What is the best way to make bulk my geckos up?

[Flame Cody]

I have been feeding my geckos CGD and they are eating it and doing good but they dont seem to be growing in size. What can i do so they can grow bigger?

[BrianLorys]

feed some insects like crickets, roaches, pheonix worms, or at petco they call them calci-worm (the worms dont usually get eaten by alot of geckos, they just dont seem to interest them)

[Geckogal]

How old are your cresties? They might just be at an age where they're not growing as much.

[warnersister_2000]

are you weighing them?  they will grow in their own time.  many geckos on CGD stay small for awhile and then hit a growth spurt.  no need to "bulk" them up.

[portal_reptiles]

i have thought about giving them human protein power...i use it for weight lifting, dont know if it would work .....have been thinking of taking 2 crested and giving them protein with there crested diet food, and 2 others the same size and just giving them crested diet food....

[Geckogal]

Couldn't that give them gout?

[portal_reptiles]

gout is from uric acid right??? from too much protein that the body cant use...i wonder whats the max cresteds can eat..... i haven't seen anyone that use's protein shakes get this....not saying they dont

[warnersister_2000]

well, crested geckos aren't vegetarians, but even then, i wouldn't risk giving them that stuff.  there is a lot of other crap in those protein powders, some even have chemicals i can't pronounce, and there is no way i would ever give that to a gecko.  you have no way of knowing the effects of even a small dosage of any one of those ingredients, but i would guess it could be fatal.

have you ever seen a muscular crested gecko?  there's a reason for that.  i don't think they're into bodybuilding.  why risk it?

[portal_reptiles]

i think its the same type of protein they make the crested diet food with???  i will look...

found it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_caseinate
"Calcium caseinate is a protein that neutralizes capsaicin, the active (hot) ingredient of peppers, jalapeños, habaneros, and other chilli peppers. It is also used as a dietary supplement by bodybuilders and other athletes, who ingest it before bed, with breakfast, or as post-work out meal, as it breaks down at a slower rate than whey protein, thus supplying the body with a sustained protein release. It is synthesized from dried skim milk, and is very high in Glutamic Acid."

http://www.superfoods.repashy.com/foods_MRP_Crested.htm
"Ingredients
Banana powder, honey powder, hempola hempseed meal, bee pollen, calcium caseinate"



i still dont know if its a good idea....i think for now i will save it just for me...lol

[Salzy]

Feed CGD and they will be fine. There is no reason to not be patient and wait for your geckos to grow naturally. Don't add any protein or extra calcium to CGD since it is already a balanced diet. Anything in excess could actually be detrimental to the health of your gecko, not beneficial. The creators/inventors of the diet put a lot of hard work into making the stuff...why not trust their expertise and leave it as-is?

Your geckos will bulk up with time. Some will grow slower than others, but some will seem to have huge growth spurts.

Keep feeding the CGD and they should grow just fine for you. Try feeding every other night if you aren't already. In the wild, it is hypothesized that the geckos don't find food every night, so once they do, they will gorge on it. Try simulating this and they may eat more per feeding and grow a bit faster.

As far as I know, there is no true proof that feeding varied diets of insects, worms, etc. will help a gecko grow any faster. Protein may help though.Try feeding GGD (gargoyle gecko diet) since it has more protein than the regular CGD. 

[warnersister_2000]

i just posted the same info but you beat me to it, lance.

even if you use that stuff, i would worry about messing up the tested balance of nutrients in the gecko's diet.  if it were okay to feed them more of it, everyone would just be feeding their crested geckos GGD, which is higher in protein (30% as opposed to 20%), to make them grow faster.  that is to say, if the geckos would even like the flavor of such a food.

(posted at the same time as kyle)

[portal_reptiles]

lol...yea i saw that.....that protein isn't that great....there are much better things out, i think thats why it was only $20 for that kind of protein, i have one that has 3 kinds of protein in it, ones fast acting and the others work in the body for hours...but i still have to take it 2 times a day....

[markNcc]

Stick with the CGD and if you want to, give them the occasional cricket treat. As long as they have enough food, they will grow just fine. I feed mine every other day (misting what food remains till next feeding to keep it moist) and they are getting pretty big, i don't have a scale yet  but i'm guessing 45-50g., and i think that may be conservative. They grow at their own pace and in spurts sometimes. My first clutchmates hit a MAJOR spurt around 2-3 weeks and are growing like weeds while my second clutch (which consists of a set of twins and a single) have yet to show any real sign of growth...they are growing, but very slow.

Anyway, that's my opinion and nothing more.....feed 'em and let 'em be.

[LunarGecko]

If you want to give them more protean switch them to the GGD.

[smith710]

I've noticed with our baby cresteds, when we are feeding just CGD they don't grow very fast at all.  Once we introduced them to crickets, they started to grow pretty quick, they had a huge growth spurt.