Best Crested Gecko Diet: Repashy vs Pangea

Repashy vs Pangea: is one actually better?

Nutritionally, no, and this is the thing new keepers most need to hear. Both Repashy and Pangea make complete diets that a crestie can thrive on for life; neither is the "wrong" choice and anyone sneering at one over the other is expressing a preference, not a fact. As one experienced keeper puts it, there is no better or worse in terms of nutrition, Pangea just gets recommended more because it is more palatable, so you are more likely to find a flavor the gecko likes.

The one real, repeatable difference keepers cite is sugar: Repashy tends to run a little lower in sugar, which is arguably healthier, while Pangea tends to be sweeter, which is very likely why more geckos prefer it. That is the whole trade in a sentence. Sweeter and more accepted, or slightly less sugar and sometimes refused. And which your gecko lands on is not something you can predict from the label.

The rule that matters more than the brand: variety

Here is what actually separates keepers whose geckos eat well from those fighting hunger strikes. Cresties are individuals and they are picky, sometimes absurdly so, and the single best defence is rotation. Keepers repeatedly advise keeping three or four different flavors or brands going, both so the gecko has options and because the flavors carry slightly different nutrient profiles, so mixing them up covers more bases.

Do not fall into the one-bag trap. A gecko that loves its food today can decide next month that the texture is offensive, and if that is the only food in the house you have a problem. The keepers with the fewest feeding dramas are the ones with a small shelf of flavors, not the ones who found the "best" one.

When your gecko refuses the food

It will happen, and it is almost never an emergency, it is a preference. The stories are endless: a gecko raised on watermelon Pangea that will take nothing else, one that hyperfixates on papaya and rejects every other flavor, one that snubs the "sweetest" Pangea and eats double the Repashy. Your gecko has opinions.

Two techniques work. The first is the slow transition: mix a tiny amount of the new food into the one it already accepts, then gradually shift the ratio toward the new one, which coaxes a stubborn eater across without a standoff. The second is simply offering a variety pack or a few single flavors and letting the gecko show you. What does not work is forcing it, and do not smear food on the gecko's nose to make it eat, a common bit of bad advice that can cause infection.

Cost and shelf life

This is the reassuring part: complete diet is cheap per feeding and lasts a long time. Because you feed a small amount every other day and a hatchling eats only a lick or two, a modest jar goes a remarkably long way, keepers report a few ounces lasting many months for a single gecko.

Storage is the thing to know. An unopened bag keeps for around two years, an opened bag refrigerated keeps roughly a year, and left at room temperature more like six months, so buying a second flavor to rotate is low-risk because the spare will keep. Mix only what you will use in a sitting; the made-up paste spoils within a day and should be tossed, not left in the enclosure.

A note on "toppers" and specialty mixes

One trap worth flagging so you do not buy the wrong thing. Alongside the complete diets, both brands sell products that are NOT complete staple foods: insect-heavy "grubs and insects" mixes and treat or booster blends. These are meant as an occasional topper on top of a complete diet, not as the everyday food, and a couple of the higher-protein specialty formulas can even raise gout risk if fed as the sole diet long-term.

So read the label: if it says it is a complete crested gecko diet, it can be the staple; if it is a grubs-and-insects topper, a treat, or a growth-and-breeding formula, use it as an addition, not the base. When in doubt, a plain complete fruit flavor from either brand is the safe everyday food. Adding UVB changes your supplementing too, which we cover in our crested gecko UVB guide.

The bottom line

Buy a Pangea flavor to start, because it is the most likely to be eaten, and keep a Repashy on the shelf as your second option and lower-sugar alternative. Then let your gecko tell you what it wants and build a small rotation of two or three flavors around its preferences.

Do not agonize over which brand is "best," because for a healthy gecko both are complete and fine. Agonize instead about whether the animal is actually eating, and solve that with variety, gradual transitions, and patience rather than a single perfect bag.