Leopard geckos are insectivores and require a diet composed of mostly insects. Although they will occasionally consume vegetables and fruit as snacks, this should comprise only a minor part of their daily meal plans.
Feeder insects can be purchased either live or frozen/thawed from most pet shops and online. Before feeding to your leopard gecko, ensure they contain all of the necessary vitamins and nutrients.
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Crickets
Leopard geckos are insectivores, feeding on various small insects such as crickets, dubia roaches, superworms and mealworms. Crickets are the most widely available feeder at most pet stores and online retailers; they’re easy to locate, inexpensive and nutritious while stimulating the gecko to consume them – though their waste can quickly accumulate if left in its enclosure too long before being cleaned away properly.
Mealworms make an excellent protein source and can easily be found at many pet stores and online. Mealworms can even be gut loaded to add extra nutrition.
Hornworms are another popular choice for leopard geckos. Hornworms provide higher amounts of protein while having less fat content than crickets; one pound of live hornworms costs approximately $15 and will provide enough food for six feedings.
Dubia Roaches
These medium-sized roaches are an easy and nutritious source for reptiles to consume as live feeder insects, making them popular live feeders such as leopard gecko diets. Breeding them easily provides protein rich diet options for leopard geckos.
Crickets tend to be lower in fat and easier for your pet to digest, and more closely resemble what a leopard gecko might eat in nature – providing better overall nutrition and more health benefits than its cricket-eating counterpart.
Before feeding insects to your leopard gecko, it is vitally important that they are gut loaded with vitamin and mineral supplements to ensure they receive all of their necessary nutrition. Furthermore, only feed one or two insects at once to avoid overfeeding; providing too many insects could cause it to overeat and become overweight which would not be good for its health.
Mealworms
Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) are one of the most frequently fed reptile feeder insects. Mealworms are easy to find and affordable; high in protein content; have a long lifespan extended through refrigeration; are slow-moving so as to not escape their feeding dish like crickets or roaches do; yet may prove challenging for geckos to consume as they contain lots of chitin.
Like other feeders, these should be gut loaded with calcium and vitamin powder prior to giving to your leopard gecko as part of its daily meal or an occasional treat; but be wary about giving too many at one time due to being very fatty and leading to obesity.
Superworms
Superworms are another important food source for leopard geckos, often found at pet shops or online. Superworms are easy to load into their mouths without needing refrigeration – great for busy gecko owners!
King Worms (Zophobas morio larvae) are popularly bred as cheap, nutritious live food for reptiles and other animals in captivity due to their easy digestibility for geckos and their lower levels of chitin content.
Giant mealworms are like regular mealworms except twice as large and may be harder for your gecko to digest due to their thicker exoskeletons, making them suitable as treats occasionally.
Waxworms
Waxworms provide leopard geckos with an excellent source of protein and calcium. However, due to their high fat content they should only be fed sparingly as treats rather than as the sole staple diet item. Their short lifespan makes stockpiling difficult.
Leopard geckos require a variety of foods in order to receive all the nutrition they require. You can purchase live or frozen/thawed feeder insects online, making it much simpler and cheaper than purchasing them in pet stores.
Baby geckos must be fed every day with food that fits their head size, ideally “gut-loaded”, which means providing your leopard gecko with an abundance of nutrition prior to feeding them to them.
