Generally speaking, your gecko can go without food for 21 days. There can be many reasons it loses its appetite, like environmental stress, illness, newness, age, sex, size, etc.
Factors That Decide How Long Can A Crested Go Without Eating?
- Age And Size
If you own a crested gecko, you know that it has different diet demands when it is young or a juvenile and when it enters adulthood.
If you have a juvenile crested gecko, you should know that nutrition and food are critical to remember when you have a pet like a crested gecko. To grow and develop, it needs to be good at regular intervals.
Your crested gecko’s metabolic rate is also very high at a young age. So juvenile crested geckos need food more frequently. Generally, a juvenile gecko needs food around 3 to 5 times a week.
On the other hand, adult crested geckos are already grown ups and developed. Your gecko might also have reached the ideal weight required to stay healthy.
Thus these geckos do not need to eat as frequently as the juvenile ones. Generally, an adult crested gecko can go without eating for as long as 10 to 14 days.
- Activity Level
Another factor that decides the intervals in which you should feed your gecko is the activity level. How active they are again depends on age and environment.
You may know that your gecko is of nocturnal type, but some geckos may be awake during the day too, and are active throughout the day. They will have higher metabolic rates and will need food more frequently. Usually, the younger geckos are more active than the older ones.
If your gecko is less active, you don’t have to feed him very often as, due to its non-activeness, it has very low metabolic rates.
Other than age, the gecko’s environment is also essential in deciding its activity level. If it is living in captivity with you or housed in the dark, it may have less exposure to light, thus fewer hiding spots. Hence, it’ll be significantly less active.
- Health Status
Your gecko’s health status is another factor in deciding the frequency of you feeding them. If your gecko is ill or in a recovery stage from any illness, you should provide him more for fast recovery and always try to stick to the vet’s diet plan if given.
On the other hand, if your gecko is healthy, has the perfect immune system, and is perfectly active, developing, and growing, then you don’t need to feed him regularly. It can go for days without eating.
- Environmental Conditions
If you own a crested gecko, you know that environmental conditions are essential in deciding a gecko’s health, comfortability, and growth. Environmental conditions mean the perfect temperature, lighting, and humidity.
If the temperature isn’t set correctly in your geckos’ captivity, it will impact their activity. Because of this, your gecko may fall ill and need more food to recover. Your gecko might also lose its appetite if it doesn’t have the proper temperature to live in.
Temperature, humidity, and lighting also impact your gecko’s feeding intervals. Also, if you have just got a gecko and it is new to the environment and new to you, it will have a lesser appetite as it might still be coping or adjusting.
- Gestation And Breeding
If you have a female gecko, you might have to feed her more frequently to support the growth of her eggs. She may have additional nutrition requirements, which might hamper the growth and survival of your female gecko’s health if you don’t fulfill them.
If you have a male gecko, it might need to be fed more in the breeding season. They need the food to be at their best possible energy level while your gecko is showing mating behavior.
What Should You Feed A Crested Gecko?
Your crested gecko is an omnivore. It eats both insects and vegetables with the same amount of excitement. Below are a few things a crested gecko needs to be healthy and develop well.
- Commercial Gecko Food
Like your own babies eat commercial baby food that comes, your crested gecko also likes to eat packed and commercial food.
These packed foods are made by keeping all their nutritional needs in mind and are also made delicious so that these geckos may enjoy eating them. You can rely on these commercial foods if you own a gecko.
- Insects
Mealworms and crickets are favorite insects that your gecko might enjoy eating. If you own a gecko, you should feed your crested gecko with insects frequently when they are young and occasionally when they grow.
You must be thinking, why insects? Because these insects have a lot of nutrients that your gecko needs to grow. Moreover, your gecko is bound to like and enjoy eating insects.
- Fruits
If you have a gecko at your home kept in a shelter that you have made, then you should feed it with enough fruits so that it does not miss living in the wild.
When your gecko lives in the wild, it feeds automatically on many available fruits and insects, but when it is with you, it entirely depends on you for its nutritional needs. Fruits are one of the significant supplements of nutrition for these geckos.
The younger one, as mentioned above, likes to eat more insects, and the elder one always enjoys eating more fruits.
- Repashy Superfoods
Repashy foods are powdered meals made by keeping your gecko’s needs in mind. You can feed them with this powder whenever you don’t have their favorite fruits and insects available. They will never be unhappy by eating this.
But there is always a limit to this as your gecko might not enjoy a powdered meal as much as they enjoy eating a live and fresh meal.
Conclusion
In conclusion, first of all, you should always keep in mind various particular things that your pet enjoys eating as it will adapt well to the environment if it is eating well. If you own a crested gecko, insects, and fruits are its primary diet, with other packed food.
Your gecko can go as long as three weeks without eating, and you don’t have to worry about its health. Thus, various factors like environmental issues, health issues, age, size, activity levels, etc., impact the frequency of feeding that your gecko may require.
FAQs
- What Is The Ideal Weight Of A Crested Gecko?
Your gecko’s ideal weight again varies and depends on several different factors. Some of these factors are age, sex, etc. However, an adult gecko should weigh anywhere between 35 to 59 grams. And if you have a juvenile gecko, it should weigh under 35 grams.
You should never forget that a male gecko weighs more than a female gecko, even if they are the same age. You should immediately consult a veterinarian if your gecko is underweight or overweight.
- How Long Should You Wait Before Consulting a Vet When It Comes to the Eating Frequency of a Crested Gecko?
It is okay if it doesn’t eat for 2 to 3 weeks, but it might also be a concern for you if it does not regain its appetite after 2 to 3 weeks. In a situation like this, you can consider contacting a vet.
If your gecko’s eating habits, like the things it enjoys eating, etc., have also changed suddenly, you should consider contacting a vet as sudden changes can be an alarm to many issues.
