Thank you so very much!

Oh bless him!!
Look at the lumpy boy.
You know what, I’ve actually heard of baby food a lot! Seems a lot of people think it’s ok to use not realising they’re actually gaining nothing from it.
We rescued a few Cresties last year that were only ever fed jelly pots! All skin and bones, sunken eyes and all, one male with very bad fts who ended up dropping his tail a little while back (the friend having the babies has him actually), there was one slight fts girly, Others were luckily ok with no issues.
Got them all up to healthy and chunky weight on Pangea and crickets and wax worm treats!

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I love him to bits. I had told my friend if they ever decided to rehome him I would take him. I ended up with him and the three girls in a fully-stocked bio tank living their best lives. They have several different flavors of Pangea, and just started being interested in mealworms.

I’ve been keeping an eye on him for fts because of his back, but so far so good. :blush:

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And now you have lots of babies!! You got a good deal there, and the girlies look look lovely! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Mealworms aren’t ideal for Cresties as they can’t digest them properly, so best to not feed them. Crickets, red runners, dubias, locust, wax worms as a treat all ok though!

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Someone I talked to knew someone who had multiple cresties drop their tail at the same time. They said a curtain rod fell down, made a huge noise and vibration, and most of the geckos lost their tail (I don’t know if it was that many but it was still likely multiple, there could have been other stress if they were that sensitive but I don’t know). The person who told me this also told me that one of their geckos had a decoration fall on the tail and the gecko stayed there until she could take the decoration off. So it totally depends on the gecko, but if a gecko drops a tail don’t think too much of it, it happens.

Geckos with mbd shouldn’t be bred but I don’t think males will pass it on. Females with mbd will lay eggs without much calcium which will cause problems for the babies (if they even hatch). So mbd likely wouldn’t be inherited from a male but mbd (and other issues) would be inherited from a female.

I’ve even heard this for leopard geckos. When one of my female leopard geckos had egg laying problems and was losing a lot of weight one of the vets told me to feed fruit baby food (which is completely useless, luckily I knew enough not to do this), this might have helped for a crested gecko but it wouldn’t have been better than a healthy staple.

Completely agree, mealworms can cause digestive problems due to their exoskeleton. It’s also worth noting that black soldier fly larvae are known to have been pooped out whole (especially in babies) so they shouldn’t be fed either.

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Poor fella, he looks happy and cute. At least his now getting the care he deserves. Is he in with 2 females, if so his probably got it on with both of them :sweat_smile: I’d suggest to remove his ASAP

I totally agree, do not feed Mealworms & soldier fly larvae for the above reasons, but also Mealworms aren’t very nutritious for cresties either.

When I got my first Crestie, baby food was VERY common. I did my research and I knew from the get go that this would be problematic so used Repashy. This was back in the day when we had to buy books or go the the library for information as opposed to Google etc. Everything was wrong as there wasn’t much known info about Cresties back then.

I even fed my girl the jelly pots, but not as her main food, as a treat. I wouldn’t do it now though.

There isn’t enough information out there about MBD being passed on if it’s the male but it almost certainly does cause issues if the female is the one with MBD. I’ve tried to do a lot of research on this and have found some people say they produced babies with a male that has MBD (by previous owner) in which the offspring looked healthy but most of them had issues further down the line but don’t know whether it could be due to daddies MBD or not. I guess it can depend on the severity of MBD as well as the cause.
However should you decide to sell any in the future, I would strongly suggest you advise the new owners of daddies MBD.

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You guys are absolutely amazing. I really can’t thank you enough.and here I was nervous about sharing. :woman_facepalming:t2:

I figured mealworms were good as a treat. Now I know better. But I guess now I really need to make a Dubia colony. I was on the fence before, but now I guess it’s time. I’d rather deal with them than crickets.

The baby food thing blew my mind. Thankfully, he is no longer picky. I guess his husbandry was also terrible which didn’t do him any favors.

None of the girlies have MBD thankfully. He was in with all three, which didn’t help matters at all.

I totally agree. If I ever were to sell, it would be very known. I was concerned some would fail to thrive, but they’re all doing well so far! There will definitely be updates so we can add to the data. I’m like a sponge, so any info is so very helpful! :purple_heart::purple_heart:

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No need to be nervous here, we are all happy to help in any way we can.
We won’t judge, an mistakes you may of made or make we probably have also :sweat_smile:

Well he’s had his fun haha. Now to single life :sweat_smile:

Anything else you want to know just ask away :relaxed:

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Definitely a great bunch here so please don’t feel nervous.

We may not always have the same opinion, but it’s okay & accepted here, as long as the health of reptiles comes first :relaxed:

I’ve kept Cresties for many years and there are still things that I learn… But I might just be a Crestie Geek and want to know any info lol :sweat_smile:

Do you use UV lights for your Cresties?

I appreciate you all so much! :purple_heart:

I love to learn everything I can. Long healthy lives are my goal.

Yes on the UVB. I need to order a few T5 setups for the beardies, our Leo, and these fools. It’s almost the 6th month mark and they all need upgrades. Do you think that will be okay for the stickies? Too much? Too little? Just right?

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I’m not sure which t5 you are referring to but I use Arcadia Pro t5 forest version, it’s Approx 6% uvb and it has been great for my Cresties and plants.

I love upgrading Cresties, I just upgraded my youngest girl Snowball. She seems pleased as she scoffed her insects lol

I was looking at the zoomed t5 10.0 UVB, but I think that will be too much for the geckos. I’m also open to other brands/options. Sorry, that was unclear before.

We love enclosure updates here. Hubs has a blast making up obstacle courses for our BP (royal?) since she thinks she’s a tree python.

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One of our pieds loves to climb, it’s amazing. I upset most of that others though :sweat_smile: apparently they like to destroy plants so I have up on bio-active and bought fake plants.

I’m forever updating and adding to the geckos homes :crazy_face: each Crestie prefers different things so I try to base it on them.

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I love watching them…sometimes it’s better than tv. All the geckos and our BP are up in the bedroom specifically because I adore just sitting and watching. The beardies and our boa have their own room downstairs.

Kain is currently not very happy with me, even though I’ve bribed him with the banana creme pie treat. He will live. He’s exploring, and coming back every once in a while to glare at me. But he’s got fake plants til this pathos establishes, and he’s enjoying them. I fully expect to hear him calling at the ladies tonight. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Figured I’d update here.

We’ve reassigned some of the babies, and I’ll be ordering more boxes. I think there’s some bullying going on because some of them look too skinny. We hand fed a few of them, to make sure they’re eating, and they did.

I might be worrying about nothing, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. :grimacing:

So we put two of the smaller ones in one til Amazon delivers, and then another is in the critter keeper. So the only two still together are the frog butts. We will also be hand feeding the smaller ones to help my anxiety. :upside_down_face:

Please, please, please don’t hand feed unless you absolutely need too and use sparingly! This is a big mistake that owners make. I have only ever hand fed a few Cresties and it is my absolute last resort.

Once Cresties get use to being hand fed, it takes weeks, possibly months to get them to eat on their own again and they will become VERY dependant on you feeding them.

Not sure on weight and age, but it is likely you’ve had some bullying as males are probably popping up.
Now they are separated, you should see an improvement.

If you are worried about them eating, I’d recommend reptile supplies CGD as it contains bee pollen which is suppose to help with fussy eaters. I can say that this REALLY has worked for me.
Don’t get me wrong, not all my Cresties like it, but the tropical temptation flavour (first flavour I tried) honestly did get my 2 fussy eaters to eat with no hand feeding. However I did pop a tiny bit on their nose (once), just so they got the taste.

If you can’t get reptile supplies CGD, I know some online reptile ships in the UK are selling reptile safe bee pollen. Just add a little sprinkle into the mix until you have eaters again and even as a treat now and then.

I’d also suggest different flavours of CGD as some have preferences over others

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Good call. I didn’t even think of that. I’ll give it a few days and report back.

I’m in the process of replacing the scale since I dropped ours, so I’m unsure on weights at the moment. But they were born July/August. :woman_facepalming:t2:

As for food, my favorite thing is trying new flavors with them. They very rarely have the same flavor twice in a row, But maybe that’s also part of the problem?

It’s funny you mention bee pollen. I’ve been debating getting some for the boys (beardies) to see if it would help them eat more chopped salads instead of insisting ripping their food up on their own. :weary: So maybe in a couple days the separation doesn’t work, I’ll bite the bullet.

I’m feeling like an idiot. Thank you for all the info, as always :purple_heart:

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Please don’t feel silly, it was not my intention to make you feel that way.

I know exactly how you feel! And I’m offering advice on my mistake.

Strawberry didn’t eat for weeks when I got her, so I hand fed her, it took me months to get her to eat on her own. And her appetite didn’t really improve until I found her a friend to live with (recently) she still will not touch live food though :pensive:. I regret hand feeding her and wish I’d found her a friend to start with.

Scales for little ones are really useful, esp if your worried about weight loss. Hope you find a new one soon :crossed_fingers:

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No! Fox, you definitely did not. I’m extremely hard on myself. I forget I’m still learning sometimes, and kick myself a lot. Especially with the little ones.

We have a small pocket scale that I’m going to try to find today. It should do the job in the meantime.

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Mini update before I head into work: I think the separation helped! Seeing lots of energy, and little tongue marks in food! I’m most excited that the little one I was most worried about has finally fully shed, has eaten, and is bouncing around the critter keeper.

So relieved. Now I can go deal with middle schoolers and not be worried all day. :weary:

My girl and I wish you a happy Monday!

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Glad they are doing okay :relaxed:

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