Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, i know most of you are probably sick of me posting stupid questions, but im getting a leopard gecko soon and i want to know everything i can before i get it.

First: in some books and online articles i've read it says mealworms can cause impaction, but some people here disagree. What do you think?

Second: I have an extra tank, how could i set this up to keep crickets or mealworms in to feed the gecko?

Third: do undertank heat mats come with temperature regulators?

thanks, any other info you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

*****First: in some books and online articles i've read it says mealworms can cause impaction, but some people here disagree. What do you think?

Second: I have an extra tank, how could i set this up to keep crickets or mealworms in to feed the gecko?

Third: do undertank heat mats come with temperature regulators?

thanks, any other info you can give me will be greatly appreciated.*****

I think its great your trying to learn as much as you can. SHows you will be a good rep keeper! Hopefully anyway! lol
Crickets i have no idea how to really keep those for a long time. We went out and got a rubbermaid, one of thge tall ones, drilled some holes in, put in some gut load and throw some fruit or veggies in there and feed the lil things to the leo's and the beardie. They usually dont last long as we dont buy huge amounts of them just yet!
As far as mealies, i would say that as long as there apropriate size you shouldnt have a problem. We havent so far anyways and almost everyone i have talked to feeds them aswell. It can be a challenge to find ones small enough for younger leos.

As far as your UTH (under tank heater) No they do not come with anyway to regulate the temps. You will definitly have to buy either a thermostat from one of the reptile shops, or if you dont want to spend the money on that and your house temps stay fairly regular go to home depot and buy a lamp dimmer switch! We use them and IMO they work great. They cost like 8 or 10 bucks, they plug into the outlet then you plug your UTH into the dimmer plug. Hook it all up and start out with the switch tunred on to about 50 to 80% on, wait a night and check your temps and adjust from there. They do sell the same thing and the petshops and they call them reostats. Just me but, its another thing that they over charge for and it does the exact same thing the 10 dollar dimmer will do.
Ofcourse the safest way to go is to buy a thermostat but for a good reliable one your looking at anywhere from 65 dollars on up plus shipping etc..
Feel free to ask questions, if i think i can help i will gladly do so!
Good luck!
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Mike & Wendy

2.0.0 Siberian husky, Jackrussel/schitzu
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.1 Leopard Gecko
4.0.0 Beta's
3.1.0 Future Herper's

"Hey, i know most of you are probably sick of me posting stupid questions, but im getting a leopard gecko soon and i want to know everything i can before i get it."

The only stupid question is one not asked....

"First: in some books and online articles i've read it says mealworms can cause impaction, but some people here disagree. What do you think?"

In certain reptiles they can cause impaction but it is very unlikely in leos.... Mealworms exos are made from a substance called chitin....

"Second: I have an extra tank, how could i set this up to keep crickets or mealworms in to feed the gecko?"

Well you can just set them up without a substrate and gutload them... For crickets, you can put a few toilet paper rolls in the tank for shelter.... But if you plan on breeding them, the requirements will change a bit....

"Third: do undertank heat mats come with temperature regulators?"

Nope... You will need to hook up a thermostat....

For the crickets, just put em in with out substrate and throw in some egg karton chunks so they dont squish eachother, then throw in some oats or bread, with some veggies and fruit. Also make sure you put an orange in there too. They need to drunk, and they can get more vitamins from the orange juice. Most of the time, if you put a little dish of water in there, they drown themselves...Even if its only like 2mm deep. Then just buy 500 crickets or so, (probly have to order them from a local pet shop, or get em at a herp show, and if thats the case, go for 1000 =) ) and your set for about...Humm...a while. Depends on how much your leo likes crickets, but atleast a month or two. Even so, about 70ish from 500 will die.

The breeder I got my first leo from (Isis =) )fed there leos souly ok meal worms, and never had a problem.

P.S. Put a new orange in every week 0_o

okay first i never feed mealworms i hate them, just my personal preference. a long time ago when i had some babies i fed them crickets and they all did okay until i introduced meal worms. they were the right size and all but after that my babies started to do worse and worse until they died. it was horrible and very sad. but like i said this was a long time ago and i didnt know anything about leos, the poor little things were from petco. RIP little ones...

anyhow i am a lot more experienced now and i just dont feed mealies. i have 28 geckos now and 5 more on the way. i have hatched and raised quite a few babies now and they all only eat crickets. they are the prettiest babies i have seen for being normals but maybe i just think that because they are mine

i have 17 adults and they go through 1000 crickets in 6 days!! crickets only live up to about 7 weeks. each week they shed and double in size. i think i get them arround there 3-5 week of age and they all seem to die fairly quickly regardless all the fruit veggies and blah blah that i give them. like i said they dont last longer then 6 days. i also buy 1000 for my babies, they go through them in about 7-8 days. and i get the babies crickets that are maybe 2wks old. i live in so. CA and i keep my crickets outside with a heat pad and egg cartons. crickets need to be at a temp arround 80-90 degrees. at least that is what the cricket farm keeps them at, i live near one.

i never had luck with mealies, the geckos never liked them and the worms never moved enough for them to be seen anyways.

as for the heat pad ya you will have to get either a dimmer switch or a thermostat. im sure you figured that out by now with all the other posts.

One thing I found when I raised my own crickets was that the smell wasn't worth the effort. They smell out loud! So does the rotting vegetation you always have unless you take it out the same day you put it in.

ya it gets kinda gross, thats why mine go outside. i have to hose it out once a week.

can you tell me more about breeding crickets, and everything i'll need for that? what are some pros cons?

How many geckos are you planning to get? lol Two right? It woulden't be worth the effort to breed them for two me thinks. Well pros would be tons of crickets...cons are stink. I'd say keep em in a shed or something. No expert though.

im only planning on getting one. I thought you were talking about breeding crickets, sorry, my mistake.

wow, i re read your post because i was confused. Ok i gotcha now. another question: can i feed my gecko crickets/ worms etc i find outside? there are tons around here. Nice big black ones too.

NO! Wild crickets can carry any numbers of parasites. Not to mention they could be sick. Also think about it if they had just crawled out of a gasoline can and had a little drink. Not a good idea at all...

I was talking about breeding crickets. lol