Reptile & Amphibian Forums

They love em... can I do this?

From what I understand, superworms are hard 4 leos to digest...mealworms would make a good staple ...Don't get upset if I'm wrong....I'll try researching it more for you and I'll try to have a more in depth response tomorrow(unless someone else answers your question in depth!! ) Ok?

Alyssa

From my own personal experience it seems that as long as your leo doesn't appear to have difficulty eating superworms exclusively (i.e. poorly formed stools, weight loss, ect.) then it should be fine. As soon as Seraph got big enough to tackle supers I started to feed them to her and she's doing perfectly fine. Just make sure that your leo is big enough to handle them, and try to get fresh ones that don't have as think of a carpace(sp?) if you're really worried about it.

Ugg... "don't have as think" should be "don't have as thick"

Ok... Theyre both grown adults 2 years old and about 80 grams or more each.
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1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Pyro/Sandfire/Orange Cross)
0.1.0 High Yellow Leopard Gecko
0.1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko

Then you should be fine.

I think supers are a great staple. My 30 gram male started supers just a week or two ago and he's gained a considerable amount of weight (5-6 grams he was 24 grams when he started eating supers) in a relatively short time (1-2 weeks). He's only been eating one a day too. They move around more so attract more attention, and gram for gram of super there's more digestible matter than a mealworm would ever have.

It's actually kinda hard to find freshly shed supers (they don't seem to shed too often), but once in a while I will and those get gobbled up just fine. Other times I'll feed a regular hard shelled super, but my male seems to just crunch it up a couple times (you hear it go crunch, crunch) and he doesn't seem to have much trouble digesting those either.

I've seen superworm heads in my gecko's poop, but no skin, while when I'm feeding mealies, I see the skin occasionally, which says to me that supers must be easier to digest than mealies. I still feed mealies from time to time though.

The one bad thing about supers is that they seem to escape more often than mealies do from the food bowl (I've resorted to just dropping the super in front of my gecko and he goes into hunting mode). They also tear holes into the paper towel trying to escape/dig a hole.

-Lemur 6

What age would a gecko be at around 25 grams if fed well? I don't have a scale and I would like to feed supers

My guess would be at around 2-3 months, or a gecko 5-6 inches should weigh atleast 25 grams. Robin starts her geckos on supers at 20 grams, but I think its more a matter of can you're gecko fit the super in his mouth. My supers are roughly 1/4 of an inch thick, so I guess you're gecko would have to have atleast a 3/4 inch wide head to take down a super.

They also have smaller sized supers if you're worried about size.

-Lemur 6

Kinda Off topic, but i got my gram scale at WalMart for $25, its a died scale, just look where all the kitchen stuff is at. Great investment
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Coming Soon
www.hubcitygeckos.com

Supers are actually a better staple for leos big enough to handle them...They have a higher digestable to indigestable ratio than mealworms since they are larger. In other words there's more they can digest overall when you feed supers than when you feed regular mealies.
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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

1.0 Australian Shepherd/Cattle dog cross (Foster)

I just learned a whole lot! All my big leos r gonna be switched over to supers!!!! Thanks!!

Alyssa