Leopard Gecko---Upset Stomach?

[Crocodidlian]

My female leopard gecko has not been eating much lately. For the past four months, she has only eaten two to three mealworms every two weeks or more. Still, she has not lost any weight, so I haven't been concerned.

Today she excitedly ate three mealworms, but ten minutes later I came back into the room and all three dead mealworms were in a pile in the corner of her house. I think she either threw them up or pooped them out immediately.

Should I be worried? What should I do?

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Pooping her meal can't happen that quickly. Sounds like she regurgitated those mealworms!

 

[thehotchik1000]

She may have just eaten too quickly or too much. If it happens again. Well then something's going on. Try crickets. They are 1000x better for them.

 

[Saskia]

I have the exact same issue with my male! He vomited almost 3 weeks ago and now he doesn't want any food (I have offered roaches, crickets and grasshoppers) he is not loosing weight but I am a bit concerned

 

[houseape57]

She may have just eaten too quickly or too much. If it happens again. Well then something's going on. Try crickets. They are 1000x better for them.

Why are crickets 1000x better?

 

[bwoodfield]

Why are crickets 1000x better?

Because meal worms contain a high percentage of fat vs protein, they hard if not impossible to gut load them, their carapace is non-digestible and they have a seriously crappy calcium to phosphorus ratio. Crickets have a nigher protein content, they gut load well, are mostly soft bodied and a much better calcium/phosphorus ratio. The only positive to meal worms is that they are easy to care for and last a long time, so nice for you but not nice for your gecko.

 

[Hardknox]

Just popping in to confirm what bwoodfield said. Crickets are much better for your leopards. The only thing I would use mealworms for is if I need to go out of town for a few days, I might leave some just chilling in a feeding dish thought normally I would just get a friend to feed them crickets. That being said some people have raised leopards on mealworms and its fine its just not the best. It is kind of like people can live almost exclusively on meat and potatoes but we're a lot more healthy with something else at least from time to time. You can still even do mostly mealworms if you want but I would try crickets at least once a week and see if her appetite might pick up. Make sure to try the crickets on a couple different occassions to introduce them to her and you may want to consider getting a decent pair of forceps and try giving her crickets that way to see what happens. I would try a couple lose in her cage for 15 or 20 minutes and see if she starts checking them out at least and then try to forceps if she is reluctant.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

If someone wishes to keep crickets in a shallow feeding dish for leopard geckos, all you need to do is cut off the back legs of the crickets at the "knees". (This does not seem to shorten the crickets lives.)

 

[bwoodfield]

A bowl with smooth sides and about an inch or so deep. We have a Zilla feeding dish and the crickets can still crawl right out because the sides are slightly roughened.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

The glass Pyrex custard-type baking dishes work as feeding dishes even though the sides are slightly sloped. I have a ~ one inch high stone as a stepstool up to that dish and my leo has no problem catching the crickets or roaches.

 

[Saskia]

Have you tried petri dishes for crickets? do you think they would come out?? (if back legs amputated) the petri dishes are 100 mm wide and 15 mm tall.... made of glass or plastic