Leopard geckos require vitamin supplements at all stages of their lives and typically incorporate these into their feeder insects such as crickets or mealworms.
Leopard geckos in their natural environment feed on various species, such as birds and mammals. You can add fruits and vegetables to their diet, though only as part of an overall meal.
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Mealworms
Leopard geckos love mealworms for their convenience and flavor; however, their high fat content and poor ratio of phosphorus-to-calcium is unfavorable to their health.
These traits make them less suitable as a main diet for leopard gecko pets, though they’re still great snacks that you can supplement using vitamin and mineral powders.
Mealworms can be optimized by gut-loading them first – this means dusting them with nutritious foods such as carrots, greens and apples 24 to 48 hours prior to offering them to your leopard gecko as food sources for him to feed on. This will make them even more nutritous while providing your leopard gecko with all the essential vitamins and minerals it requires for survival.
Waxworms
Waxworms, the larval stage of wax moths, are an easy and delicious treat to give to geckos. However, their high fat content means it is easy to overfeed – overfeeding can result in obesity which then leads to Fatty Liver Disorder and other health complications for your gecko.
Dead waxworms may contain bacteria, fungi and unknown diseases – not to mention having hard, thick exoskeletons that make digesting them difficult for geckos.
Waxworms can make an excellent addition to the diet of leopard geckos; however, do not feed them as their sole food source; rather use them as rewards for good handling or as incentives during recovery from illness.
Crickets
Leopard geckos feed on insects and worms found in nature; however, for best results it is wise to purchase insect foods from a reptile store or online. Doing this ensures you know where and what your leopard gecko’s food comes from and that no diseases or parasites exist that could endanger its wellbeing; additionally leopard geckos don’t possess cecums nor have long digestive tracts which makes digesting plant material difficult for them.
As a general guideline, offer your pet as many crickets or cockroaches as they can consume within 10 minutes and remove any uneaten food. Varying their diet will also help ensure leopard geckos thrive; gut loading feeder insects with multivitamin powder is another effective way to ensure they get all of the vitamins and nutrients they require.
Cockroaches
Leopard geckos love treats like hornworms, dubia roaches and wax worms as treats for their digestive systems. These tasty morsels provide protein, calcium and phosphorus while remaining relatively low in fat content; however, prior to feeding time they must first be gut-loaded with oats, bran and leafy greens for 24 hours to properly digest their protein-rich contents.
As snacks can quickly become addictive for your leo, be mindful when feeding gecko worms freeze-dried as this process depletes their micronutrients and could pose health risks for their consumption.
Leopard geckos in the wild enjoy feeding on lots of cockroaches to build up fat reserves, but pet owners should avoid feeding these insects too frequently as they can be hard for their digestive systems to process and may result in nutritional deficiencies, particularly calcium deficiency. You could instead consider breeding your own dubia roach colony for more nutritious nutrition that provides high amounts of protein, calcium and phosphorus with reduced amounts of fat content.
Fruits & Vegetables
Leopard geckos are insectivores, meaning their bodies have evolved to digest insects. If fed anything other than insects – such as meat or fruit – this could have detrimental repercussions for their health.
Earthworms provide an excellent source of protein for baby and juvenile leopard geckos. If desired, daily doses of appropriately sized bugs (dusted with calcium) should be provided to maintain good health in these creatures.
Crickets are an easy, low-fat feeder option for leopard geckos that is readily available. As they contain both protein and fat-reducing components, vitamin powder can be dusted on them for added nutrition. Pinky mice may also help breeding females build up their fat reserves more rapidly.
Before feeding feeder insects to your leo, be sure to gut load them first; dead insects lack the nutritional value of live ones and may trigger their natural hunting instinct. In addition, lightning bugs and fireflies are toxic for them.
