Leopard geckos depend on live mealworms as part of their diet, yet feeding and capturing them can be challenging due to their lively personalities; they chirp frequently and may sneak past food dishes into hidden corners in your house!
Gut loading your pet can provide them with essential vitamins and minerals they may be missing out on from other food sources.
Contents
The Thrill of Capturing
Mealworms can be an enjoyable project for the whole family and an excellent source of entertainment for leopard gecko reptiles. Unlike crickets, mealworms do not need to be refrigerated; therefore the ideal foods include those rich in moisture such as apples, carrots or potatoes – although leafy greens can also make great choices!
Be mindful that mealworms, while nutritious and easy for your gecko to digest, do not provide complete nutrition for their wellbeing. Therefore, other sources of protein (like crickets or cockroaches) must also be provided for variety and nutritional balance.
If your gecko has suddenly stopped eating, consult an experienced reptile vet immediately. There could be many possible causes for its refusal, including pregnancy or egg laying; in these instances, increasing feeder insect offerings until its weight normalizes may help. Furthermore, your gecko could have an underlying health condition which needs professional treatment only available through a reptile veterinarian.
The Nutritional Benefits
Mealworms provide plenty of protein for leopard gecko diets and provide moisture content, helping your pet remain hydrated.
Leopard geckos cannot eat lifeless bugs and worms (unless they’re alive); for them to show any interest they must wiggle or move about first.
Live mealworms may be beneficial supplements for leopard gecko diets; however, they shouldn’t make up more than 10% of daily food consumption as excess amounts could lead to obesity and health problems. By providing other foods like crickets, your leopard gecko can get all of its essential nutrients.
Another option available to owners of leopard geckos is feeding them freeze dried mealworms. While these frozen treats do provide some nutritional value, their benefits cannot compare to live mealworms. If you decide to give your gecko freeze dried mealworms as food sources, make sure that they aren’t old as this could put off their appetite and lead to discomfort for your reptile.
The Feeding Schedule
Mealworms do have one major drawback – they contain high amounts of fat that could potentially make your geckos obese. Therefore, mealworms must only be fed occasionally in combination with crickets, dubia roaches and black soldier fly larvae for best results.
For your leopard gecko to consume an appropriate size mealworm, observe its eye space as an indication of throat width. A mealworm too large may block its digestive tract and lead to choking or impaction of digestion.
Feed two mealworms per inch of gecko length as the rule to prevent overfeeding and obesity.
Some owners give wax worms to their geckos as treats, but these high-fat worms should only be fed occasionally as they may lead to obesity and could become addictive; wax worms also lack essential nutrients so should only be given occasionally as treats.
The Cost
Although mealworms provide excellent nourishment to leopard geckos, their consumption should be done sparingly to avoid obesity or digestive problems that could arise later. Mealworms contain lots of fat which could potentially wreak havoc with your pet’s health and well-being.
Important to remember when feeding your gecko are other insects and worms such as waxworms, superworms, crickets, butterworms and dubia roaches as these will provide more variety, more essential vitamins and nutrients not available from just one type of feeder insect.
Care must be taken when providing any other types of insects to your leopard gecko as some could contain chemicals that are toxic for its wellbeing. In particular, you should avoid giving insects that emit light such as lightning bugs or fireflies as these contain substances toxic for leopard geckos; to minimize risks you should only feed living ones to him/her.
