Leopard geckos are easy to care for and enjoy eating various insects, from crickets and cockroaches to their eggs! Baby geckos should be fed every day with crickets or cockroaches to promote proper growth.
Fatty feeder insects such as mealworms or hornworms should only be fed occasionally as treats; always dust these bugs with calcium and multivitamin supplements prior to feeding them.
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Dubia Roaches
Dubia roaches are an increasingly popular option as primary feeder insects for leopard geckos, due to their ease of raising and wide array of nutrients available to them. Unfortunately, however, they are harder to come by and more costly than their alternatives.
To help your leopard gecko adjust to eating insects, dust them with calcium powder before offering. Or try gut loading their bugs for 24-48 hours prior to feeding them to your pet.
Leopard geckos enjoy feeding on a diet consisting of dubia roaches, crickets, mealworms, waxworms (for treats), black soldier fly larvae and Phoenix worms for nutrition. Doing this ensures they have plenty of energy to complete daily tasks without experiencing nutritional deficiency issues; for best results it is advised that 2 dubia roaches per inch of body length be given at least twice weekly as food offerings.
Mealworms
Mealworms make an ideal food source for leopard geckos due to their high protein, calcium and vitamin content. Furthermore, they offer less impaction risk than crickets while being easy to gut load and do not bite!
Your leo can be fed mealworms by placing them in a feeding dish or egg crate and offering two appropriately-sized insects per inch of their total length every other day. To ensure optimal health for their geckos, it is important that they receive a variety of feeder insects which provide essential vitamins and nutrients.
Your leopard geckos should avoid wild caught insects to avoid intaking pesticides and fertilizers that could be detrimental to their health, while feeder insects should be dust with calcium and multivitamin supplements like Repashy’s Calcium Plus or ReptiVite every other feeding, or use an all-in-one powder that includes both supplements. It’s also wise to ensure fresh water is always available at all times as part of a comprehensive reptile care routine.
Crickets
Leopard geckos can be fed crickets, though care must be taken to select small to medium sized crickets and dust them with calcium powder for best results. Gut-loaded crickets should also be included to maximize calcium to phosphorus ratio while providing additional vitamins to their hosts.
Pet store crickets may not provide your leopard gecko with enough nutrition. To remedy this, a commercial product exists that gut loads insects prior to feeding them to them your leopard gecko.
Idealy, crickets should be transferred from their container into another one with no substrate and that is regularly cleaned out to prevent them from choking your gecko. Babies, juveniles and gravid females should receive dusted crickets every feeding as an effective defense against metabolic bone disease; all other adults can consume undusted crickets once or twice every week.
Other Insects
Leopard geckos are insect-only feeders. As their bodies were never designed to digest fruits, vegetables or meats, dubia roaches and mealworms make an excellent food source at pet stores; crickets, calci worms and waxworms may also make tasty treats when given in small doses occasionally as treats; just ensure these insects have been gut-loaded with calcium/multivitamin supplements!
Varying the feeder insects you give your leopard gecko will help prevent nutritional deficiencies and boredom, and should also help ensure it receives all its essential vitamins. It is also wise to dust their feeder insects directly with supplement powder rather than waiting until after giving it them so he has time to groom off his meal and ensure all its nutritional benefits. A calcium powder without vitamin D3 makes this much simpler!