What will gecko eat

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Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Featured Video. Related Topics. Read More. Your Privacy Rights. Your gecko will likely eat mainly crickets with some mealworms and super worms thrown in for variety in captivity. Crickets are easy to find at your local pet store and are usually inexpensive.

You can also raise them in the garage or basement to maintain a large supply, but they are quite noisy and smell bad. Mealworms and super worms are also easy to find, and you can usually purchase these freeze-dried from online pet supply stores like Chewy.

When feeding your gecko, the size of the food is important. Larger geckos may eat pinky mice which can help them get more calcium in their diet. Gut loading is the process of feeding the insects a high-quality meal of fruits and vegetables for at least 24 hours before feeding them to your pet. This process allows your pet to get most of the vitamins and minerals consumed by the insects.

It results in soft, brittle bones that can break easily. The soft bones can also restrict movement and may give the body a flattened appearance. Dusting your insects with a calcium supplement will help make sure your pet has the nutrients it needs for strong bones. If you are using ultraviolet light in your habitat, the calcium supplement is enough, but we recommend calcium and vitamin D3 supplements if there is no UVB lighting.

The feeding amount will depend largely on the size and type of gecko you have, but most popular breeds will eat 5—10 gut-loaded and supplement-dusted crickets every other day, while baby geckos can eat up to 20 small crickets each day as they are developing.

Crickets are usually a good size for most geckos, and their jumping around will help your pet stay active, but the downside is that the crickets can escape or be difficult to catch. If your gecko is getting older, it might prefer a diet of mealworms instead.

Avoid feeding food that is too large for your cricket to eat and only give fatty insects like the waxworm to your pet as an occasional treat or coax it into eating its food. Geckos in captivity should be fed size-appropriate crickets , mealworms and superworms. Geckos can occasionally be fed waxworms as treats, which can be nutritionally beneficial due to their high fat content.

Each gecko species may have slightly different nutritional needs so it is the gecko owner's responsibility to research and understand its dietary requirements. When choosing the correct sized feeder insect for your gecko it is important to select an insect that is smaller than the width of the gecko's mouth.

Choosing an appropriately sized live food makes it easier for the gecko to swallow and digest the prey item. Some adult geckos can occasionally be fed a pinky mouse. Most geckos will eat any insect or small animal that will fit in their mouth. We recommend gut loading your insects to ensure you are providing the essential nutrients for the optimum health of the reptiles that consume them.

Adult geckos should be fed crickets every other day, while baby geckos can require as many as 20 small crickets per day. Dusting your insects with calcium powder enhances your gecko's diet with important vitamins and minerals.

Insects and dusting powder can be placed in a plastic bag and shaken gently to thoroughly coat the insects. Once a gecko reaches maturity, you can begin introducing pinky mice into it's diet to help keep it at an ideal body weight. Make sure when feeding your gecko it does not ingest substrate such as sand since this can lead to a serious gut impaction. To avoid these types of problems, some people recommend feeding lizards in a separate enclosure that utilizes newspaper or paper towels as a substrate.

A small, shallow water dish should be provided to ensure your gecko has continual access to clean water. If you begin to notice uneaten food in your gecko's enclosure, don't panic.