Treats for Leopard Geckos
Leopard geckos are a popular, beginner-friendly pet that enjoy eating insects. Although they aren’t hard to feed, they enjoy having some variation in their mealtimes. This is why treats are an important staple for your leopard gecko.
Leopard geckos like some variation from their usual cricket and mealworm mix. Some high-fat worms that make great treats for these lizards, and they can’t get enough of them.
When choosing the best treats for your leopard gecko, you should read up on what you need to do in order to satisfy your geckos craving for these fatty worms without completely ruining their health.
In this article, we will give you the basics on which treats your leopard gecko will enjoy most as well as how to add them into their diet without causing too much weight gain.
If you’re in a hurry check the below chart.
Best Treats for Leopard Geckos
Leopard geckoes are insectivores, meaning they only like to eat insects.
In the wild, leopard geckos feast on crickets, wax moth larvae, mealworms, grasshoppers, cockroaches, beetles, locusts, and nesting mice. When you are raising one in captivity, you might feed them a diet consisting mostly of crickets, silkworms, sowbugs, and mealworms.
You might even want to give your leopard gecko a few treats now and then. Treats can include wax worms, butter worms, and super worms, which should be given to your gecko only occasionally since they are higher in fat.
When it comes down to it, deciding which worm treat will satisfy your leopard gecko most can be difficult. As fellow pet owners, we understand you want them to get the best fulfillment out of this occasional treat.
Butterworms
These treats are a great way to spice up your leopard gecko’s mealtime every once in a while. They are high in calcium, but also in fat and will give your lizard something a little different to eat as a weekly special.
These should only be fed to your gecko about once a week or less. Feed them only one or two worms at a time.
Watch this super cute gecko enjoy some butterworms for the first time:
Superworms
Superworms, also higher in fat, can be another great variation for your leopard gecko to have in their diet. This feeder can be fed to your gecko about once or twice a week safely.
Check out this hilarious tutorial on how to feed your leopard gecko these worms:
Hornworms
When it comes to treating your leopard gecko with hornworms, you will see that they will go crazy for these colorful treats. It is recommended that you try to purchase smaller worms if the option is available.
Do not feed your gecko this treat more than once a week and only one worm at a time should be given to them. They can be quite addicting to these geckos.
Watch this little guy enjoying one here:
Waxworms
When it comes to waxworms, they should be fed these rarely since they’re like candy to leopard geckos, and they can easily get addicted, not wanting to eat their regular meals. This can cause them to gain too much weight, which is bad for their health.
Because of this, you will want to be careful with how many and how frequently you give your lizard this treat. We recommend one or two worms once in a while; maybe for holidays or special occasions.
Check out this leopard gecko enjoying a waxworm:
Top 8 Treat Brands for Leopard Geckos
If you are looking for a place to buy your leopard gecko’s worm treats but don’t want to have to always run to a pet store, there are tons of options available online. The best part of ordering online is that they will be delivered right to your doorstep, whenever you need to restock!
1. Josh’s Frogs Hornworms Habitat Cups
This specific brand of hornworms will be shipped to you as small worms, giving them time to grow if you were feeding it, for instance, to a bearded dragon, which would prefer larger worms.
For your leopard gecko, gut load them and feed them to your lizard when you can. They will grow at a very fast pace in only two weeks, so it is recommended that you order the option that gives you fewer worms if you have only one leopard dragon.
Josh’s Frogs has a 12-worm option as well as a 25-worm count. Gut load them with vegetable puree but remove them from the food every other day so they won’t grow too fast.
They love tomatoes so add that to the puree.
2. Galleria Mellonella Live Waxworms
This is a great place to buy in bulk if you have many pets you can feed these to or share with your leopard gecko. They sell them in plastic containers that come with wood chips and your choice of 250, 500, or 1000 worms.
3. Gimminy Crickets & Worms Live Superworms
This brand does not include bedding, but these superworms love oats, so you can use that as bedding to keep them. The package will be 1.5 pounds, meaning you will have a lot to feed your lizard.
4. Gimminy Crickets & Worms Live Waxworms
This shop has many brands and choices when it comes to worms. For these waxworms, make sure you are getting the Bassett’s Cricket Ranch brand since they are of better quality.
The 250 worms come with sawdust bedding and can be refrigerated once they reach your doorstep. This will prolong their lives and allow you to keep them to occasionally feed to your leopard gecko.
5. Josh’s Frogs Waxworms
This shop gives you an option of as low as 25 or 50 and as much as 250, 500, and 1000 worms. The variation is great since you don’t want to feed your lizard too many.
They do last a long time in the fridge, so if you have only one leopard gecko, the 25-worm option might be a good idea.
6. Manduca Sexta Live Hornworms
These worms will be shipped to you at the size of just a bit over an inch, giving them room to grow and gut load. As with the previous hornworms, the same gut loading rules apply.
This brand gives you under 20 worms, which is a good amount to keep for your small lizard. These fatty, colorful worms will be a great treat for your lizard.
7. Animal Specialties 1000 Live Superworms
With a whopping 1000 worms, you can feed them potato slices and oatmeal to keep them fat and yummy for your pets.
8. Critters Direct Live Superworms
This brand will gut load these worms for you and have size choices of small, medium, large, and mixed worms. Small worms will be under one inch, medium at one to two inches, large worms being 2 inches and longer, and mixed containers with a mix of all the sizes combined.
Keep them in the fridge so that they will last longer. They are temperature sensitive, so make sure to keep them between 45 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Buying Guide
Whether you decide to go to your local pet store, buy online, or just raise your own colony, you want to stick to fresh, live treats for your leopard gecko.
Freeze-dried worms work just as well, but leopard geckos are known to be picky about their food, preferring their prey to be moving when they feed. You can try to feed them freeze-dried worms and see if they like it, but most geckos will not be too keen on eating dead insects.
Owners will need to do something called “gut loading”, which is when you allow 24 hours of feeding to make sure the insects are getting the best nutritional value possible in order to give those nutrients to your lizard.
If the treats you buy don’t say so on the packaging, you will need to give yourself 24 hours to feed the worms. This is especially essential if the treat worms are store-bought since they might not have fed them nutritiously.
Gut loading will ensure that your worms are healthy, which is why it is a crucial step to keeping your lizard well-fed. Putting the time and effort will be totally worth it when you give your leopard gecko their special treat!
When buying online, which might be the most convenient way of getting your leopard gecko’s treats, Amazon has a great selection with many options regarding size, quantity, and prices.
Online stores will also tell you whether or not the worms have been gut-loaded beforehand, which just adds to the convenience.
Conclusion
Whichever worm you end up giving your leopard gecko as a treat, your pet will be more than happy you thought of them. You should be giving them a little variation in their normal day-to-day diet anyway, so adding a few snacks here and there is a great way to treat them at mealtime.
More Leopard Gecko Stuff
Care & Overviews
- Leopard Gecko Care Sheet
- Best foods for leopard geckos
- Different types of leopard gecko morphs
- Crested gecko vs leopard gecko
- How to breed leopard geckos
- All about leopard gecko eyes
- How Much Do Leopard Geckos Cost?
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