Giant day geckos are diurnal reptiles found on Madagascar that feed off of fruit-eating insects during the daytime hours, spending most of their time off the ground hunting for prey.
Your giant day gecko requires live, gut-loaded feeder insects such as roaches, flies, and crickets as part of its diet.
Fresh vegetables are an integral component of good nutrition. The ideal options should be colorful, low in oxalates and phosphorus content and abundant with calcium, vitamins, and minerals.
Contents
Vegetables
As diurnal, arboreal reptiles, giant day geckos require plenty of room to explore. Provide your reptile with plenty of room in a large enclosure filled with lots of foliage such as cypress mulch, sphagnum moss, jungle mix or eco-earth for exploration.
Giant day geckos require a diet consisting of both fruit and insects to thrive. Though their insects will eat them whole, for optimal results it is best to offer them in gecko food mix or dusted with vitamin and mineral powder.
24 to 48 hours prior to feeding the insects to your lizard, gut-load them for 24 to 48 hours by gut-loading with crickets, flies, grasshoppers and soldier fly larvae of appropriate sizes – avoid mealworms as these contain too much fat!
Leafy greens are also an essential component of gecko diets. They provide calcium, vitamins, and minerals that may otherwise be hard for insects to provide them. Excellent choices include escarole, endive, alfalfa and dandelion leaves which should ideally be offered as part of a vegetable mash or smoothie mix for greater digestion.
Fruits
Giant day geckos are omnivorous animals that feed off both plant-based foods and insects to survive in captivity. When in the wild, these geckos ate leaves, flowers and fruit – particularly mango and papaya varieties; other ripe fruits like apples can also be enjoyed by these exotic reptiles. Some keepers even offer natural baby food solutions as food alternatives for their geckos.
Geckos should include insects as part of their diet. Every other feeding, they should be dusted with reptile calcium powder with vitamin D3. For optimal results, insects should first be gut-loaded before being fed to them.
Vegetables should make up the remainder of your gecko’s diet. Pumpkin, acorn squash, common button mushrooms, green beans, snap peas, okra, bell peppers and hibiscus and prickly pear leaves are excellent vegetables to feed to your gecko for maximum nutrient absorption while not contributing any extra sugars that might lead to obesity in captive geckos.
Insects
Giant day geckos in the wild are both insectivores and frugivores; therefore in captivity a well-balanced diet should include both insects and vegetables. Hatchlings and juveniles should receive 1/4″ crickets or Hydei fruit flies mounted in feeding cups, while adults will enjoy appropriately-sized dubia roaches, black soldier fly larvae, grasshoppers and waxworms as appropriate food sources; mealworms or super worms should not be fed due to lower nutritional content.
Commercially raised insects often lack enough calcium, thiamin (vitamin B1) and vitamin A to be healthy, so it’s crucial that they are gut loaded prior to being offered as pets – this can be accomplished using commercial products available on the market.
Giant day geckos are diurnal reptiles that require UVB lighting for proper health. Without it, health issues could develop quickly; as such, it’s recommended that they receive 10-12 hours of UVB each day in their basking area and as feeder insects with multivitamin supplement powder that includes D3 as this will ensure maximum benefit from their diet.
Carrots
Giant day geckos are highly adaptable predators in their natural environments, and should thrive when fed a diet consisting of greens, fruit, and insects; especially gut-loaded feeder insects like crickets, worms, size-appropriate dubia roaches and soldier fly larvae – waxworms may even make for tasty treats!
Avoid feeding your giant day gecko wild-caught insects as these could contain parasites or diseases that could infiltrate its captive environment. Furthermore, wild animals tend to be less friendly towards handling, becoming aggressive towards other males within its enclosure and less likely to accept being handled than captive specimens.
Handle your giant day gecko only when absolutely necessary. These reptiles possess an unique defense mechanism which causes their skin to tear off in response to predators; leaving them alone is more beneficial in keeping them relaxed. Plus, this prevents too much fat accumulation which is potentially lethal.
