Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What should a leopard geckos diet consist of? Can they be fed mealworms as their main diet? Are mealworms cheaper than crickets? They seem easier to care for to me.
Thanks
*~*elcheal*~*
2 guinea pigs
1 springer spaniel
5 frogs
2 hermit crabs ~RIP little one~
~~new froggie eggs~~

I started out on crickets... to excpensive, usually died meaning I paid for 1000 but got 300. I switched to mealworms. They were turning into beetles to fast and my mom wouldn't let me refrigerate. So I switched to superworms. They don't change into beetles when they are together, they are bigger and more energetic. My leos love them. I just put 1000 in a shoebox half filled with oats. Every other day I put about 5 baby carrots in.
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...and it only lasted about 4 months before all but one of my leos got sick of them. I even had the supers in different sizes, so the smaller ones would at least look like mealworms. But my leos would purposefully ignore the superworms (big and small), so then I would offer a bowl of barely moving mealworms and THEN they would get excited.
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5.6 leopard geckos

chickabowwow

We have 20 leos and we feed them mealworms as their main diet. They are all healthy. As for your money....we order 2000 through the mail with shipping and everything and it only cost somewhere around 14.00. They last a little while....lol

Where are you getting your mealies for $14.00 shipped? I pay about $23.50 for 2000 shipped next day from big apple herp. I started a mealworm colony without trying because about 1/4 of them are metamorphosing before they are to be fed. But right now I order about every 2 weeks for my 6 leos.
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http://joshmilliken.tripod.com/

We feed a combo of mealworms and crickets. We keep the feed dish full of mealies at all times and give the full sized geckos a few crickets every other day (they usually eat 2 or 3 large crickets). Our babies get crickets everyday... they eat anywhere from 5-8 small crickets at a time. We dust our crickets with "Cricket Dust" made by a company called HerpCare. It contains a number of vitamins, including Calcim and D-3. I am sure other posters have their favorites.

KP

I feed a combo as well, theres a petshop in the mall that sells crix in sets of 10 so thats super easy to gutload and get rid of before they all die and stick up the place.
Otherwise as i mentioned in a later post i've been trying forever to start my own colony of mealworms.

I feed 100% mealworms. Crickets are more expensive, and smelly. I dont want to say always, or even most of the time, but crix usually have more parasites etc then mealworms. Also with crickets, unless they are completely gutloaded, all the leo eats is just protien, because the crickets stomachs are empty. The mealies gutload all the time. Starting a breeding colony works easier with mealies, but still is quite difficult. I order 2000 mealies about every 2 months for my 20 or so guys and its like 14 bucks. I vote for mealies.

Michael

I feed mostly crickets and a few mealworms every other feeding. I also give treats of wax worms and silk worms. I order crickets and waxworms online. I have had my large crickets for at least a month and they are going strong. I just got a shipment of smaller crickets for my little guys and they are really healthy crickets as well. I pay about $10 for 1000 of any size.

I keep the mealworm colonies in the garage (South Florida).Once aliens and beetles appear they go into a separate colony and are left alone, no sifting thru looking for mealies, just oatmeal, bran, apples and shredded carrot added on top. In a month It looks like a Fear Factor main course. BTW my last ever shipment of crickets was about a month ago - 4000 and probably 400 lived to be fed off..stinky little *#@*@#*s.

your gecko seems to have gotten tired of crickets AND mealworms? *sigh* My gecko has been turning up her nose at mealies and ignores crickets. [She used to happily pig out on both.] She did snap up a hairless caterpillar I found in my folks' garden the other day but I only found one [no pesticides are used in that garden by the way].