Leopard geckos are insectivores, so their diet must consist primarily of insects and worms. As an additional treat, offering some fruit or veggies might also prove beneficial.
Baby geckos should be fed every day, while adult ones require food once daily. Geckos often shed their tails, leaving wounds that should be monitored and treated promptly.
Contents
Crickets
Popular staple feeders that provide protein are easy to stockpile and easily gut loaded – passing nutrients onto your gecko and giving him essential nourishment!
Leopard gecko-friendly feeder insects are easily available at pet stores and online, providing an inexpensive source of feed insects for your leopard gecko to enjoy. Plus, their natural hunting instincts will surely get activated!
Baby geckos should be fed crickets or Dubia roaches as fast as they can consume in 10 minutes to ensure rapid growth. Incorporating other insects such as hornworms and waxworms as well as special treats like black soldier fly larvae (also called zophobas morio beetles) and superworms into their diet is also key.
Mealworms
Geckos are insectivores, which means they feed on insects such as flies, crickets, worms, dubia roaches and hornworms in the wild. Captive geckos require different foods than their wild counterparts in order to remain healthy. Feeder insects provide important nutrition that may otherwise be difficult to access in captivity.
Mealworms can be easily purchased at local pet stores and online retailers. Mealworms’ main advantages over crickets are that they do not chirp as much, are easier to gut load, and have an extended lifespan that can be extended with refrigeration.
Mealworms should only be fed alongside other feeder insects to ensure your leo is receiving enough vitamins; feeding only mealworms could result in vitamin deficiency and malnutrition. If you decide to opt for feeding mealworms as their sole diet option, make sure they’re using live ones rather than the freeze-dried versions.
Flies
Flies, the larvae of various beetles and moths, are an ideal food source for Leopard Geckos. Easy to find and store, cheap, nutritious, noiseless flies provide Leopard Geckos with sustenance that’s low in fat while having an impressive calcium/phosphorus ratio compared to crickets.
Try Dubia roach larvae instead, which is widely popular with reptile breeders due to their abundance of protein, calcium and fiber while being low in phosphorus and fat – they’ll gut load nicely as well!
Make sure all feeder insects are gut loaded for at least 24 hours before offering them to your gecko, to prevent metabolic bone disease, an often-fatal condition among reptiles. You can do this by feeding the feeder insects a healthy mix of fruits, vegetables and grains or dusting them with nutritional powder purchased from pet stores.
Weevils
Geckos can feed on an assortment of insects, from ants from reliable suppliers (wild ants may contain harmful parasites) and hornworms and waxworms (high in protein with easy gut loading capabilities) to waxworms which provide ample protein content.
Black soldier fly larvae make an excellent choice because they are packed with calcium and contain far less chitin than mealworms. Furthermore, they’re easy to feed as they won’t escape their dish or bite you, plus you can stockpile easily!
Dubia roaches are another excellent option, boasting high protein and low-fat content while being easy to gut load and boasting long lifespan.
Pinky Mice
Oatmeal provides a nutritious and tasty staple food source, easy to gut-load and with less chitin content than mealworms to reduce risk of impaction. Furthermore, its cheap availability, non-biting properties and long lifespan make them suitable for geckos of all ages.
Pinkie mice can be too rich for young leopard geckos due to their high fat and calcium content, providing too many calories at once and leading to obesity. While pinkie mice might provide an enjoyable treat once every month, other feeder insects like black soldier fly larvae provide vitamin A that may supplement powdered calcium supplements without D3. Finally, vegetables should be offered regularly to provide different sources of nutrition while un-eaten food should be removed promptly to prevent rot and infection in their enclosures.
