Frequency of feeding for a younger gecko

[bwoodfield]

How often should a younger gecko be fed. I don't know exactly how old she is as we bought her from the pet store after Christmas and they didn't give us any information on her. She was smaller than the rest and we told that they were still quite young. I'm guessing 6 months. Because she sleeps most of the day I usually feed her at night after she wakes up that way the meal worms don't escape the food bowl and the crickets don't bother her sleep. Generally I give her about 3-4 crickets or about 5-6 meal worms. My wife is concerned that we are overfeeding her and should reduce on how much she gets feed at once. We will get meal worms left over because they aren't moving much and she doesn't see them, but the crickets are usually all eaten by the next morning.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Hello and welcome to Geckos Unlimited!

Feeding her daily is fine since she is young. Crickets are a more nutritous feeder for leopard geckos than mealworms, so you might want to increase the crickets and decrease the mealworms.

Loose crickets can stress out geckos and even nibble on your gecko's toes. I recommend a shallow feeding dish. Cut off the back legs of the crickets at the knees in order to keep them in the dish. That does not shorten the life of the crickets.

You don't mention calcium or vitamin supplements. Have you been lightly dusting the crickets with those and keeping calcium in the cage 24/7?

 

[bwoodfield]

Hello and welcome to Geckos Unlimited!

Feeding her daily is fine since she is young. Crickets are a more nutritous feeder for leopard geckos than mealworms, so you might want to increase the crickets and decrease the mealworms.

Loose crickets can stress out geckos and even nibble on your gecko's toes. I recommend a shallow feeding dish. Cut off the back legs of the crickets at the knees in order to keep them in the dish. That does not shorten the life of the crickets.

You don't mention calcium or vitamin supplements. Have you been lightly dusting the crickets with those and keeping calcium in the cage 24/7?

Yes we dust both the crickets and the meal worms before they go into the bowl. We don't have a calcium bowl in the cage yet though.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Yes we dust both the crickets and the meal worms before they go into the bowl. We don't have a calcium bowl in the cage yet though.

This is what is recommended as far as supplements go: Use phosphorous-free calcium powder with D3 to lightly dust the crickets/roaches, pure calcium powder for the small dish inside the tank 24/7, and Herpitivite with Beta Carotene (vitamin supplement). I like the Rep-Cal brand. Be sure to check the fine print on the label. Unfortunately, the ReptoCal brand calcium powder with D3 contains a 5:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorous. Our goal is to provide a 2:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorous. Crickets and many other feeders are already naturally balanced with too much phosphorous for geckos. We wish to correct this imbalance by lightly dusting the prey.

(I am quoting from my care sheet advice.)