Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm a newbie to leopard geckos, and am wondering how to switch to mealworms from crickets. I put the mealworms in a dish with calcium a I read, but the geckos ignore them. Is there another way? Should I drop a couple in front of the gecko and hope they move around and trigger a response?
Thanks in advance for any advice - I know how ignorant I am on this subject!

I have had success in this way...

I starved my adults for one week. I hated doing it, believe me I did. They were all so hungry, but I wanted to get them off crickets and onto mealworms before winter comes. My survival rate of crickets suck in the winter, so thats why. After one week I offered them all mealworms in a low dish. Let me just say...

THEY WENT NUTS!!!!

They were so hungry that they devoured every last mealworm in the dish, and they'd even tip the dish upside down and make a mess since I put a supplement in my dish with the worms as well.

Now with my younger geckos I DID NOT do this. I only did it to my adults.

Some of them are still just wanting crickets and thats fine I guess. I just wanted a good majority of my leos to be switched over to mealworms just for the winter.

2 other ways you could try is to dangle them in front of them, or put the mealworm on the ground in front of them and see if the leo looks interested enough to eat it.

Or if your gecko is young try this. With my hatchlings I will get them started on both baby crickets and mealworms. I provide a low-low dish and I fill it with small mealworms. I will put this right in front of the baby geckos hide. The little gecko is so curious that it will actually see the movement and come out and eat them. It worked for me.

Hope this helps and good luck

Shayna
Leo Lovers Lizard Lounge

I was afraid of the crix The guy I got my leo from left in about 3 or 4 crix, but they were the size of my leo's whole head. So my friend that works at PetSmart came over and scooped them out. I changed the substrate to paper towels, and dropped a mealie in front of my leo. It didnt move, so I nudged it and it freaked out. My leo spotted it, came closer in tiny robotic movements without moving his gaze. Then, he attacked it and loved it! I had all the other mealies in a tall food dish and leaned it over so he could see them. He did the robotic dance towards the dish and put his little hands on them...so I placed the dish upright so he stood over it...saw all the wriggly worms and just kept attacking one after another - and he finished them all! I did this switch the day after I got him and he still loves eating those mealies You might want to try it in a similar way so you don't have to starve your leo before trying to feed him again.

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

I want to switch my leo over to mealies too. I am able to get a great deal on them if i buy them in lots of 1000(hope my leo is hungry). I too find my crickets die off fast so i want to switch. Is it ok to feed them just straight mealies and nothing else. I may occasionally throw in crickets (once a week), but i want 95% of her diet to be mealies. Any thoughts? Thanks

If you by 1000 you probably find that most turn to beetles before you get a chance to use them.

Colin

if you keep them refrigerated, they will go into hibernation and won't turn into beetles as fast. if you leave the mealies out, you still have time to remove them before they turn into beetles because you'll see them pupate.

aimee

ps: dont forget to gutload!
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1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

Ya I dont know what I am going to do with 1000 mealies but i am getting them at 1/4 the normal price i pay for them by the dozen so its hard to pass up. The biggest challenge is convincing the bride that i need to keep 1000 worms in our refrigerator! I was thinking of maybe keeping them out in our garage as it is getting close to freezing each night here in Canada. Might be too cold though, dont know. I figure i can get through 1000 in 3 months with my leo (10 a night) so hopefully they last that long refrigerated.

you can split them up and put 100 - 200 mealies per cup/container... have half the cups in the fridge and half of the other cups out... so half of them will be all active and gutloading while the other half hibernates.. i do that with the 350 mealies i get per month.

i hope it works for you, esp. since you have 1000 mealies
good luck!

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

Well I picked up the 1000 mealies tonight. I cant believe there are 1000 of them in such a small container. Anyhow, I did what you suggested, put about 70-80 in a container outside the fridge and the rest in the fridge. I assume its ok to keep the mealies in the same container they came in with the bran they came in?

cool - how do you get those mealies so cheap?

also, the ones that are left out - you should gutload them to give them nutritional value to your leo. i assume that the substrate that the mealies were placed in are saw dust. it's something the mealies can't really eat and should be trasferred to substrate that they can eat right now, i just got done transferring 100 mealies from the sawdust to the gutload. i used to feed my leo those mealies straight from the sawdust, but everyone in this forum told me to gutload and from all their input, i made a blend of different foods to create my little gutload

my gutload includes: fish flakes, oatmeal oats, wheat bran, powdered non-fat milk, t-rex sandfire cricket gutload formula, and this other feeder gutload formula. also, i put a thin peice of paper towel and placed an apple slice on top for their water needs.

of course, you dont have to use everything i just used...lol i just kinda took in a mix of what people were telling me they used. also, i hear if u use a carrot as the mealies' water source, it tends to mold slower than apples, so you don't have to change it as often as me....

anyway, i hope this helps!

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

yes, mealies are a good staple diet for leopard geckos you can go for as long as you want feeding mealies~ and with the occassional cricket that you're planning to throw in, it adds more variety to their diet!

good luck & take care!
[AiMee]
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1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

It's ok to feed your leos the meal worm beetles if they change, right? I don't see why not...
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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

i actually never heard of that... i always heard of crix, mealies, supers, and waxies being fed... never really anything else... we should start a post asking

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

I have had my leopard gecko for about 9 years and I have never had a problem with giving mine the meal worms that transformed into bettles. I hope that what I said helps you out.