Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi~

i'm not much of a cricket handler & i get annoyed hearing them chirp i switched to mealies and my leo loves them! i want to give him a variety of different foods, so i was wondering what else can be mixed into my leo's diet (that can be refrigerated)?

my leo doesn't like the "can-o-crickets" and will only eat one or two of the flies (fruit flies?) from the "LEOPARD GECKO FOOD" bottle that was purchased at the pet store from someone who just gave me his leo & everything that was related to it (tank, water, manual, etc).

i've been trying to do research within this forum, but there seems to be some type of debate between what really IS a good staple diet. i hear butter worms are good, but some people are against that idea - wax worms are addicting, so that's not too good unless it's a treat - leos will only eat one or two super worms at a time and might or might not be that filling - etc... any ideas? or should i just stick to those mealies?

thanks everyone!

[AiMee]
-----
1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

Mealworms can be used as a staple diet as long as you gut load them. If you just feed them from the container they come in they wont be very nutritious. If your Leo is full grown, superworms would make a good staple also. My Leos are on gut loaded crickets and superworms. Don't bother with the canned stuff. Leos like to hunt and prefer food sources that move.

since i got my leo, i've pretty much just been giving him the mealies straight from the container & he eats them once he sees them moving & wouldn't really eat into the other ones unless i moved them a few days ago i started putting in a small piece of lettuce to the left over mealies and they'd attack the leaf... and then i read that the lettuce isn't very nutritious either, so i started putting a sliver of apple in and they'd attack that too.

should i be thawing / gutloading them a couple hours before i put them in the food bowl for my leo?

this morning, there were 4 left over mealies from last night (out of the 12 that i put in) and one of them is starting to get white stripes. the repitive dust is off of some of those mealies (including this one) and one of those three just has white stripes now. he may have been the one i found under the paper towel substrate when i was cleaning the cage yesterday morning (i just re-dusted him & put him in the food bowl) and has still not yet been eaten with the other mealies (it's an active mealie too! thicker than the rest of them~) do the white stripes mean he's going to turn into a bug? if so, should i just toss it out if my leo won't eat him? (i dont like roaches/beetles - hehe) thanks!

aimee

PS: the can-o-crickets came from the kid that i got the leo leo accessories from~
-----
1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

Yes, it's important for you to gutload your mealworms. What I do is mix a bunch of food: fish flake food (high in protein), baby cereal, a little dash of oatmeal, some powdered milk, etc. Mix it all up, and then put the mealworms in there. Then every other day or so, add some baby carrots or other veggies (like collard greens or alfalfa). You might want to put the veggies on a dish, so it doesn't get your mealies substrate all wet and yucky.

I don't even keep mine in the fridge anymore. If they're small enough, they won't pupate right away. You're supposed to gutload your food items overnight, but since they live in their food, you'll just have a source of constantly gutloaded mealies. Most petstores keep their mealworms in sawdust, so they're not gonna be very nutritious for Melvin. The person who owned my first two leos didn't gutload his crickets, so they were skinny and dull-looking when he gave them to me. I could see a really strong improvement in their color after I had them for a month or so.

Anyway, rather than coming up with a variety of bugs to offer your insect, try focusing on the variety of food you give to your mealies.
-----
chickabowwow

3.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 3 eggs a' cookin'

hi xelda, thanks for your response!

i think the reason why i didn't gutload my mealies when i first got melvin was because i didn't want them to turn into beetles if i let them thaw in a wide plastic cup with all of the food items you mentioned and then left them overnight... how long would it take for them to turn into bugs?

i think the worms turning into bugs are my only problem - because i don't mind the worms but i freak out if i see beetles or roaches in my room - was it you that found a beetle & posted a picture of it? that freaked me out..lol even adult crickets freak me out hehe~

thanks for your help, and i'll try gutloading more often... and i'll probably just add in a random silk or wax worm as a treat once a month
-----
1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

They have to molt a certain number of times before they're mature enough to pupate. And you should still gutload them even if you keep them in the fridge.
-----
chickabowwow

3.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 3 eggs a' cookin'

i thought they hibernated in the fridge?! because of that, i thought they just wouldn't move unless they were thawed ! oops ! i'll go put some of the items you mentioned in right now. is it alright if i put an apple in until i get a carrot?

is there a website that will show me the different types of molting b4 they pupate? i just want to know how far i can go before i have to toss (just in case!)

THANK YOU!!!!!

***RUSHING TO THE FRIDGE***
-----
1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

Their metabolism gets slowed down, but they still move around and munch on food. Crickets and waxworms go dormant in the cold and have to be thawed though.

You can tell by their size if they're going to pupate any time soon. They're about an inch long, so if you want them to last longer, try to pick the smaller ones.
-----
chickabowwow

3.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 3 eggs a' cookin'

hi xelda,

thanks for the info... the mealies in my leo's bowl are active, so they're still good food and since we were on the subject of it and i was worrying, i searched on google and saw the different pictures of what the mealies would look like before they started to pupate. *whew* so i'm in the safe zone still

aimee
-----
1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

My new method for feeding my colony adopted this past breeding season and works great. I gutload my mealies with a real basic gutload which is just mixed flaked baby food. It just to keep them alive really. On the bottom of the feeding dishes I put about an 1/8" layer of the new t-rex sandfire superfoods cricket gutload formula. I place mealies in there once a night. Any uneaten mealies chow on the food, but more importantly the gutload also doubles as a supplement for the leos. The gutload in itself if a complete food containig macro nutrients and micro nutrients. No other supplement tation is neccessary for the leos. I replace and refresh the gutload every week as some vitamins degrade with time from exposure to air.
good luck
-----
Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

Hi AztecLizard,

The leos can eat the t-rex sandfire superfoods cricket gutload formula for supplementation if it's on the mealies? I didn't know that - so pretty much, your substrate/gutload is mixed flaked baby foods & then you take out a few mealies and put them in the leo's feeding dish which has a thin bottom filling of the cricket gutload (which you replace once a week)... and they'll be eating that .... correct? i hope i understood that right... if i did, i'll be trying that too - maybe mixing the substrate/gutload with what you said and what xelda advised... then doing the trex cricket gutload in the leo dish if that works... hopefully i understood this correctly, pls let me know! hopefully it's on your website, coz i'm going to be checking that out right after i post this thanks!!!!!!

aimee
-----
1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)