Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if crickets absolutely need to be the staple in aday geckos diet? I'm looking into some of the smaller species of day geckos (Primarily Gold Dust) and I hate crickets as they smell and are relatively expensive when bought in small numbers. I am currently breeding both mealworms and fruit flies. Is it possible to use these and only offer crickets on occasion? Are there other types of food I could offer? I would be willing to offer a large variety of foods but I would really prefer not to keep crickets always on hand. Thanks

I have used mealworms as a staple with occasional crickets for my giant day for 2 years. some people have trouble with mealworms, as they are more difficult to digest. I'd say try them out, and make sure they are being digested properly before using them as a staple

Meal worms have a hard outer shell called chitin. This is difficult to digest for day geckos and in quantity chitin can cause blockage in the intestines.

It is nice that the P. m. grandis has successfully had these as part of his meal but in all situations of Phelsuma, the risk is still there, especially with the smaller day geckos such as the klemmeri.

If the meal worms has just shed and appears white, then the chitin has not formed and is safe for a Phelsuma's meal.

Fruit flies are great.

Crickets only smell if they are kept damp. Clean their container and use potatoes or apples as a water source (as apposed to the plastic water crystals) and the smell will be nominal.

Are melanogaster large enough to be noticed by either laticuada or klemmeri or should I get some hydeii? Also what do you guys think about wax or meal moths as an additional food source? I had never heard of them until I saw them on edsflymeat.com. Thanks again!

The larger of the two fruit flies will be eaten by the klemmeri readily. Younger laticauda do well on the fruit flies but as they become adults, fruit flies tend to be too small to suit them well.

Wax worms should be considered a treat for now and then. Most day geckos will quite eating anything but wax worms if you allow them, but the worms are not nutritional enough and have too much fat for them to be suitable for regular meals. Moths are always good treats -- just hard to dust them with supplements.

Ed's Fly Meat is an excellent source of food items and growth material. If I was located near to them, they would be my primary source of those items.

I feed TRex day gecko diet. It is an inexpensive, nonsmelly powder that you can either mix with water for them or feed to them dry (what I do). Mine love it and have been eating only that for a year. It is formulated to be nutritionally complete.

Genevieve
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2.10.20? Crested
1.1.3 Gold Dust Day
0.1.0 Presa Canario