Reptile & Amphibian Forums

we just returned from the pet store and the owner scared my son half to death.He asked as we bought mealworms if we were cutting the heads off.My son said no! The owner proceeded to tell my son he has "killed his geckos for no good reason.They will eat a hole through the stomach of the geckos in a matter of days!!And if their under a year they shouldn't have them anyway. Your geckos are as good as dead because you failed to take care of them!!" I really laid into the guy (you dont mess w/ MY kids with out a fight from me!) I told him he has no clue and pointed out HE has babies on sand,live crickets in cages all the time and adults in w/ new babies!! I tried to show my son the posts about this topic and couldnt find them.PLEASE tell my son he didnt kill his geckos.He has taken excellent care of them and loves these little guys! live mealies CAN NOT eat through the stomach of a gecko...right! Sorry so long...this guy really got me mad

WOW!! I would be really mad also!! That guy really needs to get his facts straight!! Mealworms CANNOT eat through the geckos stomach!! Tell your son not to worry that the guy didn't know what he was talking bout...lol..course you prb already have. Try to og to a dif store next time.
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Katie
Peach State Geckos
Breeding Mealworms
My Email

what a retard.
The store guy, not you or your son.
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Tim W. My Pictures
0.1.0 Dumeril Boas
0.1.0 Kittens
0.0.1 Leopard Geckos

It rubs the lotion on it's skin.

I heard about this happening once,But I dont think it was true.
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Almost any animal on this planet that eats live prey faces a chance of the prey injuring them. Everything has teeth, claws, or a mouth to bite back.
But realisticly though geckos munch the mealworm on the way down, and they have stomach acid too. So if the mealworm does live on the way down and is worried about eating its way out instead of the trauma of being eaten and injured from being munched, it isn't going to last long swimming in digestive juices.
If there was a great chance of insects eating their way back out, geckos wouldn't have been eating insects since before the dawn of man, or would be herbivores. Mother nature made them equipped to eat bugs and be great pets for a living. It isn't like they are adapting to something unnatural for them. I am pretty sure someone else would have had it happen already to their gecko, there are tons of people who have tons of geckos for years.
There are always rumors regarding pets, and reptiles in general.

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Tim W. My Pictures
0.1.0 Dumeril Boas
0.1.0 Kittens
0.0.1 Leopard Geckos

It rubs the lotion on it's skin.
Do not mix bleach and ammonia to clean tanks!

Mealworms aren't really a natural food source for leopard geckos. I can understand if a leo was burrowing a nest in the wild and happened to chance upon a grub that it would eat, but I doubt that burrowing worm-type bugs would make up the majority of its diet.
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chickabowwow

I agree, the store guy was out of hand treating both of you like that, but unfortunately what he's saying CAN and DOES happen. I am 25 - when I was 12 yrs old I bought my first leopard gecko. His diet consisted of mealworms and crickets. One day I came home from school and found him 'tucked' into his substrate - meaning, his head and tail were above the substrate, but his stomach was buried beneath. I went to pick him up, and when I did I found a open wound on his stomach, there were 2 mealworms feasting on him from the inside out. It seriously disturbed me, the image still haunts me to this day. The whole experience was so negative that I stopped keeping lizards and only kept snakes that ate frozen mice... up until a year ago anyways. I bought another leo about 10 months ago. It took me MONTHS and talking to hundreds of people before I was convinced that it was ok to feed them mealworms. I learned that size of the mealworm has a lot to do with it. Did you search the forum for info on this? There is another post similar to yours entitled regular v/s giant mealworms (It is only about 4 posts under yours). There are conversations within the post which I think could help answer questions for you. I can vouch first hand though - there is nothing urban myth about it - IT DOES HAPPEN, you just have to be careful.

Wow...I never thought it was true, Now im scared!
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You shouldn't be worried if the size of the mealie is appropriate for the size of the leo. But with any leo, I think you should watch to make sure they chew their food (not everytime, but always when introducing a new food and/or new size of food). I still find myself reluctant to feed them at times (like I said - that picture seriously haunts me)... I esp get afraid when it envolves my more costly leo's. But I keep an eye on them, and can only pray that never happens to me again. I feel so bad for that little gecko - I always wished I'd never bought him - spared him- you know. All's I can do is be smart about it now, as is all anyone can do. I don't think hobbyists should be scared, just aware.

I'm sorry to hear about that happening to the gecko and you. That is the first time I have ever heard of it happening.
Like I said there is a risk whenever it eats something alive. Evolution and nature makes them more efficient, not perfect (except as pets).
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Tim W. My Pictures
0.1.0 Dumeril Boas
0.1.0 Kittens
0.0.1 Leopard Geckos

It rubs the lotion on it's skin.
Bleach, good to clean tanks. Ammonia, good to clean tanks. Bleach mixed with Ammonia, good to make ammonium chloride gas to kill you while your cleaning tanks.

One simple and basic question: How do you know the gecko was alive when the mealworms began to eat it?

The only way I truely beleive that this happens is that the gecko becomes sick/ill and dies (can happen suddenly, like a heart attack, ect), and mealworms already in the enclosure eat the gecko as food. In this case, the worms were probably living in the substrate if the gecko was somewhat buried, I'm assuming it to be a sand/dirt or other diggable substrate that could easily hide escapee mealworms. Stomach acid in a healthy gecko is just too acidic to beleive that a mealworm could live for more than a minute.

I think the reason the mealworms eat at the stomach is because it's simply the softest and likely the easiest part for the mealworm to get through.

As a sidenote, I do think that size of the prey is an issue regardless of species or food. Anything live can, and will attempt to fight back. This is why most snake keepers feed dead rats, live ones have been known to scratch/injure snakes during feeding.
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Brian Skibinski
Brian@MilwaukeeReptiles.com
WYSIWYG

That guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

If you want me to I'll go tell the guy what's good for the animals and not good. After all I do technically have a zoo in my house because of all the diff animals I have.

No petstore actually hires trained professionals to work in the reptilian departments ever. So I suggest you just don't go to that store ever again.
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2 mali uro's-Ares and Apollo
2 saharan uro's-Orion and Iris
2 bearded dragon-Hades and Draco
1 leo gecko-Kalypso
1 tokaye gecko-Sid Vicious
1 tarantula-Peter Parker
1 dog-cheeka
1 zebra finch-beeps
1 african gray parrot-keya
1 red headed parrot-pancho
And some fish

I've heard of this twice on another forum from reputable breeders
However, the reputable breeder continues to use mealworms.

It can happen but the likelyhood of it doing that is VERY rare, this breeder has owned hundreds of thousands of geckos for over 10 years.

Personally I try to give my geckos variety when i can, try butterworms, crix, roaches if you can grin and bear it, etc.

However what the store owner did was an a$$hole move, that was very rude of him and i have no idea what a business owner is thinking by literally scaring away customers. There are many other ways to convey an opinion. Anyhue don't be alarmed, but be educated.

np
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0.1 Hypo Leopard Gecko
0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko
1.0 Albino Pacman Frog
1.0 Lovebird (Tony)
1.0 Elkhound Cross (Otto)
0.1 Malamute Cross (Paris)
6.0 Bettas

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I'm not saying this to scare anyone, the chances are probably 1 in a million, but I have heard of this happening from a very reliable source. If you do a search on "the other web site" for this topic you should be able to find it. It's up to you whether you believe it or not, I choose to believe it simply because this person is one of (if not the most) respected person in the buisness. I also think that the "urban legend" had to start somewhere.

However, like I said (and I believe the other person did as well) the chances are EXTREMLY rare. I still feed my geckos mealworms. There is a risk in almost everything you can do for your gecko, you just choose which you want to take.

The guy at the pet store was still extremly out of line. I would never give them my buisness again, or if he isn't the boss I would perhaps speak to the boss about his behaviour.

Lisa
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0.1 Hypo Leopard Gecko
0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko
1.0 Albino Pacman Frog
1.0 Lovebird (Tony)
1.0 Elkhound Cross (Otto)
0.1 Malamute Cross (Paris)
6.0 Bettas

IMO I would never belive a mealworm to be able to eat its way out of a leo or any other reptile/amphibian.Unless I actually saw it happen,you know,a live worm crawl out of a live leo's tummy.I also keep frogs and have heaard the same "rumor" on the frog/salamander boards but no one has actually seen it happen.Tell your son not to worry about it,just make sure not to let any stray mealies run loose in the cage.
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