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NOTE: information below is specific to leopard geckos. However, other information specific to other gecko species (ex. Crested Gecko Diet notes) will be noted.
So, now your new gecko is in their new home, what do you feed it?
- Why Is Food Selection Important
Quite a bit depends on what you feed your gecko- its health, behavior, whether it breeds, and the condition of the eggs once they are laid.
It is extremely important that your gecko be offered fresh, quality foods.
With chain pet stores on every corner and large insect breeders and dry food vendors only a click away, we really do not have any excuse not to provide them healthy meals.
A hungry gecko should always be given live, moving food or freshly prepared mix (for those that will take a 'diet' food).
- Bugs!!!
All geckos will hunt and eat living bugs introduced in their enclosure. Some geckos however are frugivorous (fruit eating) and can be offered prepared diets along with/instead of live foods.
See below for Prepared Gecko Diets and the geckos that eat these diets.
- Crickets
are probably the most available live food source available.
They are available in sizes from adult to pinhead satisfying a wide range of gecko sizes. Crickets are also high in protein and can be easily maintained.
By providing water bowls (not too deep or they will drown), or water gel for moisture and feeding carrots, apples or lettuce, crickets can be maintained for weeks.
There are a few disadvantages that come with feeding crickets. If too many are fed at once, they could turn the tables on the lizard and cause some harm to your pet.
Also, crickets do have a smell. If not constantly cleaned, the smell will become intolerable. Finally, crickets can and will jump, causing 'escapees'.
There is nothing worse than a loose cricket at 2:00 in the morning!
- Mealworms
One of the easiest live foods available, with only slightly less nutritional value, is the mealworm.
As with crickets, mealworms can be ordered on-line by the thousands for not much more than would be paid for a bag of crickets.
Unlike crickets however, mealworms can be stored for a long time if kept at cooler temperatures.
By ordering 500 mealworms, placing them in a large sweater box with a couple of cardboard egg cartons to crawl around on, feeding them a couple carrots once a week, and keeping them at a temperature in the 60s, one could feed a single gecko for 6 months!
If kept warmer, the mealworms will pupate and eventually turn into larvae and beetles that your lizard will not eat.
- Waxworms
High in fat, the waxworm is also easy to obtain and readily accepted by most gecko species. If you are close to a Fishing Bait Shop, you have access to waxworms.
They can usually also be obtained from the same vendors that sell crickets and mealworms.
- Silkworms
Arguably the best food you can feed your geckos. Usually purchased as smaller worms or even eggs to be grown out, once they are at the right size, geckos will accept them the same as mealworms.
Silkworm maintenance can be a bit overwhelming for the person using these for the first time. They require high temperatures but cannot be subjected to too high humidity.
Larger adult silkworms are available but can be pricey.
Here is an excellent article from Chameleonnews.com on Silkworms.
- Cockroaches
I know, I know. I thought the same thing when I saw that people actually purchased or breed cockroaches and brought them into their homes. I now have 6 containers of these wonderful bugs. Why?
Well, they breed like, um, well roaches! They are also extremely nutritious. Finally, many species cannot climb and are the perfect size while they are young to feed adult geckos.
I do take extra precautions when working with these bugs to avoid escapees; otherwise my spouse finds it, and bye bye go all my feeder bugs!
- Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (G. portentosa)- quick breeders, can climb glass
- Lobster (N. cinerea)- quick breeders but can climb glass
- Orange Head (E. prosticus)- a bit slower breeders but cannot climb glass
- Orange Spotted (B. dubia)- a bit slower breeders but cannot climb glass
- Fly Larvae
Fly larvae is also available on web sites offering crickets, mealworms, etc. Their size and low activity level may not be enough to entice a gecko to readily feed on fly larvae.
Caution must be given to those using fly larvae as uneaten morsels soon turn into flying nuisances!
- Others
- Earthworms Not a viable option at all.
- Butter worms Available through some vendors.
- Phoenix Worms Available through some vendors.
- Nutritional Value of Insects
Each insect type we feed our geckos has a certain nutritional value. A chart is provided below for review.
| Cricket Nutritional Analysis |
| Cricket type |
Moisture |
Fat |
Ca:P Ratio |
Protein |
| Banded Cricket |
71.8 |
6.3 |
0.64 |
16.5 |
| Black Field Cricket |
66.7 |
12.0 |
0.82 |
15.8 |
| Silent Brown Cricket |
68.8 |
9.3 |
0.77 |
16.4 |
| Brown House Cricket |
70.7 |
4.4 |
0.32 |
19.8 |
| Source Reptilia Magazine |
Another great link to feeder nutrition can be found here
- Don't forget water
While your gecko certainly needs to drink, some may need to be sprayed. All geckos should have a dish in the enclosure with water that must be changed at least every other day.
The arboreal geckos should be lightly misted once a day in the evening.
- Dust Your Bugs
While feeding healthy, active insects is a great start, more can be done to provide a balanced diet for your pet. Dusting your insects can add the vitamins, especially calcium needed by some geckos.
This is a simple process of placing the insects to be fed into a container, adding the supplement powder, lightly shaking for a few seconds until the insects are covered, then feeding to the geckos.
The supplements you choose should contain the proper mix of vitamins. Also, some geckos will require additional calcium in their diet (such as day geckos).
A good practice in this situation would be to dust 2 times with a vitamin supplement then one time with a calcium supplement.
Although related to chameleons, this is an excellent article on calcium.
Some supplements used in the hobby include Repashy's ICB, Rep-cal vitamine or calcium, Minerall Indoor formula, and Osteo-Form.
- Bowl--ing for supplements
It is believed that some geckos (such as leopard geckos) take in substrate in nature to help fulfill their vitamin requirements. In captivity this isn't desirable and some substrates could cause impaction.
A common practice for leopard geckos is to place a bowl/dish (can be the same dish used to hold the mealworms) and keep a vitamin layer in the dish. The leopard will lick the dust instead of ingesting substrate.
- What In The World is GutLoad?
Gutloading is the process of feeding your insects the best foods that will most benefit your geckos.
What goes into the insects goes into the gecko. Most of the insects discussed above will eat almost anything given them.
This includes dog food, etc. that contains ingredients not meant for geckos.
However, by providing either fresh veggies or prepared gutload foods they will live longer and pass on these nutrients to your animal.
Insect gutload can be found by doing a search on the internet.
Properly gutloading (preferably 24 hours or less before feeding) and dusting the insects you feed your geckos, will help insure your gecko is as healthy as it can be.
The supplier cricketfood.com provides a great article on gutloading feeder insects as well as a excellent gutload products.
Another great gutload article is available at Chameleonnews.
- Can I Feed This Field Grasshopper?
You should be aware that insects taken from the wild may contain diseases and be covered in pesticides, especially if collected near urban areas and farms.
Insects sold on the internet are raised in very controlled, disease free environments.
If you plan to collect insects to feed your animal, find an area far away from any city development. Your best bet is to purchase bulk insects for feeding.
- Bug Breeder
So, you think you can save a couple of bucks and breed the insects yourself. This is certainly possible, can be fun and educational, but will require time.
Remember, managing your insects will take about as much time or more than your geckos. Below is a quick summary of what it will take to breed bugs in your home.
Each method will require the breeding containers to be kept in a warm, higher-than-average humid location.
Please see the additional links for more details though.
- Crickets Easy to breed, may be difficult to raise to size.
Start with approximately a half dozen males and a dozen females in a 5-10 gallon container. Females have long ovipositors near their posterior.
Include hiding places (egg crate is best). Add a container for the females to lay their eggs in. I use plastic sandwich boxes.
Fill the container with either moistened (not wet) vermiculite or dirt. Allow the container to stay in the cricket enclosure a couple of days.
When you take it out, you should be able to see eggs on the surface (less than half the size of a pinhead).
Move the container into another container that can hold the humidity.
The eggs should begin hatching in about 2 weeks at which time they can be fed on lettuce or carrot slivers.
Details can be found in an article in Chameleonnews by Don Wells.
- Mealworms Easy to breed and easy to raise to size.
Details can be found in an article .
- Waxworms Some minor special requirements.
Start with a jar with the top replaced with mesh or foam rubber as a stopper.
Add medium which includes finely ground up wheat type of cereal (ex. shredded wheat) mixed with warmed honey to a consistency that is moist but not crumbly.
Include either corrugated cardboard or a few pieces of crumpled or fan folded wax paper. Add a couple dozen adult waxworms.
The waxworms will molt into moths that lay eggs on the wax paper. The worms hatch out, eat the medium, and grow quickly.
Details can be found in an article found on the Aqualandpetsplus.com web page.
- Cockroaches Easy to breed and raise to size.
As you can imagine, cockroaches are the easiest of all insects to breed.
To guarantee a large enough colony to feed your animals, start with a large plastic container- 20 - 40 gallon will do. Add plenty of egg cartons.
Include a couple of dishes, one for moisture and one for food. For moisture I use the cricket instant water gels. For food, you can use almost anything.
I prefer carrots and potatoes. Check every other day and replace the moisture source and food.
To harvest, shake the egg cartons into another container and cull for appropriately sized insects.
Details can be found in an article in Chameleonnews by Don Wells.
- Vendor Links
The following are some of the better vendor links I have found:
FOODS
Reptile Foods Great source for crickets, mealworms, waxworms.
Grub Co. One of best prices around for mealworms
Komodo Reptiles One of best prices around for mealworms
Bassetts Cricket RanchHighly Recommended
Cricket Foods' Roaches Disciod and Orange Spotted (non-climbing) available
Discoid Roaches Disciod (non-climbing) available
Madagascar Hissers Hissing cockroaches
The Bug Chick Lots o' roaches
Buyfruitflies Fruit Flies and Silkworms
Coastal Silkworms Everything Silkworm
Fruitflies Fruitflies
More Fruitflies Fruitflies
More Fruitflies Fruitflies
FeederFinder Just in case you cannot find it on a link above
Mini Mealworms Cute and more active
Phoenix Worms.com Phoenix Worms
Discoids Discoid Roaches
Bug Pros Bug Pros
Eds Fly Meat Eds Fly Meat
SUPPLEMENTS
You can supplement your geckos with Reptivite, zoo med, Rep-Cal, Miner-All, Herptivite, and Jurassi-Cal (pure calcium carbonate).
Make sure You do not over-supplement your geckos with the Rep-Cal D3 or Herptivite, as it is possible for them to overdose on the minerals.
You can use pure calcium carbonate freely with no fears of overdosing, as any un-needed calcium is flushed from the geckos system naturally.
- Prepared Gecko Diets- Can It Be Any Easier?!?
In the world of geckos, some are fruit eaters. They do eat insects. However, part of their diet is made up of nectar from fruits that fall to the forest floor and split open.
These geckos include the cresteds, gargoyles, and day geckos. Beginning keepers are sometimes asked to feed baby food to their geckos, especially the young ones to get them up to size.
The geckos love baby food. That is due to the makeup of the product being high in sugars and low in nutrients that are required by the geckos.
Products are available on the market in a dry power that is mixed with water that replaces baby food, and is such a balanced diet, it can replace feeder insects in the geckos' diet.
Supreme Gecko has used the Repashy products for some time with wonderful results.
For those interested in a specific discussion on the product's ingredients please visit this CGD link.
Using this product is as easy as scooping the powder into a container you can shake, adding 2 parts warm water, shaking for 5 seconds, pouring into a small dish, and placing the dish in the gecko enclosure!
It really cannot be easier to feed your crested or gargoyle or day geckos.
What if your crested gecko does not eat their CGD food? Here are a few tips to try--
- If your crested gecko has fed exclusively on insects or baby food in the past, you can convert it to the diet (which is again far more nutritious than baby food) by dusting the crickets in a small baggie containing some of the diet powder before feeding them.
The crested gecko will acquire the taste of the diet and should start feeding on it rather than the cricket.
At some point (3-5 feedings) you will need to cut the gecko over to the diet cold turkey! Believe me, they will switch over.
- Dab a bit on their nose. I dip my finger into the mix and then spread it on their nose. The geckos don't like the spread part of this but will eagerly lick the mix off their nose.
- I prepare CGD a bit more watery when feeding in the winter or when feeding smaller geckos.
In the winter, our homes are dryer. The mix will dry out much quicker during this season.
I believe the number one cause of death in very young geckos is dehydration. I mix the diet with just a bit more water for young geckos than adults to help keep them more hydrated.
Also, again, the mix will stay eatable for a longer period of time this way.
- Feed the diet in just before the lights go off in the room they are kept in. As you know, crested geckos are nocturnal and feed at night.
They will smell the diet and are more receptive to the food than during the day.
- Dish size- Use a dish just tall enough to hold the mix but not so high that the geckos cannot eat. Some 'dishes' that work well are the tops to juice/drinks (Snapple/oJ) or the plastic snap on tops for coffee tins.
One great idea from Andrew Gilpin is to use small cuts of wax paper and simply dap some of the diet on the paper for the young geckos.
- New MRP (Meal Replacement Base)!! Allen Repashy has come out with a new diet called MRB. It consists of two parts. The first is similar to the old Crested Gecko Diet containing all the nutrients to make up a balanced diet.
The second part is the nectar. The is just about every fruit flavor (other than pina colada) available!
My crested geckos absolutely love this new mix.
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The Crested Gecko Diet can be purchased on-line from our site at Hardgoods- MRP
next topic- Diseases and Medications
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Copyright Walter Kern, Supreme Gecko ©2007
All images and text Copyright Supreme Gecko ©2007 unless otherwise noted
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