Leos are probably the most loved reptile pets in the world. Not only are they adorable, they come in nearly an unlimited amount of morphs and are really friendly and easy-going. Also, caring for them is absolutely no hassle.
They are easy to feed and care for. Once you feed them and care for them well, they can live up to 27 years. In this article, we will look at how to gut load their food as well as the best foods to feed them.
Here are the 5 best foods you should feed your leopard geckos. These foods will sure give your gecko all the nutrients they need.
Best Leopard Gecko Food Comparison
Best food for leopard gecko live food
1. Crickets
Crickets are the most popular food fed leos. Crickets are easy to find, inexpensive, and nutritious. Also, they are easy to gut load. Many consider crickets the best leopard gecko food.
There are several ways to acquire the crickets for your gecko. Of course, you don’t need to catch them yourself. They are readily available in most pet shops and also online. You can buy them in bulk if you like.
You have to make sure that the crickets aren’t longer than the gecko’s head. You also need to gut load the crickets for a day or two before feeding them to the gecko.
Crickets have several advantages over other insects fed geckos. For starters, the active movements of geckos stimulate the gecko to feed. Secondly, they gut load very well. Thirdly, they are comparatively high in protein and low in fat. Lastly, they are affordable and readily available.
Tips on feeding: Remove all crickets that aren’t eaten about 20 minutes after you offer them to the gecko. This is because the crickets that the gecko doesn’t eat may end up biting them.
2. Mealworms
Another popular leopard gecko food alternative is mealworms. They are not noisy as crickets are and they don’t bite geckos. They also live longer than crickets. You can further prolong their lifespan through refrigeration.
They also don’t move much. Just place them on a smooth bowl and there will be there until the gecko feeds. You won’t have a noise problem with mealworms with is one problem most people have with crickets.
Especially, when they escape and chirp loudly. As with crickets, mealworms are readily available at most pet shops and online.
Mealworms are an advantageous choice because they are easy to find, affordable, high in protein, have a long lifespan that can be prolonged through refrigeration and are easy to breed.
On the other hand, they move slowly which may not stimulate some geckos enough to feed. Additionally, they are high in fat. Lastly, they are tougher to digest when compared to crickets.
3. Waxworms
Geckos love waxworms become they are high in fat. While geckos love eating them, it can be a problem since feeding geckos primarily waxworms will leave them obese. This is unhealthy.
Waxworms should be fed as treat, about once a week. Also, if your gecko isn’t eating, you can use waxworms to encourage them to eat more. Additionally, they are cheap and easy to find.
On the flip side, they cannot be gut loaded and as such fail to provide many of the nutrients that the gecko needs. Additionally, they smell bad (to humans, not to leopard geckos obviously). And they have short lifespans. However, they are a must-have as geckos love eating them. Just keep them to a minimal.
4. Dubia Roaches
Although they are an excellent choice of food. Dubia roaches are both expensive and difficult to find. For this reason, many breeders who use it as the main source of food, breed these roaches themselves.
They are a healthy and tasty food option since they are high in protein and quite low in fat. Additionally, they can’t fly, climb smooth surfaces and don’t make noise as crickets do. In addition, they live very long. They can live for as long as 2 years. Most importantly, they gut load excellently. This enables you to provide your gecko with all the nutrients it needs.
On the flip side, they are quite costly. About just 50 of them can cost around $10. They are worth it though.
5. Superworms
The last food we will look at is the superworm. Although called king worms, superworms are actually zophobas morio beetles during their larval stage. As such, they are also referred to as Zophobas.
Another name for these insects is morio worms. They are particularly popular food for geckos because they are easy to digest, and are high in calcium. Many people doing leopard gecko breeding have also taken to breeding their own feeder colony. Unlike waxworms and crickets, superworms don’t smell bad.
However, they can bite geckos if the gecko doesn’t feed on them. They also don’t gut load well.
What Is Gut Loading?
The term gut loading has been mentioned several times in the article. As such, you may be asking yourself, what is gut loading? Well, this simply refers to feeding the insects and worms with a nutritious diet before feeding them to leopard gecko.
Leopard geckos are strictly carnivorous, in particular insectivorous, they don’t eat fruits or vegetation. In fact, in the wild, they eat small mammals such as mice and other small lizards but not plants.
They get all their nutrients from the insects and worms you will feed them and many insects you can buy are practically starving. Gut loading is, therefore, a must.
Place the insects in a container with a good quality diet such as Fluker’s High-Calcium Cricket Diet and Fluker’s Cricket Quencher, which provides insects with a source of water.
Additionally, you can dust the insects with supplement powder such as Zoo Med Reptile Calcium with Vitamin D3 before feeding them to the leopard gecko. Other important supplements include Zilla Vitamin Supplement Food Spray (multivitamin), and Repashy Calcium Plus.
If your leopard gecko isn’t eating, check this video out.
Conclusion
Caring for your gecko is not complicated. Just ensure that they are well-fed and well hydrated. The water bowl has to be shallow so the gecko doesn’t accidentally drown in it.
Since they are indoors pet, provide them with the supplements they need. Never pour the supplement into their drinking water as this can cause the leopard gecko to absorb too much calcium.
Dust the insects with the supplement right before feeding them to the gecko. Similarly, you have to gut load the insects and the worms as already explained. This ensures they get the required amount of nutrients. We would love to hear your comments.
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- Different types of leopard gecko morphs
- How to breed leopard geckos
- Leopard gecko vs Crested geckos
- All about leopard gecko eyes
- How Much Do Leopard Geckos Cost?
- Different types of crested geckos