Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Why is it bad to have a leo whose diet mainly consists of wax worms? At least if I remember, people said they should only be used as a treat but one of my leos got addicted and for 3 weeks she wouldn't go back to mealies so I have kept her on wax worms and she has been fine and another one of my leos prefers them to mealies and if he gets addicted I figured since my female who got addicted was fine, so will he. Whats everyones take on this?

Well, from what everyone has told me, waxworms shouldnt be fed all the time, 1) cuz they're addicting, which you already know, and 2) they arent very nutritious, like lizard junk food

So it probably wouldnt be a good staple diet if thats what you are doing. My girl loves em, but im careful not to feed them all too often.
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0.1.0 Leo (Aeris)

AIM: bigdog18msu

You've kept your leo on waxworms for three weeks??

You can't even gutload a waxworm on anything other than honey or beeswax, so how can that by itself be healthy for your leo?

Your leo might look fine because he's not getting any skinnier, but not providing him with a well-balanced diet is going to hurt him in the long run. He won't be getting the nutrients he needs to maintain his health, immune system, etc.
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Lovin' would be easy if your colors were like my dreams...

waxies are full of fat.. and barely any nutrients.. kind of like a tinkie..it probably taste yummy to the leo but is giving them nothing of what they need.. it can also lead to whats called "fatty liver disease". basically liver failure because the leos digestive system isn't set up to deal with all that fat.. in fact here is list of all the nutrients found in a waxworm protien 15.5% fat 22.2 % fiber 7.7% and 62% water as well as a 1:7 calcium to phorsphorus ratio... which means that one wax worm contain 7 times more phosphorous (which can block calium conversion) than calcium. why feed something that has more fat than protien.. if you can't get your guy off of waxies try crickets..no leo is going to starve itself because it perfers to wait for a wax worm to be dropped in.. give it time and it will start eating mealies again.. try to wean off waxies.. plus wax worms are way more exspensive than mealies and are hard to gutload...JMO

i got the statistics of the wax worm at www.beautifuldragons.com
it is primarily for bearded dragons but she does have a long list of what each food item contains.

alissa
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2.2 chinese water dragons
1.2 bearded dragons
0.2.1 leopard geckos
1 african clawed frog, 1 african dwarf frog, 1 california newt
1.4 english setters
2.2 breeder mice
tons of fish

I'm going to have to disagree about the nutritional value of waxworms, but I definately agree that they should be treated as a treat for leopard geckos for the reason you explained- fatty liver disease. You are doing them an injustice by comparing them to a twinkie, they are much more similar to a silkworm nutrionally although they have the protein:fat ratios reversed.
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Steven Beckerman
E2MacPets

silkies have a ton of calcium in them..compared to a wax worm... and maybe i shouldn't have said twinkie but....but i still think it is a really bad idea to have waxies as a staple for any lizard or gecko period.. after looking at the stats (that i posted ha! ) i realized that i thought they had more fat then they actually have..

alissa
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2.2 chinese water dragons
1.2 bearded dragons
0.2.1 leopard geckos
1 african clawed frog, 1 african dwarf frog, 1 california newt
1.4 english setters
2.2 breeder mice
tons of fish