Can i Feed my 4month old Leopard Gecko just worms?
SickwidIT asked:
i got 2 new leopard geckos male and female. i had them for 1 week and i;ve been feeding them just crickets laced with the calcium powder. my question is can i just feed them the small mealworms for every feeding. i find its creepy and discusting for me to feed them the crickets becuase i just dont like the sight of them never mind pouring them in a container and do the process etc. can they live on mealworms as a main diet?…
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i got 2 new leopard geckos male and female. i had them for 1 week and i;ve been feeding them just crickets laced with the calcium powder. my question is can i just feed them the small mealworms for every feeding. i find its creepy and discusting for me to feed them the crickets becuase i just dont like the sight of them never mind pouring them in a container and do the process etc. can they live on mealworms as a main diet?…
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They certainly can. In fact, the world’s most famous Leopard Gecko breeder (Ron Tremper) uses mealworms for his leopard geckos.
Continue to lace the calcium powder and remember to offer your mealworms nutritious food like apples and potatoes, because whatever your mealworms eat your gecko eats.
Also, I would recommend just using regular mealworms, and not the “Superworms”.
EDIT: Everyone that says they can’t live off mealworms as a staple diet is either unintentionally lying or they are misinformed.
Mealworms cause impaction….ARE YOU KIDDING ME? On what grounds is there for that accusation? That is jsut another myth flying around the internet.
And by the way, to the person that said I don’t know what I’m talking about…………that’s a bold accusation considering you keep your geckos on Calci-Sand. And to the person that said they eat a wide diversity of insects in the wild….actually scorpions make up about 80% of their diet in the wild.
Try doing some research people, instead of believing every caresheet that was written by a 10 year old.
Here’s a direct quote from Ron Tremper’s book : “RT has fed regular mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) exclusively to his leopard geckos for 30 years without one instance of ill effect. Here’s why you may also find them preferable to crickets:
*They stay in proper sized feeding dish
*They can be stored easy and make no noise
*They don’t jump out of the lizards’ cage
*They can be available to geckos at all times
*When offered in a bowl, the mealworms don’t walk through or eat the gecko’s feces which may reduce the transmission of parasites such as coccidia and cryptosporidia
Crickets are also used successfully as a staple diet, but thir biggest drawbacks are:
*Unlike mealworms, crickets are not suitable for ad libidum feeding
*Their levels of activity, when offered in numbers greater than geckos can consume at a sitting can be stressful
*They can hide in the gecko’s cage, making it difficult to know how much your gecko is eating
To the person that asked the question : I highly recommend purchasing “The Herpetoculture of Leopard Geckos”, a book by Ron Tremper and Phillpe de Vosjoli. It covers everything there is to know about leopard geckos and even dispels some of these “internet myths”.
Kansieo.com
unfortunately they cannot survive (healthy) on just meal worms. Meal worms are not anywhere near as nutritious as gut loaded crickets. and they do need a variety in their diet. That would be the equivalent of you eating top ramen every day for the rest of your life. It does have some nutrients, but not enough for you to stay healthy, and one food every day is boring! In the wild they will encounter countless different species of insects to eat, so they need a similar variety in captivity. They can eat meal worms, butter worms, silkworms, Phoenix worms, crickets, roaches, small locust, and wax worms. but the diet needs to be varied.
mealworms
no you can’t they should have crickets at least every other meal especailly babies. they can be empacted if you only feed them mealworms. if you can’t handle feeding crickets then you never should have bought a leopard gecko they need Crickets to be healthy plus they love stalking crickets which is not the same with mealworms. the first person doesn’t know what he is talking about listen to me and the second person on this. and it is ok to mix thier main diet of crickets with mealworms, waxworms, and superworms. they love change but they need crickets
mealworms
yes you can
yes you can feed them of worms meal worms are very good if gut loaded also wax worms can be given as a treat i have wned leos for 12 years +for info on gut feeding have a look at this link
http://www.iguanasalad.com/archives/20 obilysk s right its a myth
One question thats been lingering for 12 years of my lfe could meal worms eat your leos stomach doubted t but is it true
Yup, mealworms are great gutloaders, and with crickets there are too many worries: Are they eating them or hiding, are the crickets nibbling on the geckos, are they leaving feces all over the place, do they have parasites, is the activity stressing young geckos…mealworms are actually a much better staple like the other poster said. Even my vet told me this. With mealworms you put put in a bowl and leave it. Need to get rid of them? There’s no hunting all around for dead/half eaten crickets, just empty and clean the bowl and replenish.
im feeding mines mealworms because my geckos cant hunt unless the crickets got 0legs so the gecko thinks its a worm. PLus my leopard gecko hates crickets, he just ignores them and stuff right now i feed mines crickets AS A treat, because it rarely eats them