interesting. Thanx for sharing. :o) n/p

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Posted by obeligz on December 03, 2002 at 15:14:13:

In Reply to: Re: Questions... posted by Silly-atus fan on December 03, 2002 at 11:48:22:

:You don't "have to" give yogurt to them, or any of the Rhacs, but they do like it. I'm finding more and more people are using it for their fruit eating geckos, and even as treats for breeding females of other species (my leopard geckos love it).

:I started giving it to one of my first cresties back in '96. She was so small, hardly ate anything, didn't hunt, didn't look like she would make it. She was a freebie if I bought the other two, and I couldn't just leave her, so I agreed to take her too. She looked like she should have died weeks ago, that's how bad she was. Since she barely managed to lick her fruit, didn't seem to have enough energy to chew crickets, I had to come up with something nutritious she could eat. Yogurt seemed like a good choice, lots of nutrition and mixes very well with fruit. After eating peach and yogurt mix for about a month, she was more alert, moved around, and started growing. Her only previus shed had been a nightmare, but the first one after the yogurt feedings was almost perfect. Once she was growing, I added fruit flies (easy prey), and gradually she moved on to small crickets. Her favourite food of all though was yogurt. Because of her, I've always supplied yogurt to my Rhacs, and even leopards and day geckos. There's no need to worry about lactose intolerance since I use the live culture brands. To this day I don't have a clue what her original problem was, but I'm sure the yogurt at least helped, or could have even been the cure.

:The fruit mix I use is my own concoctin. I have so many Rhacs, that it's more economical to make my own. Each batch varies a bit so they don't get bored with the same flavour, but they all start with the main ingredients being mango, peach and pear in equal proportions making up about half the volume. The rest can be whatever I have - bananas, opuntia, berries, papaya, and even a few lychees once in a while. If I use canned fruit, I make sure it's packed in water, or at least light syrup. Run it all through the blender, and freeze in ice cube trays. You can defrost as many cubes as you need for the meal(s). Mix in the yogurt before feeding, as well as ny vitamins and minerals (this way you can tailor it to the diner, adding it before freezing means they all get the same dose of supplements, if they need it or not). The yogurt can be any flavour, but like the fruit itself, stay away from citrus fruit, just make sure it says live or active bacterial culture on the package.

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