Leopard geckos make great pets and they’re easy to care for. However, what you feed your pet plays an important role in maintaining their health and happiness.
Feeding high-quality insects is important, as they contain essential vitamins and minerals. You can also gut load some types of insects with calcium and vitamin powder to improve their calcium to phosphorus ratio and make them more nutritious.
Contents
Mealworms
Mealworms are a popular food choice for geckos due to their low calories and high protein content. Not only that, but they provide essential nutrients like Calcium as well as vitamins B1, D, E and K to your pet lizard.
Mealworms have a longer shelf-life than crickets, as they can be kept fresh in either the fridge or cool room. To store them properly, create little air holes in the lid of the container to facilitate airflow.
Mealworms can be purchased ready-to-eat, frozen or freeze dried. Before feeding them to your gecko, be sure to gut-load them with nutritious foods like carrots, potatoes and apples (you may even add greens for variety). The ideal gut loading foods include carrots, potatoes and apples – however you could vary this up with other veggies too for maximum nutritional value.
Crickets
Crickets make an excellent food choice for geckos as they’re packed with protein and essential vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, crickets contain a lot of moisture which helps keep your gecko hydrated and healthy.
Crickets come in a variety of sizes and can be fed to both hatchlings and adults alike. Hatchlings typically consume between one and three very small crickets, while adults may eat up to seven or eight larger crickets.
To guarantee your gecko gets all of the essential nutrients from its crickets, they should be gut-loaded and dusted with calcium powder before being fed. Gravid females and Leopard Geckos recovering from illness should receive dusted crickets at each meal, while other geckos can benefit from supplementing once or twice weekly with undusted crickets.
Crickets can be easily found for sale at pet stores and your local grocery store. Not only are they typically affordable, but they’re an excellent source of protein for your gecko – just be mindful about the size you purchase!
Other Feeder Insects
Geckos can also be fed mealworms and crickets in addition to mealworm beetles, dubia roaches and silkworms.
Feeder insects provide essential nutrition for geckos, particularly those with a low fat content. Furthermore, they supply calcium which is vital for growing healthy geckos.
To guarantee your leopard geckos get enough vitamins and minerals from their food, dust your feeder insects with vitamin-mineral powder before giving it to your leopard gecko. Simply add a pinch of the supplement before feeding the insect.
Selecting the correct brand of feeder insect is essential to guarantee your geckos get enough nutrition from their food. Phoenix Worm is widely popular and safest for leopard geckos to use.
Supplements
Geckos require regular calcium and vitamin D supplementation for their health. These minerals are important for strong bones, proper muscle function and control, immune support, vision enhancement, eggshell formation – just to name a few!
Supplementing with a multivitamin mix is especially essential if your gecko has access to UVB light. Most reptile-specific supplements contain calcium and vitamin D3 in their combination form.
ReptiVite product is a widely-used choice. It contains high-quality calcium powder with an advanced blend of vitamins, minerals and amino acids – with or without vitamin D3 for those geckos who do not require it.
No matter which supplement system you choose – whether a ready-to-go supplement system or creating your own schedule based on recommendations – it’s essential that you monitor your leopard gecko for signs of deficiency or overdose. This could cause problems like lethargy and weight loss in your pet. If you are worried about them, take them directly to a veterinarian right away.
