Crested Gecko Recipe

[concept3]

It was brought up in another post that I should make a post just for this recipe. I didnt "invent" this recipe but I use it and it works well.

4 cups peaches/apricots/mangos (can be mixed to equal 4 cups.)
4 very ripe (black) bananas
3 jars pureed chicken or turkey baby food
1 jar carrots (heinz beginner baby food)
1 jar sweet potato (heinz beginner baby food)
1/4 cup solid honey (melt in microwave until liquid)
3 Tbsp liquid calcium (from shoppers drug mart, safeway ect.)
1 Tbsp liquid bird vitamins (I use HARTZ brand)

I personally just throw all the ingredients into my food processor and blend it until it is the same texture as store bought baby food. This recipe makes aprox. 2 litres. If you olny have a few geckos cut the recipe in half. I freeze mine in small tupperware bowls and scrape out what I need when I need it.

[HeatherRose]

Why did I envision tiny crested gecko omelettes when I saw the subject line? :p

Looks yummy....how long would it keep in the freezer?

[concept3]

Unfortunatley I cannot answer that question because I use it all up before that would ever be a question. But im sure in a deep freeze it could go for 6 months pretty safely.

[Cedille]

I'm not sure how correct the statement is, but someone told me that if you freeze the calcium, it somehow causes is to not be effective anymore.

Has anyone else heard of this?

[DragnDrop]

Calcium is an element, a mineral that's found in the earth. It's been around since Day #1, doesn't lose it's punch, doesn't need an expiry date either. Once you start mixing in vitamins (which are chemical combinations), you can have some loss of potency in the vitamins if they're old, heated or frozen. Pure Calcium (Ca) isn't destroyed by freezing.

I freeze any formula I make for the cresties, making up a couple of litres at a time is more economical. To prevent the loss of vitamins, I don't add the vitamins and mineral supplements until I serve it up. That way I can also tailor it to whoever gets it --- babies and breeding females might get a bit more than males. If you add it all before freezing, you're stuck feeding the same to everyone.

[concept3]

this recipe is safe for any crestie all year round. If you have a breeding female or juvy's you can always dust your crickets with a calcium supplement to give them the extra boost :) or just add more to the mixture when its thawed.

[CDN-Cresties]

Thanks for posting that recipe. Im going to give it a go this weekend hopefully. Just one thing, I remember a while back that EyeSpy posted a message saying that honey is bad for herps, can anyone confirm or disprove that?

[concept3]

"Observations of crested geckos in their natural habitat during the night revealed them venturing out onto the twigs and foliage to reach the flowers presumably to feed on the nectar" (de Vosjoli and fast, 2000)
Going with that I beleive it is part of their natural diet. I use KIDD BROS brand unpasturized honey.
I got this recipe from a guy who was one of the first crested gecko keepers in canada.

[CDN-Cresties]

Cool works for me. :)

[CDN-Cresties]

Oh one more thing, when you say jar, are you talking about the smaller jars or larger jars?
Thanks

[concept3]

If you are talking about the recipe, I use the smaller jars of baby food, not the tall ones.

[little_dragon_]

sounds good I'll have to make some of that.

[mudflats]

I dont own any crested geckos but did mix up a batch of this, and it is awesome. Very good. In fact that is tonights dessert, for me atleast. Only with the banana i used a fresh yellow one, aswell as only adding one jaw of the turkey stuff.

[concept3]

you can use yellow bananas for this recipe, It is just better to use black because the extra sugars produced make it more appealing to the geckos and more nutritios(sp?)