House geckos are hardy creatures that thrive when provided with proper diet and environment. Just keep in mind that these fast animals will quickly escape your grasp!
These insectivores feed on insects, such as crickets, mealworms, waxworms, earthworms, flies and moths; it is important that before feeding these feeder insects to your gecko, you ensure they contain plenty of essential vitamins and nutrients.
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Crickets
Crickets, mealworms, sow bugs, butter worms and tomato hornworms are widely available feeder insects available both at traditional pet stores as well as online. Not only are they affordable and widely accessible; their storage needs are minimal too! But these insects have the worst calcium-to-phosphate (C:P) ratio among their counterparts – potentially damaging without proper calcium dusting.
Mediterranean house geckos are insectivores that feed on insects. When hunting in the wild, they typically stalk their prey slowly until it comes into reach, then quickly strike out at it with their heads jabbing forward before pouncing and jabbing again to catch it. Their food sources include crickets, cockroaches, mealworms waxworms fruit flies moths isopods spiders. Before feeding a Mediterranean house gecko it is recommended that they are gut loaded before dusting with calcium supplement and providing them with various prey items from different animals species – as this will encourage healthy relationships among them and themselves!
Mealworms
House geckos (except leopard, african fat-tailed and tokay geckos ) in captivity tend to be insectivores; feeding on crickets, waxworms, mealworms, fruit flies, moths and grasshoppers. Some frugivorous varieties (crested gargoyle and chahoua geckos among them ) may enjoy eating papaya or pears as well.
Mealworms make a good food choice because they can easily be gut loaded before feeding to add extra vitamins and minerals to their diet, since holometabolous insects (like mealworms ) do not metabolize plant material during their four-stage metamorphosis process from egg to adulthood.
Give them insects in escape-proof bowls and dust them with multivitamin powder prior to feeding them two or three times weekly, supplementing their food with calcium powder for additional benefits.
Other Insects
House geckos thrive in human homes where they can find an ample food supply – whether that means eating cockroaches, ants, moths, flies, spiders or any other insects they come across. As their name implies, house geckos make excellent natural predators that consume insects like cockroaches, ants, moths and spiders as food sources.
Gecko owners can supplement their pet’s insect-based diet with fruits and vegetables; however, fruit should make up no more than 10% of a gecko’s food intake.
When providing live insects to geckos, it is recommended to first gut load them. In addition, you should dust each insect with calcium supplements such as Repashy’s Calcium Plus LoD or ReptiCalcium powder at every feeding – you can find both in most local pet stores. These methods will ensure that geckos receive all the essential nutrients they require for good health.
Vegetables
While common house geckos are predominantly insectivores, fruits and vegetables can provide them with an occasional treat or snack. Just ensure the foods you offer them in pieces no larger than your gecko’s eyes – you should also gut load or dust these foods with vitamin/mineral supplements prior to giving.
On a weekly basis, offer your gecko crickets that have been gut loaded and dusted with calcium powder. These items can usually be found at pet stores or online retailers that specialize in reptile supplies. In addition, waxworms and silkworms may also be fed – just ensure their size does not exceed that of its eye!
Fruits
House geckos may primarily feed on insects, but they also enjoy snacking on fruit like bananas, mangoes, and papayas for an added source of vitamins and minerals to support immune and reproductive systems. Fruit can provide essential protection from harmful pathogens as well as supplements needed for general wellbeing when combined into their diet of insects.
Mediterranean house geckos have long been known to feast upon various insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, moths, isopods, flies, cockroaches, and spiders in the wild.
Reptiles also eat a range of fruits and berries found in their natural environments, although it’s important to remember that some fruits may have insufficient calcium-to-phosphorus ratio, nutrient deficiencies, or contain oxalic acid which can be toxic for reptiles if provided as part of their daily diet. Therefore, it would be prudent not to provide such foods as their main food source for reptiles.
