crickets, Dubia nymphs and Mealworms.

Use ALL of them, and that then is a BASIC mix of live food.
You should be looking at providing as much variety as possible, not just one insect type.

I personally cant believe that you've not been feeding insects to an insectivore species. You will have already had a restricting effect on its growth given its age.

Waxworms are to be considered as treats, they are the insect equivilent of chocolate. High fat, low nutrition and many species will refuse to eat other insects if given them regularly.

You need to do some proper reading on the animal you have taken ownership of, if nothing else but to save yourself hundreds in vets bills, but hopefully out of the motivation of doing whats right by the animal...

https://howtocrestie2.weebly.com/


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

liwia1177 said:


> I know the insects are only supposed to be a treat and not to be fed every day.



This is complete nonsense. 

The reason you dont feed live food everyday is because, essentially, they are cold blooded.

They have nothing like the energy requirements that warm bloodied species have, meaning they do not need regular meals every day.
In the wild, they would also have a much, much wider selection of insects, many of which would be much smaller than the types available to buy as live food.

the "complete gecko diet" is a long, long way off from being a complete diet, but its used to try and fill any short fall in the diet provided.

Crested Geckos are INSECTIVORES. they would also have to actively hunt for prey (which is one of their biggest energy expenditures in terms of day to day activity), have a supply including flying insects, worms, beatles, termites, ants...the list goes on and on and on...

...."Insects are treats"... when referring to an insectivore species, is quite frankly alarming and troubling.


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## Sky7ine (Jan 30, 2012)

Crested geckos are classed as frugivores although they are more omnivore, insectivore would imply they only eat insects which they don't they eat a variety or rotten fruit, pollen, berries, live food including insects and also small rodents.

I agree the notion that live food is just a treat is false they should be a staple part of their diet twice a week alongside a good quality cgd.


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## corvid2e1 (Jan 21, 2007)

Agreed, a wide variety of live, gutloaded insects should be part of their regular diet, not just an ocasional extra as not only is this important nutritionaly but hunting them is also important for their physical and mental health. On another note, good luck gutloading waxworms though, they are a species that naturaly live in beehives, eating honey and wax. When raised in captivity they will eat a cereal/honey mix but the "food" they come packed in, along with the usual fruit and veg used with other insects, will not be touched.


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

Sky7ine said:


> Crested geckos are classed as frugivores although they are more omnivore, insectivore would imply they only eat insects which they don't they eat a variety or rotten fruit, pollen, berries, live food including insects and also small rodents.
> 
> I agree the notion that live food is just a treat is false they should be a staple part of their diet twice a week alongside a good quality cgd.


Am i getting confused with Leos?
Theres been a lot about both recently :O

I apologise for the mix up!


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## liwia1177 (Oct 9, 2017)

I didn’t feed insects because I’ve only got him for a moth and i was waiting for him to settle in and start eating the CGD first. So I should use different insects ? What would be a good first one that I can try ? I really would prefer not getting crickets, maybe in the future . Will calci worms be okay ? And then I can get different kinds of insects.

So the Repashy fruit and grubs isn’t really an option? Thanks for the help :2thumb:


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## liwia1177 (Oct 9, 2017)

Azastral said:


> Calci worms, Crickets, Dubia nymphs and Mealworms.
> 
> Use ALL of them, and that then is a BASIC mix of live food.
> You should be looking at providing as much variety as possible, not just one insect type.
> ...


I did a lot of reading about it and I found the website above really helpful. I want to feed different kinds of insects I was just wondering what should I start with. He was fed insects before I bought him but I was waiting for him to settle in and start eating the Pangea as I only had him for a month.


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## liwia1177 (Oct 9, 2017)

Azastral said:


> Am i getting confused with Leos?
> Theres been a lot about both recently :O
> 
> I apologise for the mix up!



Oh it’s okay it just confused me a lot hehe


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## Tarron (May 30, 2010)

A very large part of a Cresties natural diet is insects and small mammals/reptiles. they are apparently quite taken by Bavayia sp. a small gecko endemic to new caledonia.

If they were pure frugivores, they would only eat for a quarter of the year. they need a wide, varied insect heavy diet, with a fruit CGD in the enclosure for if they choose it.


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## liwia1177 (Oct 9, 2017)

I will try the Calci Worms first, then I can try wax worms and maybe once day I will be able to feed it crickets  I know wax worms aren?t really good but I do want him to get a bit fatter as he doesn?t eat much. What do you think about feeding repashy grubs and fruit or Pangea with insects instead of live food ? I really want to know more about it but can?t find much information


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## elishacoombes9 (Sep 5, 2017)

My lot have CGD wavers other day. Put in one night, take it next night, then back in night after. 
They love crickets! Tried wax worms and only 1 of them seemed to be interested after about 10 minutes of staring at it! 
So really they only have crickets. 
But as get older they usually only stick to the CGD. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## liwia1177 (Oct 9, 2017)

elishacoombes9 said:


> My lot have CGD wavers other day. Put in one night, take it next night, then back in night after.
> They love crickets! Tried wax worms and only 1 of them seemed to be interested after about 10 minutes of staring at it!
> So really they only have crickets.
> But as get older they usually only stick to the CGD.
> ...


Hmm I understand, if m going shopping tomorrow and I will see what they have in store. If there’s no insects that are suitable for crestie I will order online  I might try the crickets as I see it’s their favorite, thank you


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