Reptile & Amphibian Forums

there seems to be a prepared leopard gecko food out on the market

can it be used as a staple diet or should it be used as a secondary nutrition type thing?

herse a link
leopard gecko food

I've seen stuff like this before and I just don't see how you could get a leo to eat these unless you want to have to hand feed them all the time.

Anyhoo, as with all foods, there should never be 1 main food, and I think the best rule of thumb is to try to reproduce nature as much as possible. Leo's can't easily catch flies so they are undoubtedly not a staple in nature.

Well, there's my 2 cents...though it might be worth much less...
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Black Rat Snake 0.1 (Patty)
Ball Pythons 1.1 (Morty & Mary)
Amazon Tree Boas 1.1 (Orville & Aeme)
Corn Snakes 2.2 (Bob, Sandy, Candy, and Tye)
Leopard Geckos 3.6 and babies!!!(Leo, Spaz, Spazzooka, Leiah, Han, Padme, Lonestar, Vespa, and Spot)
Central Painted Turtle 1.0 (Swim)
Red-Eared Slider 0.0.1 (Harold)
Mississippi Map Turtles 0.0.5
(Modelo, Tecate, Corona, Sol, XX,)
Columbian Red-Tailed Boa 1.0 (James Jr.)
Central American Boa 1.0 (Steve)
Longnosed Snake 1.0 (Serano)
Bearded Dragons 1.1 (Adi and Obie)

well i want to hand feed them but, can i do that with things such as tweezers crickets?

Leos can get used to being hand fed pretty easily as they generally have voracious appetites.

A few things to think about though...

1. A leo like anything can get used to associating your fingers with food...their bite doesn't hurt (imo) but to some people...

2. A leo that gets conditioned to being hand fed could have problems if you go out of town, or get tired of it. It's not probably that one that is hand fed will become so conditioned to need to always be hand fed, but there is that tiny possibility.

3. Hand feeding can be done just as easily with mealworms as with canned food. Mealworms have a higher moisture content than canned food, and kept in the fridge, can be kept for months. I only buy my worms 2 times a year.

4. Like most stuff in the herp hobby, this is just one person's personal opinion. Give it a shot, if things don't go well, change your strategy, just don't let your animals health suffer before that. There's probably a hundred different ways to feed leos or any herp that are all just as good. That's the good thing about herps that don't need UV. Plenty of calcium and protein, the right temps and humidity and you've pretty much got it made!
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Black Rat Snake 0.1 (Patty)
Ball Pythons 1.1 (Morty & Mary)
Amazon Tree Boas 1.1 (Orville & Aeme)
Corn Snakes 2.2 (Bob, Sandy, Candy, and Tye)
Leopard Geckos 3.6 and babies!!!(Leo, Spaz, Spazzooka, Leiah, Han, Padme, Lonestar, Vespa, and Spot)
Central Painted Turtle 1.0 (Swim)
Red-Eared Slider 0.0.1 (Harold)
Mississippi Map Turtles 0.0.5
(Modelo, Tecate, Corona, Sol, XX,)
Columbian Red-Tailed Boa 1.0 (James Jr.)
Central American Boa 1.0 (Steve)
Longnosed Snake 1.0 (Serano)
Bearded Dragons 1.1 (Adi and Obie)

ok well wat do you think of an occaisonal hand feeding to meet the leo's "natural" criteria?

IMO, hand feeding for the fun of it now and again is not a problem. I have 3 breeding groups and only hand feed them maybe 2 times a year just for the novelty of it. I hand feed them mealworms which is about 80% of their diet anyways. The other 20% are delegged lobster roaches (otherwise they're way too fast and they never catch them!).

Like I said before, go ahead and try it. As we all should, just keep the animals health as priority 1 while trying new things.
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Black Rat Snake 0.1 (Patty)
Ball Pythons 1.1 (Morty & Mary)
Amazon Tree Boas 1.1 (Orville & Aeme)
Corn Snakes 2.2 (Bob, Sandy, Candy, and Tye)
Leopard Geckos 3.6 and babies!!!(Leo, Spaz, Spazzooka, Leiah, Han, Padme, Lonestar, Vespa, and Spot)
Central Painted Turtle 1.0 (Swim)
Red-Eared Slider 0.0.1 (Harold)
Mississippi Map Turtles 0.0.5
(Modelo, Tecate, Corona, Sol, XX,)
Columbian Red-Tailed Boa 1.0 (James Jr.)
Central American Boa 1.0 (Steve)
Longnosed Snake 1.0 (Serano)
Bearded Dragons 1.1 (Adi and Obie)

As for hand feeding, as long as you mean "tong" feeding, sure it is fun once in a while. Our large female loves a superworm snack. Now I will warn you, our little Harvey (RIP) was a bit... enthusiastic... about eating off the tongs, he hit them so hard I had to hold on with both hands and he was only 3 months at the time! Also remember a good set of take out chopsticks make good tongs too, if you just want to try something.

As for the original topic, I would stay away from prepared foods. I guess I've never really gotten a good answer why, other than it is an unnatural food source. The canned bugs are dried and then "fortified" and basically cooked in the canning process. Seems like a comparing "jerky spam" to sushi. I admit I tried them once on a sick gecko, quite honestly, I thought they smelled worse than the live ones. (They are treated with odor to supposedly attract the gecko.) Needless to say, neither one of us where impressed. I've also seen "shaker bowls" - battery operated bowl that move the dead food around to get the attention of the gecko, but again, I've never actually hear of anyone having any success with that method.

I guess if you want longevity in your food product, stick with a refrigerated worm, but you miss out on the cricket stalking. Also remember that some geckos are picky eaters, they often prefer one food source over another, you may need to do some experimenting. Good luck.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

well i guess you guys are saying that overall prepared foods are a big no no

ok but could someone tell me this? if i had a gecko (of any age, from young to adult) what would be better for them to have as a majority? crickets or mealworms?

Both crickets and mealies
i gut load both .. and feed like every other day a different one ... so they dont get bored ...

My first group of leos spent their first 5 years on nothing but crickets with the occasional mealworm when the pet store was out. I haven't bought a cricket for 2 years now, and haven't had any problems. As long as they are gut loaded and powdered, I don't think it really matters too much for leos. I like mealworms because they keep in the fridge, don't stink, don't make noise, and don't escape.
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Black Rat Snake 0.1 (Patty)
Ball Pythons 1.1 (Morty & Mary)
Amazon Tree Boas 1.1 (Orville & Aeme)
Corn Snakes 2.2 (Bob, Sandy, Candy, and Tye)
Leopard Geckos 3.6 and babies!!!(Leo, Spaz, Spazzooka, Leiah, Han, Padme, Lonestar, Vespa, and Spot)
Central Painted Turtle 1.0 (Swim)
Red-Eared Slider 0.0.1 (Harold)
Mississippi Map Turtles 0.0.5
(Modelo, Tecate, Corona, Sol, XX,)
Columbian Red-Tailed Boa 1.0 (James Jr.)
Central American Boa 1.0 (Steve)
Longnosed Snake 1.0 (Serano)
Bearded Dragons 1.1 (Adi and Obie)