Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My son threw a wild cricket that he found out in our garage to our juvenile leopard gecko, which he promptly devoured. I know that you are supposed to feed them the farm raised type to make sure they are free of disease and parasites. Is this something we should be concerned about?

With just one cricket, your gecko will probably be able to tolerate any pesticides that may have been on the cricket. However the cricket could give your leo a case of something...parasites. Watch the stoools for signs of runniness, lack of appettite, etc. If symptoms develop, bring a fecal sample to the vet to have a fecal done, you the organism can be identified and hopefully treated.

Tell your son that wild crickets and other insects can carry diseases that can kill the leo or make him very sick, and not to feed him any "found" bugs.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Hey,

Well I would'nt take the risk my self, but I have this book called: "Geckos" by R. D. Bartlett and Patricia P. Bartlett. And in this book, in the Diets section, It talks about differant kinds of food you can give your geckos (I'm not sure if they mean all geckos..) and they said one of the best kinds of food is "Field plankton" Insects straight from the wild.. They said its a very good food source, but you have to feed them right away, as there still "healthy" and wel fed when you catch them.. Its practicly just getting a net, and sweeping over the grass getting all kinds of bugs..

I'm pretty sure your right about this, but still...

greetz,
David Jones

The nutrition is not the problem, it's what else might be in those bugs- parasites, pesticides. As you can offer plenty of nutrition an variety using captive-bred insects and high-quality gutloads, there is no reason to take the downside risk of parasites and pesticides.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

I hope you realize that herps do just fine eating insects from the wild but only if they are living in the wild themselves. Since they're on the move and don't hang around where they've pooped, they're able to maintain an equilibrium with any parasites they ingest. It's a different story when the herp is contained in a small enclosure and the parasite levels are allowed to build up and cause problems.
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chickabowwow

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

Hey,

True..true... I was just sort of quoting what it said in the book...

They did'nt mension for what species of gecko's, but i think it would a fine/good food source for my WC Tokays right? Not sure though, I have my tokay cage build around a big tree we have in the yard... the cage go's way up and Im pretty sure there were already holes in the tree but we hollowed some parts out.. for them to hide in. I think this a pretty good wild enviroment. Also I harly have to put any crickets in there, since its already full of insects.

P.S. I live in florida.. theres even been sighting of "wild" tokays around here... so dont worry about the climat .

greetz,
David Jones

Can you post a pic of your "wild" enclosure? It sounds awesome!
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0.3.0 leos, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
0.0.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton & Olivia Newton John
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

Hehe thanks, I'll try to a.s.a.p.

i feed my lizards wild crix all the time. i live in the middle of nowhere and the only ones here are field crickets. they eat a lot of them and are healthy, strong and in perfect condidtion.
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soad rocks

Hi

Once when I had a gecko into the vet. for a checkup, my vet. had recommend to me to feed my geckos field crickets because of all of the varietys of foods they eat, so they would be a good nutritious food source for them. My vet. had also made a point of saying not to feed them crickets from around the house or any other house or building because of the pesticides that could have been sprayed on the grass. Also, even if you don't spray your yard with pesticides, maybe a neighbor does and crickets will travel.

Take Care, TLB