Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yea, I know I'm new here.. so pardon me for being an aggresive poster. However to continue on in the spirits of my old thread, I want to take a poll. Right now I am horribly torn on what diet to go on with my soon to be leo friend. There is choice A: Staple diet of crickets, with ocassional meal worms, ocassional wax worms, and strained peach or mango baby food every saturday. Or.. choice B: Staple diet of meal worms, with an ocassional wax worm treat and also.. strained baby food on saturdays. Meal worms will be a lot easier to handle, but are said to be less nutritious. Take your pick guys, I'm toooorn. Thanks =)

according to the leopard gecko manual, which is like the bible to most leo breeders, mealworms are in fact more nutritious than crickets. It states that 12 out of the 16 essential nutrients are already in mealworms, although they should still be gutloaded, by themselves thay are a better diet than crickets. A staple diet of gutloaded mealworms supplemented with calcium and vitamin powder, and the occasional cricket, waxworm, or superworm is the best way to go.

variety is the key for me

http://www.grubco.com/Nutritional_Information.cfm

This is just what it says (Grubco nutritional analysis). I'm sure it depends completely on the gutload as far as nutritional value, but the fat content is likely accurate.

I'm currently feeding crix (I've only had her for a week and a half),but I'm considering switching to mealies whenever she'll take it. Just gotta figure out the best way to do it. If she absolutely won't take them as a juvi, I can suck it up and deal with crix till she's older.

The breeder I bought from told me he finds they become sluggish as they age if they're on mealies, but I've heard a lot of breeders on this forum in favour of mealies, so I'd like to go that route for convenience.

-----
Blaine

0.0.1 HY/Patternless/Normal Leo (Echo)

I feed mealworms that are fed a very basic gutload. They are fed out of a "dish" that contains about 1/8"-1/4" of a high quality gutload(t-rex sandfire superfoods formula) on the bottom. The mealies eat it(if they are in the dish long enough), and the loes get some everyti,e they strike. I hav also witnessed them liking the powder up on there own. This method has worked great for me this past season.
-----
Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

personally, i use choice B because it's a lot easier for me and i don't like the smell of crickets

also, there was a post a few days ago about crix being contaminated which sickened a couple leos and it scared me away from crix maybe i'll just get a couple crix every now and then to add variety to my leo's diet (coz it's true that variety is key) - but i'm pretty much sticking with mealies with a wax worm every other week. also, when your leo hits his adult stage, you can start adding super worms to the diet coz your leo might stop eating the fruit.

don't forget to gutload your feeders 24-48 hours before feeding time! and similar to aztec lizard, i keep a small amount of trex sandfire gutload formula at the bottom of my leo's dish so if there are any left over mealies, they just eat through it - during the night, my leo will eventually hunt for the mealie during the night - if you plan to do that, don't put 2 much or else the mealies will hide in it i had a problem with that and had to take out some of the gutload from the dish and just put it in the case of my regular gutloading mealies

anyways... take care and gluck with your leo!!

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

I use a staple of mealworms, with butterworms and waxies every now and then. I used to use crickets BUT lost one of my geckos a while back. All his fecals came back fine but he looked aweful. The vet gave meds that didn't do anything. After reading the posts about the bacterial infections i feared thats what it might have been but it was to late to find out for sure. Leo had already passed away.

I did use small crickets for Bronx (male blizzard) as he wouldn't take mealies, but i got him eating them after only feeding him 2 crickets/day and leaving a bowl of mealies in for him 24/7. He got the idea very quickly and now eats them up. I have a small table where i count out the mealies right in front of his tank, so he'll sit there and watch me intently, knowing that he's the first to get fed.

I don't refridgerate my mealies as my family would put up a HUGE stink about it even though we have a bar fridge and an extra one downstairs (large type). This way i get the beetles and have started my own colony. I gutload then with a mix from LeoLoverLizardLounge.com. The info there is the best!!! I did get a sample of gutload from the place i ordered my mealies from. I might just start getting larger shippments of that instead of mixing my own.

I prefer mealworms over crickets. They are easier to breed, handle and feed to my geckos.

Red
-----
Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas

Well its unanimous, the mealies have it! Thanks a lot guys for all the participation. I've done a little web research and have found only one downside to the mealies. A lot of people mention impaction to be possible due to their tough exoskeleton. However everyone agrees that feeding freshly molted mealies will solve this problem quite easily. My final question is, do these mealies molt often? Because while he's young I'd like to feed freshly molted mealies pretty exclusively/as often as possible. Thanks =)

Well i don't know......but i can say that i got a shippment of 4000 of them and now i have a container thats full of shed skin. I'm not really sure how to clean that out.....someone once mentioned taking outside and letting the wind blow it away LOL. I think i'll just scoop it out.

Also, i've never experienced any trouble with impaction due to mealies. My Boo (largest male) even got superworms which look alot tougher to digest and did great. Then again he's pretty much an adult. I've found though, that the smaller mealies aren't that tough NOT that i've tried them LOL

Hope that helps
Red
-----
Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas

I'd go with the mealwoms.

BTW. Geckos don't eat fruit, so I would not waste my time with that.
-----
You can never have just one gecko. Actually it is almost impossible to have two
My Geckos

i give rey pinheads (hes still pretty small) and wax worms he seems to like them better thank mealies. and they are softer too!!!!!!

-----
~~~~~~~HEATHER~~~~~~~