Leopard geckos are insectivores rather than omnivores and their bodies don’t allow for fruit digestion. Their digestive systems lack a cecum organ to aid with this task and have shorter, alkaline digestive tracts compared to herbivores’ long, acidic ones.
Fruits contain cellulose fibers that are difficult for their bodies to break down, creating digestive issues as well as tissue damage or even death in pets. This may lead to serious digestive difficulties and tissue damage or death.
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Gut loading
Vets often advise including fruits and vegetables in gecko diets to promote health; these must first be gut loaded by mixing with feeder insects such as field crickets, dubia roaches or mealworms 24 to 48 hours prior to feeding time.
Mealworms provide your leopard gecko with essential nutrition, yet sometimes lack certain vitamins and minerals. Gut loading ensures mealworms are more nutrient rich for consumption by their leopard gecko hosts.
Leos must maintain an exacting equilibrium of calcium and phosphorus at all times; too much fruit could alter this ratio and put the animal at risk for metabolic bone disease – one of the most devastating diseases afflicting reptiles today. One way to keep them at an optimum level of nutrition is feeding mealworms fed fruit prior to providing your pet.
Diversifying
Leopard geckos’ digestive systems are not equipped to break down the cellulose found in fruits, and digesting this substance may result in tissue damage, infection and intestinal disorders like diarrhea that could potentially lead to serious health complications for reptiles – and even lead to their deaths! To avoid such health risks, the best approach would be removing fruit entirely from their diet.
Instead, focus on adding vegetables to their diet and supplement with plant-based nutrients from sources like leafy greens and squash to support immunity while maintaining skin health in your lizard. This will also help boost immunity.
Your lizard diet should also include feeding it a variety of insects such as mealworms, dubia roaches, butter worms, wax worms, and hornworms as treats – this may lead to obesity if offered too frequently – however consider offering as treats at least once every week as they contain high levels of fat that could contribute to obesity if overfed – just ensure they’re gut loaded with vitamin E, K (for blood clotting) and manganese before giving to them your lizard may thank you.
Dusting
Leopard geckos require a variety of feeder insects in order to remain healthy, including hornworms, waxworms, superworms, dubia roaches and crickets. While overfeeding of any particular insect could potentially lead to obesity or other health concerns, adding additional types of feeder insects can provide your Leo with much-needed vitamins that might otherwise go amiss from commonly available worms alone.
Herbivores and omnivores possess a large sac-like organ called the caecum that sits between their small and large intestines to collect any undigested plant matter, such as fruit, that could potentially clog their digestive system. Leopard geckos lack this caecum-like structure so cannot digest fibrous vegetables such as lettuce that contain fibrous cellulose that must pass through their digestive system for digestion.
So it is best to only feed your leopard gecko fruits and vegetables as recommended by their vet. Otherwise, focus on gut loading, diversifying, and dusting in order to provide enough vitamins and minerals for its wellbeing.
Combining
Leopard Geckos may enjoy snacking on small pieces of fruit from time to time, such as strawberries or mango. As these contain sugars that could lead to diabetes in their owners, such treats should only be provided occasionally and should never become their main food source.
Leopard geckos differ from herbivores/omnivores by lacking a caecum, an organ which assists with breaking down plant matter and extracting its nutrients quickly and efficiently. Herbivores/omnivores typically have long, acidic digestive tracts capable of processing plant material more quickly.
Feeding Leopard gecko fruit requires his digestive system to work overtime to process this foreign substance, which can not only be inefficient but can lead to health issues over time; plaque build-up in his mouth may even lead to infections! For these reasons, veterinarians do not advise feeding leopard gecko fruit without strict instruction; exceptions could include when recovering from illness.
