Gecko won't eat mealworms.

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matt0101

New member
i've had my gecko for almost a week now, and i've been feeding him mostly dusted/gutloaded crickets, which he loves, and will eat between 3 and 5 in a day. i've recently begun to attempt to feed him some mealworms for variety. problem is he won't touch them. he'll look at them for a minute, see that it's moving, maybe approach it slowly, but eventually he'll turn his head and walk away. after that i just give him crickets until he's full. this has happened every feeding for the past 2 days. he's just a young guy so i figure that maybe he's just so used to eating crickets since he was a baby that he won't eat anything else. what do you think?
 
Mardy

Mardy

New member
It happens, I have geckos that'll only eat mealworms, some only dubia roaches, some only superworms. At least you've tried, that's the best you can do. Next time try something else, get some dubia roaches, or maybe silkworms, etc.. as variety.
 
Mardy

Mardy

New member
Also can try phoenix worms, they're quite small, may resemble mealworms more to the gecko. But phoenix worms are somewhat of a hit or miss thing. Most of my geckos didn't like them, so I don't use them. But some swear by them.
 
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matt0101

New member
cool, thanks guys.

the problem with all of the feeders you guys have mentioned is that my local pet store pretty much only sells crickets, superworms and meal worms, at least as far as i could tell. i live in a low pop area, so there isn't much around in terms of variety haha.

i'm going to keep trying the mealworms and hope he somehow acclimates to them. i bought 100 mealworms and it seems like a waste to throw them all out, so i am going to keep insisting he eat them. hopefully he'll turn around? ;-)
 
Mardy

Mardy

New member
You could leave the mealworms in a dish overnight and see if he'll snack on them. You'll be surprised at the appetite they have, he may get hungry while you're sleeping.
 
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matt0101

New member
Mardy said:
You could leave the mealworms in a dish overnight and see if he'll snack on them. You'll be surprised at the appetite they have, he may get hungry while you're sleeping.
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haha, i've had two mealworms in his dish for 2 days now, i keep a carrot in there with them so they don't die. he hasn't even looked at them as far as i can tell.
 
Elizabeth Freer

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
matt0101 said:
cool, thanks guys.

the problem with all of the feeders you guys have mentioned is that my local pet store pretty much only sells crickets, superworms and meal worms, at least as far as i could tell. i live in a low pop area, so there isn't much around in terms of variety haha.

i'm going to keep trying the mealworms and hope he somehow acclimates to them. i bought 100 mealworms and it seems like a waste to throw them all out, so i am going to keep insisting he eat them. hopefully he'll turn around? ;-)
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Many of us have to order hornwroms, silkworms, calciworms online. Reptile shows are excellent places to pick up those feeders.

Crickets are better balanced nutritionally for leos than are mealworms. Mealworms have too much chitin and can actually cause impaction if temperatures are suboptimal.
 
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matt0101

New member
wow silkworms are 35 cents each and hornworms are 75 cents each. that's quite a bit compared to the $3 i paid for 100 mealworms lol
 
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matt0101

New member
i managed to convince him to eat three of them! he's so hesitant and always licks them a few times and backs away before he finally snatches them up haha.
 
M

matt0101

New member
is it okay to feed him both mealworms and crickets every feeding? say, 2-3 mealworms, followed up by 2-3 crickets each day? both dusted and gutloaded of course.
 
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