As some of you may have read we picked up a crested gecko at the reptile fair last weekend (sorry theres no pics yet I'm swamped at work). I picked up some CGD for a not so low price. But he's been raised mainly on strait baby food by the breeder and really doesn't seem to eat it at all. I did have some luck feeding a fruit nectar from Hebamed that has Vit A,B and D3 added. Last night I fed a mix of yogurt and fruit with calcium powder added that he ate a bit of.

I know that CGD is the best mix on the market, but being that he's not eating it, would a natural fruit diet supplemented with vitamins and insects be optimal for health and growth? The Herbamed necator states that is can be a main diet, but lacks proteins and calcium. But used along side a diet of fruit supplemented with calcium and insects. I would assume it would be a heathy diet.

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That sounds good. If he's used to straight baby food, then I would recommend giving the baby food mixed with the proper nutrients. I also give my crested crickets and he loves them.

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Once you turn Mac, you never look back.

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.” -- Ayn Rand

What I did with my crestie is blend the CGD with fresh fruits or baby food and poured it in an ice tray and froze it, Id take one out a day and let him have at that. For the herbamed you could blend crix and vit. supplements in with it and feed him that, mine wouldnt eat crix so I had to blend them in with the CGD :-p

I was having the same problem with one of my cresteds. The guys over at the Repashy forums(great rach forum!) said to just switch him over cold turkey. I didn't want to deal with blending stuff together and worrying about proper nutrition. If you have the time to do what you're doing then go for it! I'm sure it tastes much better than the CGD!

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Gerp, Gerp, Gerp.

Thanks every one for there help. The other day I blended yogurt, a bannana, blueberries, grape, and added a few good drops of herbamed mango nectar and calcium powder. Into a ice cube tray and gave him one last night along with a few crickets. He ate the crickets and about half a cubes worth of the fruit mix. So I think everythings going well. I'm going to look into perfecting the mix to make sure I get the calcium and vit levels right. But I need to find nutrition levels for everything I'm putting in it so I can get the best amount of Herbamed and calcium to add to the mix.

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http://dght.de

Conducting my research on nutritional values of CGD vs. a natural diet the same values can be reached by banana adding 8mg of CA, 3.5mg of D3 per 100g of banana. This gives a balanced fruit based diet that is lower in fat and protein. These lower fat and protein levels can be replaced with a supplement feeding of crickets.

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http://www.ig-phelsuma.de/
http://dght.de

LOL, Savannah, and "he" is doing great now! She's a big girl who eats her CGD very well and loves, loves, loves her crickets once a week. I dust the crickets using a plastic baggie, and Elvie knows just what that bag means. Once she attacked the bag itself before I could even get the crickets out!

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Amy

I have nine cresteds. They are from all over the place. Some were ordered from Anthony Caponetto, one was from a guy in California who was featured in Reptiles magazine a couple months back (the girl in my avatar), a couple from Petco, and one male from a reptile show that I attended in New York.

The guy from the reptile show in New York had never seen CGD. He's a big boy, raised on baby food. He didn't know what an insect was, and didn't want to touch the CGD. Most of the cresteds this woman was selling along with him were missing their tails, had kinks in their tails, or generally looked blah. I purchased him, and switched him over cold turkey to CGD, and now he eats it like a champ. ...he still won't touch crickets, although he will eat the occasional worm

Good luck with yours!