Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What other insects then crickets do I feed my gecko? And how much/often do I feed my gecko each of these insects. And also what do I feed the bugs? (plz info for babies as well as adults) thanks.

All but the smallest of hatchlings will be able to take medium sized mealworms..adults will take full grown crickets, small roaches which some people breed, large mealworms and superworms.... Hatchlings should be given as many as they'll eat..if feeding mealworms...you can just leave a dish of them in there with the gecko and they'll eat out of it.. everyday replace them with fresh..You can feed mealies..cornmeal..mixed with powder milk, rolled oats, bran.. cereal grains and veggies for moisture like carrots, potatoes and apples.. I feed all my geckos on a base diet of mealworms..and they get crickets 2 or 3 times a month.. The vitamin supplements should only be used for adults once or twice a week..for the hatchlings.. every feeding. I feed out almost 600 mealies a week for 6 geckos.. 4 hatchlings and 2 adults..Its much easier for me to breed my own mealworms than to be buying them all the time..

Thank you very much for the info I want to get a gecko but im kinda nervous on how to take care of it.

hi Lucien
where and how do you start breeding mealworm ,
i would like to produce 600 per week,
ALSO how do u clean them out ,all the old sheds etc
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pipatic.tripod.com/reptileworld

I started mine with a colony of 2000 large mealworms...I took 1000 for feeders and the other 1000 were left to mature into beetles...Of course some of the feeders also morphed before they got fed so I had more or less.. You can stop at a dollar store.. or walmarts and get one of those 4 or 6 tiered plastic drawer systems.. which is what I use..they have enough open air for ventilation... You set at least 3 of those drawers up as breeder areas...lay down a layer of dry food for them. (rolled oats, baby cereal, dried milk and a little bit of ground up dog kibble works well for me..along with the reptile vitamin powder added in small amounts) As for cleaning.... as long as you remove the dried out veggies every day or two..you shouldn't have to clean for about 3 months with this starter group... When you do go to clean..never throw out the bedding..that will have eggs in it if you have beetles in the container. You can take the old bedding and put it into a larger container and wait for the eggs to hatch...sift out the baby mealies when they're big enough to see (you can use fine mesh screen to do this or by hand..I do it by hand)Save whats left and do it all over again about once every week until it becomes hard to find any..then toss the old bedding. Its not really as hard as it sounds... Takes me about an hour to go through one of my drawers and remove all beetles and mealies to their own containers...I eventually plan on setting up 4 more shelving tiers for them and producing on a large scale..since I anticipate more gecko hatchlings next year...but anyway, once you get them in there..just give them some kind of veggie for moisture 3 times a week or so..and you're set..they thrive on neglect...As long as they have moisture its all good to go

thank you,

do you leave the beattle's in there for a certain amount of time ?,
when the mealies morph do you take them out an put in another tub till they turn to beattles,
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pipatic.tripod.com/reptileworld

You can if you wish, take the beetles out to put in a seperate container.. Usually I take about 300 out of a drawer after they've pupated and put them in another drawer as breeder stock again...and leave it alone.. no feeding out of that bin...they'll lay all sorts of eggs in there and you can sort them out..

and one last Q. what temp do they have to be kept at,
as i was thinking of setting them up in an unheated shed,but it might get too cold in winter
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pipatic.tripod.com/reptileworld

Room temperature is best... they'll breed better for you at a range of 70-78..mealies will anyway... Too hot and they'll die..too cold and the same thing happens... *nods* So I don't think the unheated garage will work....