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.

[monster]

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. 

this is a better idea then whey protein power mixes.
i can vouch for little ones growing faster on GGD then CGD. no studies have been done (that i know of), and quite a few breeders are feeding that way.

[sreteP]

How old are your cresteds that arent growing on the CGD? Mine is 10 months and weights only 5grams but eats like a pig.

[Tanina]

I'm finding that most of my adults that are now almost totally on CGD with the very occasional cricket are doing quite well and seem content with their diet. My hatchlings and juvies are sometimes pretty fussy. I have one that refuses crickets and others that will gorge themselves. The one who eats only CGD is rather small but so is the one hatchling from the same clutch that eats like a pig when fed crickets often. I've yet to see a consistancy/ food type ratio at all.

It's been suggested to me that I alternate between CGD and the Rapashy two part system. My new clutches will be part of a dietary experiment to see if there is much of a difference in the growth rates.

[jhawkk2004]

What I have found to work very well is to feed CGD with supplimental crickets until they get to be about 6-8 months, then I just feed CGD all the time. My adults don't seem to enjoy crickets as much as they did as hatchlings anyway.

[Anthony Caponetto]

Crested Gecko Diet already has whey protein in it...and soy protein too I believe.   I think the protein ratio is already at 20 or 25 percent, so there wouldn't be any need to add anything to it.  It'll just make the diet taste worse and will make the geckos eat less of it.  Even if they did eat all of it, their body would use the extra protein as calories to burn for energy.

If you want them to bulk up for breeding, you really just have to let it happen naturally.  You can get them fat by giving them more baby food or tons of crickets, but they will get big the right way if you just stick to CGD and the occasional crickets.

[Anthony Caponetto]

Just FYI,

Protein is probably the least important of the macronutrients that you would want to bulk up (including humans).  Protein is used to repair muscle tissue that was "damaged" during a strenuous activity (such as working out or running away from/fighting with a predator). It's 100% necessary, but not the only thing necessary for bulk.

Carbohydrates are used as energy and whatever's left over is stored as body fat.  Sugars are carbohydrates that burn fast...meaning either use the calories within 15 minutes or store them as fat.

Dietary fat has more calories per gram and burns much faster than even sugars, which is why it tends to make people fat.  There are beneficial types of dietary fats, though...and the CGD has those too.


Another FYI,

Sometimes putting a 25 gram female with a male is all you need to get her to 40 grams...it's amazing how fast a female will put on size after she's introduced to a male.  Hormones, hormones and more hormones.

[LunarGecko]

Wow old thread. 

Feel it should be brought up considering my old post is now not valid. They no longer make GGD. The new CGD v3.0 that is just now coming out is now formulated to help 'bulk up' Rhacs. A good deal of the hemp has been removed and egg has been added. I hear (my bags are on order) that the new formula is much sweeter smelling now. The hemp was what created the sort of bran smell and now that that has been way cut back on and the egg added the flavor is much stronger.

[Heather]

I'm finding that most of my adults that are now almost totally on CGD with the very occasional cricket are doing quite well and seem content with their diet. My hatchlings and juvies are sometimes pretty fussy. I have one that refuses crickets and others that will gorge themselves. The one who eats only CGD is rather small but so is the one hatchling from the same clutch that eats like a pig when fed crickets often. I've yet to see a consistancy/ food type ratio at all.

It's been suggested to me that I alternate between CGD and the Rapashy two part system. My new clutches will be part of a dietary experiment to see if there is much of a difference in the growth rates.

Tanina, I just tried that thing with the alternating with the two part and I didn't see any difference at all.
 I went through the whole bag and didn't see any change in growth rate for the juvies and no change in the adults (not that I would have expected to see the adults gain anyway)
So far the only thing I've done that has made a notable difference is offering crickets to my hatchlings. BUT I noticed that if I do cickets once a week, that it's too much and then they don't gain because they're not eating the CGD. jUst my observations so far.