Zoo Med Crested Gecko Food Review

Zoo Med released a new crested gecko diet in 2018. Their first-generation food did badly in my earlier review: my geckos didn't eat it and it wasn't very healthy. So I bought 3.6 kg (8 lb) of the new one and fed it to my geckos for a few weeks before giving a verdict, because geckos often don't take to a new food the first time. I compared it with Repashy and Pangea Watermelon Mango.

It comes in two flavors for now: watermelon and tropical fruit.

Guaranteed analysis

This is always the first thing I look at. Protein is 22 percent and calcium is 2.3 to 2.8 percent. Those numbers line up with the Pangea and Repashy foods I trust, unlike foods with protein in single digits.

Mixing

The bag says one part food to one part water. That is less water than Pangea or Repashy take, so in theory a bag of it makes less food. In practice it came out far too thick at 1:1 and still thick at 1.5:1. About 2 parts water to 1 part food worked best for me: a ketchup or smoothie consistency. It doesn't thicken much as it sits, unlike Pangea Breeder Formula, which makes it easy to mix right the first time.

The powder is very fine, much like Pangea and Repashy, and it smells a lot like Repashy. The old Zoo Med food was grainy and had almost no fruit smell. Smell matters: if your gecko can't smell the food, it won't eat it.

Feeding it dry

The instructions say you can feed it dry. I see no reason you can't feed any of these diets dry; geckos don't choke on it, and they drink water. The real problem is that they don't eat it well dry, because water releases the aroma that stimulates their appetite. So I don't recommend it, with one exception: if you are away for about a week and nobody can keep your routine, leave a good-sized water dish and a cup of dry food. Dry food doesn't go bad the way wet food does, and they can easily go 5 to 7 days like that.

Ingredients

As I remember, the old food started with rice bran and pea protein, and fruit didn't appear until the fifth or sixth ingredient. The new one starts with organic dried banana, organic dried mango, pea protein, black soldier fly larvae, stabilized rice bran, organic dried papaya and dried fig. That's about half fruit in the first seven.

I like the black soldier fly larvae. The extra protein helps growth rates, especially in young geckos. The trade-off is that insect protein lowers palatability a little. I wish they also made a version without it. You can balance it by mixing in Pangea Watermelon, Repashy Banana Cream Pie or a little honey.

Feeding response

After a few weeks, the response was good. Not quite as strong as the brands I have fed for 10 years, but my geckos may just be used to those. It was comparable to Pangea Breeder Formula and Black Panther Zoological.

Verdict

A big improvement on the old food in nutrition, smell and feeding response. I recommend adding it to your regular rotation alongside other diets.