Diet Variety for Leopard Gecko

[ChiTea]

Hi Everyone,

Next up on my list of improvements to make for my little Reggie: variety in his diet.

He's only had crickets for almost 4 years now. I tried mealworms over the summer, and he ate one, but never again. He won't go near them, even if I leave them in a dish inside the tank all day. I tried superworms once, and that was even worse - he wouldn't even try one. They also smelled sooooo bad - is that normal?

Any advice on introducing some variety into his diet? I've heard a lot of people on here like Dubia Roaches, but honestly, that sounds gross. It took me long enough to get used to crickets! ha ha.

Thanks, all! Any and all advice is appreciated.

ps - one sentence history for those who haven't seen my other posts: I inherited my leo about 4 months ago, and the previous owner hadn't done all his research (to say the least...).

 

[cricket4u]

He's been on crickets only for 4 years? You can add some dubias for variety, although I do not recommend breeding them with only one leo. You will end up with too many. You can always buy a few (a cup) along with another insect at each order. You'll find plenty of variety in this website. Perhaps some silkworms first? I think he'll be super excited to see something new. Just make sure to rotate with the crickets and do not expect him to eat a large amount as he would crickets.

http://mulberryfarms.com/

 

[Mardy]

Dubia roaches, silkworms, phoenix worms, hormworms, etc.. are some of what comes to mind that you could try. If you've got a gecko that dislike "worms" in general, then dubia roaches may be the way to go. As suggested above, get a small amount to try first, like a sample cup. You don't want to end up with too many roaches in case your gecko dislike them. Once you do find that your gecko will go for dubias, then you can buy 10-15 every months to feed them off.

 

[Geckologist.tj]

My oldest gecko tends to be picky when I introduce new food items, but I find that if I start cutting back on how often I offer crickets and keep offering other things, he will try them and eventually develop a taste for them. It took me forever to get him to try dubias. Now he gets excited when ever I open their enclosure and pounces on them as soon as he sees them. Same thing with Phoenix worms.

 

[ChiTea]

Yeah, my sweet little Reggie has only had crickets for 4 years, and the occasional wax worm. Like I said before, I'm slowly correcting the poor habits of the previous owner.

Dubias are live, right (dumb question... (?))? Like crickets? He tends to sniff things and then lick them to see what it is, and will either turn his head away, or eat it. I'll try ordering a few from that site (thanks for the link!) with some silkworms and see how he takes to those.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! Hopefully I'll have a positive update to post in the near future.

 

[Mardy]

Dubia roaches are very much alive

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Yeah, my sweet little Reggie has only had crickets for 4 years, and the occasional wax worm. Like I said before, I'm slowly correcting the poor habits of the previous owner.

Dubias are live, right (dumb question... (?))? Like crickets? He tends to sniff things and then lick them to see what it is, and will either turn his head away, or eat it. I'll try ordering a few from that site (thanks for the link!) with some silkworms and see how he takes to those.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! Hopefully I'll have a positive update to post in the near future.

XoVictoryXo had a suggestion a while back: "Serve" the dubia upside down. The wiggly legs may serve as an additional motivator for leo Reggie.

 

[Conched]

Lately I have had to drop the mealworms on the ground in front of the leo's to get them to eat them. Once the mealworms start crawling they get chomped.

 

[Geckologist.tj]

XoVictoryXo had a suggestion a while back: "Serve" the dubia upside down. The wiggly legs may serve as an additional motivator for leo Reggie.

This worked great for getting one of my leos and my bearded dragon to try dubia for the first time, however, Pepe' (my picky eater) tries to "smell" the upside down roaches and then freaks out when they grab onto his face. Not trying to discourage anyone from trying it, but just know that it is a possibility. I have to use plastic tweezers to get him to try anything new. He licks it for several seconds and then eats it. It's quite a pain, but worth it.

 

[ChiTea]

I, too, have to use tweezers in order to get Reggie to eat. Again, the previous owner was convinced that Reggie couldn't hunt, so he always held the food in front of him, and now Reggie won't eat any other way. I maintain that Reggie is a genius, and knows that if he just waits awhile, he'll be hand fed, and won't have to run around.

A few times, I've put some crickets in the tank and waited a while, and a couple times he caught one. He'll usually try a few times to catch one on his own, but ultimately, he'll look at me like "I need help". He's adorable.

I've tried putting the meal worms and super worms in a dish, straight on the substrate, and on tweezers - no luck at all.

Anyways, yeah - I'll definitely have to use tweezers with the Dubias. I'll try the upside down method (maybe upside down and backwards?) - seems like a good idea.

 

[Wheels47130]

I added a new baby Snow the other day. I put it with my Striped one. Both are about 7 weeks old. At first the snow seemed like he didn't know how to hunt. After eating a few crickets first, I swear my striped taught the snow what to do. It was it herded the other crickets closer so it could catch them. They are so fun to watch

 

[scouragestar99]

One thing you could try is smothering the new food item in cricket guts, I heard that works well sometimes.