Leopard geckos require an assortment of feeder insects in order to thrive and grow properly, with crickets often serving as a convenient, cost-effective and gut loading food source for reptile owners.
Other viable options for keeping reptiles include dubia roaches and black soldier fly larvae, which are easier to care for and provide superior nutrition with respect to calcium/phosphorus ratio than crickets.
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Gut Loading
Gut loading refers to feeding feeder insects a diet full of nutritious foods in order to prepare them to pass these on when feeding your leopard gecko at feeding time. Crickets, mealworms, morio worms, dubia roaches and wax worms don’t possess optimal nutritional profiles and require being provided with food rich in vitamins and minerals in order to improve their health.
Gut loading insects with calcium to phosphorus ratio-boosting and vitamin/mineral supplement diets helps improve their calcium/phosphorus ratio and decrease uneaten food. An ideal combination for gut loading would include 20% calcium, 50% leafy greens and 10% vitamin/mineral supplements fed over 48 hours; further supplementation can include dusting their diet with additional calcium powder for additional benefits.
Preparation
Leopard geckos are omnivorous animals and require a varied diet of foods for survival. Feeder insects such as mealworms, locusts, and dusted crickets provide low nutritional profiles and should be gutloaded regularly in order to get maximum benefit out of each feeding session. If fed a diet lacking important minerals such as calcium or other key elements like this they could develop Metabolic Bone Disease; an illness which causes their bones to break down over time leading to eventual mortality.
Gut loading involves giving feeder insects healthy food a few hours prior to feeding time in order to load them with vitamins and minerals, typically through feeding fresh vegetables, whole wheat breads, grains or even some dietary vitamin D or calcium supplemental powders as added palatability measures.
Feeding
Feeder insects play an integral part in maintaining the health and happiness of captive reptiles. Without proper nutrition, feeder insects may become deficient in calcium and begin drawing calcium from their own skeleton to meet their requirements – this condition is known as metabolic bone disease and may lead to weakened bones and deformities.
Gut loading is one method to help ensure that Leopard Gecko’s feeder crickets have adequate calcium. Dust them with quality powder and offer them various nutrient-rich foods like leafy greens, vegetables, fruits and whole wheat breads for best results.
Kale, spinach, dandelion greens, broccoli and collard greens are great vegetables to include when gut loading crickets and pet lizards alike. Not only are these nutritious veggies low in oxalates and phosphorus content, they’re an excellent source of beta-carotene as well. Sweet potatoes squash and carrots also offer healthy options when gut loading crickets or reptiles.
Storage
Feeding Leopard Geckos the easiest way is by placing crickets or Dubia roaches into their enclosure and letting them hunt and feed freely, however this may result in substrate impaction where indigestible materials build up in their digestive tract and cause blockages or blockage of other species’ digestive tracks. Furthermore, removal from their enclosure could cause stress for them while leaving substrate behind that will rot away or be eaten by predators.
Gut loading refers to a process by which feeder insects such as crickets and mealworms are altered to provide more calcium to phosphorus ratio. Based on the principle that “you are what you eat”, gut loaded mealworms may help prevent metabolic bone disease in leopard geckos due to an imbalance between calcium and phosphorus content in their diets; Leopard Geckos cannot digest fruits and vegetables directly and so depend on feeder insects like crickets for nutrition.