Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a Leo now, he or she (calling it a he for now) is settling in a bit, but refuses to eat the Mealworms I give him, he can see the bowl, but justs clambers over the bowl and the mealworms inside showing little interest at all. He'll eat the crickets but the book I'm reading suggests that mealworms should be eaten too, so how can I persuade him? Ive put a bit of carrot in the mealworm dish to make them wiggle (It didn't), Ive put them under the light for a bit (didnt work too), nothing seems to persuade him to eat them. So I'm stuck, any help would be great.
Thanks

Allie

P.S: I'll post pics later , someone can tell me the morph but I think he's a Jungle
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What does man love more than life,
Fear more than death or mortal strife,
What the poor have, the rich require,
And what contented men desire,
What misers spend, and spendthrifts save,
And all men carry to the grave?

My leopard grew to 9 inches very quickly eating nothing but crickets. Don't sweat it if yours doesn't like mealworms. They do just fine eating crickets.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Cheers, he likes crickets, which is good, but how many should I be feeding him and how often?
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What does man love more than life,
Fear more than death or mortal strife,
What the poor have, the rich require,
And what contented men desire,
What misers spend, and spendthrifts save,
And all men carry to the grave?

>>Cheers, he likes crickets, which is good, but how many should I be feeding him and how often?

Unfortunately, that is a little harder for us to tell you. I'm guessing you got a juvi or a baby? Then you want as many crickets as the little guy/gal will eat in a "reasonable time". (I know you were well prepared and know what size is appropriate and had asked a lot of great questions before!) The problem is what is a reasonable time? If you have time in both the morning and the night, the best thing to do for the first week to get an idea of how many would be to dump in a number and see if there is any left in the morning. (Remove any stragglers so they don't stress the gecko while she sleeps.) For some geckos who are excited hunters, you can simply dump a cricket in at a time until they lose interest. If you have an ambush hunter, who just waits for the crickets to walk by, then you may have to do the overnight feeding. I would start with 5 crickets and adjust up or down depending on his appetite. Every few weeks or so (until you get the hang of it) try dumping in one more cricket and see if you need to up the daily dose.

As for how often, for a small gecko every day as many crickets as they will eat. When they reach full length they will suddenly stop eating one day, this will signal that you should feed them every other day... you will probably see it around 9 months. Skip a day at that point and the next day they'll chomp down their meal just fine.

Glad you have a new pet! Keep posting here if you have any questions and good luck! And thank you again for doing all your research upfront. I know your little guy is in good hands. Good luck!

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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

He's about four-five inches and kinda likes to chase the crickets down when I put them in! As you said, I tried putting one at a time in, he ate four and I thought that should be enough because the book I'm reading says you should only feed 3-5 crickets a day to them (it's the updated version of 'The Leopard Gecko Manual'). Thanks Sleepy, I'll do my best and keep you guys updated on his progress.

Allie
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What does man love more than life,
Fear more than death or mortal strife,
What the poor have, the rich require,
And what contented men desire,
What misers spend, and spendthrifts save,
And all men carry to the grave?

That sounds perfect. The 3-5 is also to help you gage the size, if you feed between 4 crickets you have the right size for its head. But, as you gecko grows don't be surprised if he is eating 8 or 9 in a few weeks. What we've seen is they slowly work up to eating that many and then we have to check out the next sized cricket. Moving up crickets as s/he grows and you'll have a fat and happy gecko. (Just wait until you watch him shed! Too funny!) You will have to post us some pictures as well, but sounds like you have everything under control. IMHO, leos prosper a lot better on crickets, so don't worry about the mealies.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

They might survive on crickets, but mealworms are much more nutritious and reptiles generally do better on them. I'd suggest trying to get it over to mealworms as they're easier to work with (in my opinion) and are better nutritionally for the geckos (fact).

From Mader's Reptile Medicine and Surgery

As this has been discussed and argued over and over again, I'll just summarize my standing. The nutritional information is different between crickets and mealworms. So are the absorbable and digestion of each which was not posted. IMHO geckos should be fed what they will eat first of all. Which NI is an appropriate balance for my specific herp? How do I know? Secondly, there are aspect of feeding live prey that should be considered: do you ask a predator to eat from a bowl or allow them to hunt? Which is better psychologically?

There are a lot of reason people choose what they choose to feed. I have read accounts online of how geckos grow faster on crickets and the breeder that I respect won't feed anything else and has amazing animals to prove it. That and the psychological act of the hunt is why I always encourage cricket feeding. This board has already agreed to disagree about this issue many times and I respect other owners choices, even if I don't agree. To each his own.

But I certainly won't ever advocate forcing a gecko to eat mealworms or crickets if he prefers the other.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Yeah, I don't wanna stress him out by forcing him to eat mealworms (he wont anyway), he's more content eating crickets and is doing well on them. If there is any future problem with that, then I'll try the mealworms but for now as he's new and doesn't know who I am or whether he can trust me, it's only fair that I'd give him crickets for now, we shall see...
Thanks

Allie
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What does man love more than life,
Fear more than death or mortal strife,
What the poor have, the rich require,
And what contented men desire,
What misers spend, and spendthrifts save,
And all men carry to the grave?

I think you are doing fine. Crickets are OK, with supplements, but I have to admit I prefer mealies. They are much less trouble.

I would suggest giving him the crix he wants, and keeping a bowl of mealies available. The carrot in the bowl is a good idea, stick with it. I think you will find that as he grows he will eat the crix, and develope a taste for mealies as well.

My adults also get superworms, and an occaisional pinky.

Good luck,
Indiana_Dan

IMO you can feed either one as long as you gut load them properly. I usually use good quality crushed dog food and provide my crickets with a shallow water dish...you can even put gravel in it so the crickets don't drown. You can also give them unmedicated chick mash which is high in calcium. In addition you can feed your crickets and mealies some vegetables and leafy greens. And dust the them with multivitamin and calcium supplement before giving them to your gecko.

>>They might survive on crickets, but mealworms are much more nutritious and reptiles generally do better on them. I'd suggest trying to get it over to mealworms as they're easier to work with (in my opinion) and are better nutritionally for the geckos (fact).
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>>From Mader's Reptile Medicine and Surgery

That table is a wonderful font of information. However, it does not give the most important piece of info. What is the natural prey of leopard geckos, and what is the nutritional information for that food item? On what basis do you claim that mealworms, which, according to your chart, are lower calcium, lower phosphorus, higher fat and lower protein than crickets, are better? Please note that I'm not saying that I know better than you, only that you haven't provided proof, or even a cogent argument - you just dumped some information on us that is only useful in the context of other information conspicuous by its absence.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear