Leopard Gecko: Getting A Varied Diet for Leopard Gecko

Yoshi'smom

Yoshi'smom

New member
Ok, so my male 2 year old Leopard gecko will only eat mealworms and superworms. When he was little he used to go for crickets but now he will only go for them every once in a while, maybe a few times a month. He just seems mostly disinterested in hunting them.
He will however, take giant mealworms and superworms off of the spoon I feed him on.
I'm concerned with getting him to eat a varied diet that's healthy for him. I know that mealworms shouldn't comprise more than 10 percent of his diet and that superworms are high in chitin and can be rough on his stomach to digest.
What do other people suggest other than mealworms, superworms, crickets and roaches (can't do roaches)?
I've heard that butterworms are good for them and high in calcium so I'm going to try some of them. What about feeding Leopard's snails? Has anyone tried them? Are they any good for Leos? If so, what kind of snails? The kind that you would get in a fish tank?
I've also been thinking about breeding the mealworms since they are his staple diet. Does anyone have and good advice or resources for this? I've done some research on it. Would this be a good idea to do if I'll only be feeding them to one Leopard gecko and once weekly to a Gargoyle gecko? Do those of you that breed them end up with too many?
Any other suggestions as to what I could feed him to get him to eat better? Thanks!
 
For The Sake Of Revenge

For The Sake Of Revenge

New member
Yoshi'smom said:
Ok, so my male 2 year old Leopard gecko will only eat mealworms and superworms. When he was little he used to go for crickets but now he will only go for them every once in a while, maybe a few times a month. He just seems mostly disinterested in hunting them.
He will however, take giant mealworms and superworms off of the spoon I feed him on.
I'm concerned with getting him to eat a varied diet that's healthy for him. I know that mealworms shouldn't comprise more than 10 percent of his diet and that superworms are high in chitin and can be rough on his stomach to digest.
What do other people suggest other than mealworms, superworms, crickets and roaches (can't do roaches)?
I've heard that butterworms are good for them and high in calcium so I'm going to try some of them. What about feeding Leopard's snails? Has anyone tried them? Are they any good for Leos? If so, what kind of snails? The kind that you would get in a fish tank?
I've also been thinking about breeding the mealworms since they are his staple diet. Does anyone have and good advice or resources for this? I've done some research on it. Would this be a good idea to do if I'll only be feeding them to one Leopard gecko and once weekly to a Gargoyle gecko? Do those of you that breed them end up with too many?
Any other suggestions as to what I could feed him to get him to eat better? Thanks!
Click to expand...

You could try silkworms and goliath worms (also known as hornworms, just make sure they aren't too large for your gecko to eat as time goes on and they eat they get huge). Theres also phoenix worms too.

Breeding mealworms is very easy, you can buy a 50 count cup at your petstore and turn that into a colony pretty fast. When I was doing it I was feeding them bran and oats with some potato wedges or apple slices for water (helped to set them on something so the bran or oats didnt get wet, think people would also give them the water cubes commonly given to crickets). You can easily end up with too many, but as long as you're geckos are continuing to eat them (I stopped feeding my leo mealworms, he likes crickets much better) you should be fine.

Theres a sticky at the top of this forum that goes into breeding mealworms in depth.
 
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ajb28221

ajb28221

New member
If I was you I'd definitely check out The Phoenix Worm Store Home Page, they are the original people behind phoenix worms. They're super high in calcium and is balanced with they're phosphorus, after switching to phoenix worms I've noticed a change in mood and behavior in my leos, they're much more active and alert and the babies are putting on weight like they're on steroids. Just read up on the phoenix worms on the website and get the 5.99 sample pack and you'll see what I'm talking about! Since your leo only likes worms this should be great for him!
 
M&S-328

M&S-328

New member
I bred mealworms for awhile, but personally I found it to be a hassle.

When I calculated the price of their food (slices of: apples, carrots, potatoes, etc. - which all had to be changed out every few days), plus the cost of the oats they were kept on which we changed about once a month, it was a lot more then I originally thought. Because of course I thought it'd be cheaper to breed them... a debatable thought in my opinion.
And then there was the amount of time it took to pick out all the dead ones, pick out and relocate all the pupas, then pick out and relocate all the beetles. I had alot at the time, so that took about an hour if you were doing a THOROUGH job.
Then there were more costs because you need more food for the beetles to eat (and change that food every few days too).
And combine all that with the amount of time it took for a beetle's egg to actually hatch and grow into a decent sized mealworm for my leos to eat (which means I was buying more grown feeders during the entire time I was "farming" my mealworms).......WELL, personally I just did not enjoy it and it cost around the same (possibly more) as buying a tub of 100-500 mealworms every few weeks.

Sorry for being a "downer", but everything has the flip-side to it. lol.

BUT! If you want to breed them, it is an easy process. Just put them in a plastic tub with bran as substrate, put in a few slices of food (fresh fruit or vegis), maybe add some egg carton pieces for the mealworms to climb on, and then wait.
Check the tub each day and switch out food pieces as the dry out, get moldy, rot, etc. Also clean out the tub about once a week - which means pick through it and get rid of all the dead meaworms, dead shed if you can, and any other debris you may find.
Within a few days or weeks (depending on the stage the mealworms were in when you bought them) you will find pupas. They need to go into a different container to ensure they are not eaten or damaged by other mealworms. This one can be smaller and only have bran - no food or anything else.
Check that container also every day and remove the beetles as they "hatch". Just put them in a container identical to the mealworms container - but you may want to put a wood block or a something similar to that for the beetles to attach their eggs to.
It may take awhile, but once you see tiny little meaworms in that container, simply transfer them into the original mealworm container and repeat!

Sorry for writing so much about all this! I know so much can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. lol.

Oh, and as for snails...I have never heard of anyone feeding them to a leo. I would NOT do this! Snails are covered in mucus, and that might be toxic to a leo - as well as the whole make up of a snail may be toxic to them.

Good luck with everything!
 
M&S-328

M&S-328

New member
Haha, ya its just my opinion, some people love breeding feeders.
If you are interested in the idea still, you could try it on a small scale (like with a small tupperware dish and less then 50 mealworms) for a few weeks and see if you enjoy it or hate it.

Good luck!
 
Yoshi'smom

Yoshi'smom

New member
I really don't like bugs at all.... But if its for my little guy then I'll do it! I would only be feeding one Leopard gecko three times a week and one Gargoyle gecko once a week. I'll bet that I won't go through that much more of them. Thanks again everyone. Any more gecko parents that use butterworms?
 
J

JSmithGirl

New member
I would suggest trying some roaches. Considering he is 2-years old Id say hes a decent size, Lobster Roaches should be a nice tasty snack! By the way, M&S 328 is right, breeding feeders is a great solution, even on a small scale. Saves a lot of money too.
 
J

J3nn

New member
On the subject of phoenix worms - do you really not have to gutload or dust them?

I'm going to give them a shot no matter what the answer is, but I'm just curious.
 
ajb28221

ajb28221

New member
J3nn said:
On the subject of phoenix worms - do you really not have to gutload or dust them?

I'm going to give them a shot no matter what the answer is, but I'm just curious.
Click to expand...

Its not neccesary because they feed them a very high calcium diet before they send them so they will already be gut loaded when you get them, and what they are packaged in is more of that high calcium diet.

A side note though, many reptiles seem to be picky to phoenix worm (I guess they taste bad) but some take well to them especially if they're young
 
Yoshi'smom

Yoshi'smom

New member
I'm gonna get some butterworms next time I'm at Stingers and see if any of my guys will take to them. I hope so. I know they're better than mealworms. I just gotta get my boy Yoshi more motivated to hunt. It's been about a month since I've tried crickets. Sounds like it's time to try them again.
 
A

Aerio

New member
My new Leo loves them got him off a cricket diet to phoenix worms my madagascat velvet gecko likes them as well so they will be staples for those two but my tokays won't touch anything.smaller than a full sized roach.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
 
cricket4u

cricket4u

New member
Yoshi'smom said:
I really don't like bugs at all.... But if its for my little guy then I'll do it! I would only be feeding one Leopard gecko three times a week and one Gargoyle gecko once a week. I'll bet that I won't go through that much more of them. Thanks again everyone. Any more gecko parents that use butterworms?
Click to expand...

Hi,

I rarely have a chance to read through the post, but this one caught my eye since I liked the topic. Butterworms are high in calcium, but high in fat and they are acidic which have caused facial burns in crested geckos. So it's probably best to avoid them or only feed 1 or 2 on occasions.

http://bamboozoo.weebly.com/butterworm-caution.html
 
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