Gecko diet feeding is essential to keeping your pet healthy and content. Leopard geckos are insectivores and need an insect-rich diet for optimal wellbeing.
Start off right by purchasing crickets, dubia roaches and hornworms from your local pet store and gut loading these feeders 24 hours before feeding with calcium powder to provide essential vitamins and minerals.
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Crickets
Geckos are insectivores, and most species (Leopard, Crested, African fat-tailed Tokay and house geckos) require an insect diet consisting of crickets, worms, waxworms, earthworms, fruit flies moths grasshoppers every two to four days along with calcium dust for supplementation.
These feeder insects are easy to acquire and digestible; leopard geckos also tend to take better to them than other forms of sustenance that tend to burrow and hide underground.
For optimal results, it is advised that you gut-load crickets using salad mix or commercially available products before feeding them to your pet. This will provide them with additional nutrition they wouldn’t receive otherwise and help avoid bloat. In addition, dust your crickets at least once weekly with vitamin powder; this is especially important for pregnant females, ill or recovering geckos and baby or juvenile geckos; simply remove their feeder insects from their container and dust using cotton swabs or similar techniques.
Mealworms
Leopard geckos typically feed on grasshoppers, crickets, mealworms, dubia roaches and waxworms (caterpillar larvae of the Wax Moth). While owners cannot provide all these insect types in captivity, owners should provide suitable feeder insects according to length – dusting them with calcium-phosphate powder first for maximum nutritional value!
Typically speaking, smaller bugs will be easier for your gecko to digest. Furthermore, it’s advisable to “gut load” any feeder insects 24 hours prior to feeding them to your reptile in order to provide optimal nutrient density and digestion support.
Leopard geckos should only ever be fed insects; any greens would contain too much cellulose that wouldn’t benefit these lizards. Breeding females may occasionally receive pinky mice to build up fat stores after laying eggs; but no more than once every month should be offered as treats.
Dubia Roaches
Dubia roaches can provide your leopard gecko with extra protein to support his or her overall health and vitality. Easy to feed, these insects also serve as an excellent source of vitamins and minerals; perfect for feeding alongside fresh vegetables and fruit!
Feeder insects such as ladybirds provide an ideal alternative to crickets or mealworms and have less risk of carrying parasites, though their high fat content should be balanced out with other feeder insects with lower calorie count.
Ideal, when feeding your crested gecko a dubia roach that measures no larger than the distance between its eyes, to prevent food waste and allow your animal to be satisfied more quickly. Feed these insects either late at night or early morning for optimal results and to mimic its natural feeding habits; additionally, gut load them with vitamin and mineral supplements prior to offering them to your crestedie!
Oranges
Crested geckos are carnivorous animals in the wild and will eat animal prey like insects, spiders and small rodents, however pet owners must provide their pet with a variety of fruits and vegetables in order to provide it with essential nutrition.
Cresties can consume citrus fruit such as citrus oranges, but owners should limit how often this happens because oranges contain oxalic acid which is harmful to cresties. Berries, cantelope, mango and papaya are safe options that contain this kind of citrus acidity.
Mango is another delicious fruit packed with essential vitamins and minerals, offering high Ca:P ratio and comparable levels of oxalic acid content, making it suitable for frequent serving throughout the week.
Apples should only be given as treats once in awhile as their calcium-phosphorus ratio may not meet ideal standards. Always gut load insects prior to feeding and be sure that a calcium tray is readily available for leos.
