After seeing dumerillis_1986's post about the overweight baby :wink: I thought I'd ask how much should an adult crested gecko weigh? I posted when I first got Kermit that she was rescue and had the most severe case of MBD I'd ever seen. She is now healthy again, but only weighs 22g. Is that really small? I don't know if she's full grown or not, nor how much her growth was stunted from the lack of calcium. (It really amazes me how many questions I come up even after I've researched an animal. I'm like a new mom all over again, wanting to make sure everything is perfect.)
Here's an exact quote taken from Rhacodactylus The Complete Guide to their Selection and Care by Philippe de Vosjoli, Frank Fast and Allen Repashy. I included babies as well, for others who need a reference in the future. The best way to guess Kermit's age would be to measure her snout to tail length, if she's about 8 inches long, you know she's an adult. They say females can weigh up to 60g, but know this, the preferable breeding age is 1 year and at least 40g, so anywhere from 40g-60g is the normal weight of a healthy female with a tail. I have a 5 month old female that is 19g and I have a 9 month old female that is 35g, both healthy geckos. If your female doesn't quite measure 8 inches. I can measure my 5 month old female for you so you can compare Kermit to her to estimate her age. Although, we'll have to take the MBD into consideration as well. Along with their diets. Cresties are known to grow slower with a sole diet of CGD. I feed my cresties cgd and crickets. Also, the Rhacodactylus book is out of print, I highly recommend purchasing it. It's very knowledgable and covers anything and everything you would ever want to know about any rhac.
After much toil of Kermit not wanting to sit still for measuring (which ended in her pooping on my mouse pad :roll: ), I got some rough numbers. From her nose to vent is 10cm (3.9in) and total length with tail came to 17cm (6.7in). So she is either not full grown or just going to be a little girl from the MBD. She is feed the Repashy MRP diet with about a half dozen crickets every 7 to 10 days or so.
Well I had about the same amount of fun with Evie my 5 1/2 month old as you did with Kermit, although there was no pooping involved lol. She's approx 6in snout to tail 3.5in snout to vent so they're about the same, your female being a little bigger and weighs 3 grams more, so I hope we can say that she's around 6 1/2-7months old. Which would be a normal weight, if the MBD didn't leave any physical scars, like a curvy spine or anything that would affect her length? Kermit only gets fed one serving of MRP and about 6 crickets once a week during the same feeding time? It's interesting because Evie gets fed crickets 2 times a week and CGD 3 times a week, and she eats both up and usually averages about +4-6g each month. It's really hard to say that they are the same since we don't have them side by side to compare. Although, if her belly isn't a good round size, maybe you might want to give her the MRP at least 3 times a week, and you could do crickets once a week. Most people do give their rhacs CGD/MRP several times a week..
Yeah, she does have a hump in her spine right near the base of her tail so the MBD did take its toll (along with a not properly aligned front leg). I really think this is going to be about as big as she gets. I'll keep checking on her weights too to see. But I guess as long as she eats and maintains weight, she's good and happy. Sorry, I worded that wrong. Kermit gets the MRP every other day and crickets about once a week or so. Maybe I should try alternating evenly between the two so she gets food daily. She gobbles up the crickets when I offer them, but when she eats the MRP, she doesn't look like she eats as much.
You're sure the hump in the spine is from the MBD and not FTS? How much has she gained since you first got her? I wouldn't give up on her yet, her growth might be stunted, but that doesn't mean she can't gain weight. Ahh ok, that diet sounds much better! It's usually pretty hard to tell how much MRP they are eating. I'll notice with mine where they eat out of one side and there will be a chunk missing. With my garg and Evie I put the CGD in a soda cap lid. I can usually see a huge difference rather than from the larger dish I give Harley. Although, I don't know if it's the warmer weather or the humidity, but my CGD goes bad pretty quick. Gets this turquoise looking slime over the top, which I'm assuming is mold. I actually caught my garg almost in the act of eating, but I had to hurry up and make him fresh because it was solid lol.
My Adult males tend to average anywhere from 30-45 grams. My Breeding females tend to weight 35-55 grams and my young adults average 20-30 and babies vary to much to give a range.
Okay, now I feel like a bad crestie mom... what is FTS? Is that the floppy tail thing? I don't think she has that because I've seen her stuck to the tank almost vertical and her tail never flops over. And I'm not giving up on her, no worries. I'll try feeding her more frequently and with more crickets to see if that helps. But like I said, she appears to be a healthy, active little girl and I love her, no matter what size
Yeah, FTS is Floppy Tail Syndrome. Since her tail doesn't flop over her head then it may very well be from the MBD. I just figured I'd throw that out there since you said it was twisted near her pelvic region. Even if it was FTS, it's very common for the very reason that Cresties love to lie upside down with their tails straight up against the glass, which is why it's usually best to have tons of foliage in there that way they can't lay directly on the side of the tank.
Thanks for all the help and input. I made a feeding schedule for her (and for the rest of my reptiles while I was at it) so she'll be getting MRP three times a week and crickets twice. I'll keep you posted on how she is doing and how much weight she puts on
