What do leopard geckos eat?

What do leopard geckos Eat?

Leopard geckos are Insectivores meaning they eat insects, worms, and other invertebrates.

Just because leopard geckos are insectivores, this does not mean that you feed them any and every kind of incest you may find, if you feed them the wrong type of incest this can lead to digestion problems or infections.

As well as Insects your pet leopard geckos will need vitamins and D3 plus calcium supplements

Below there is a list of safe and easy-to-get insects that your geckos can eat with a short description of their nutritional value.

When you get a new pet leopard gecko

When you get a new pet leopard gecko or any pet for that matter, it is always a good idea to do some research on what kind of food the animal eats before you get the animal

It is not good to assume that all reptiles are the same and eat the same things

Before I got my first leopard gecko I spent a week researching as much as I could about them and I was an experienced bearded dragon owner

I was actually quite surprised at how different they were in terms of the food they ate, the enclosure setup, UVB lights, etc.

Safe food for your leopard gecko to eat

Leopard geckos will eat almost any insect that walks, crawls, or hops in front of them but, not all of them are safe or healthy for your Leo to eat

Mealworms

The Pupa is safe for the gecko to eat, but a lot of geckos will not eat them because they don’t wiggle and move around

Mealworms are also a good option because they are small don’t jump around and can be contained in a shallow dish and left for days without getting all over your reptile enclosure.

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Crickets

Superworms

Dubai Rouches

Waxworms

Silkworms

Must have supplements for your leopard gecko

Reptile vitamins

Calcium and D3

How much does a leopard gecko eat?

All Leopard geckos are different and there is no set number of how many insects a leopard gecko will eat as there is a lot of factors to take into account such as

age – younger geckos will eat less but will need to be fed daily but older geckos can eat more but you can space out the feedings to every second or third day

Size – a smaller gecko will require less energy than a larger gecko so it only makes sense that a smaller gecko will eat less than a larger gecko

Temperature can also affect geckos eating habits for example if it is too cold 60F -15.5C a leopard gecko will go into brumation and not eat for months until the temperature rises to around 75F – 23.8C  to 80F – 26.6C ambient temperature with a hot spot of around 90F – 32.2C

How often do you feed your leopard geckos

• Juvenile leopard geckos under 1-year-old should be fed daily, you should offer them as much food as they can eat in a 10-minute time period.
• Healthy adult leopard geckos should be fed every second day, you should feed them as much food as they can eat within a 15-minute time period.
• Sick or recovering geckos should be fed once every day until they regain full strength

How to feed and water your gecko

To feed your leopard gecko you should feed it once or twice a day depending on its age and health

You can feed it any of the safe food mentioned by dropping it in the gecko’s tank and letting them hunt for it, however, if your gecko has trouble catching its food you can hold the food down to the geckos month by hand or with tweezers to help them catch the food if needed.

In addition to the daily feeding, leaving a small dish of mealworms in its tank at all times so it can eat freely when it is hungry is a good idea

(Mealworms are the best option for this) because they don’t jump around are easy to keep in the dish and are a good staple food source for the gecko 

and they can start alive long enough for your gecko to find and eat them.

Gecko breeders and people with a lot of reptiles do this because it can cut down on the feeding times, sometimes they feed them only mealworms in the dish by just topping them up every other day 

and only feeding them something different like super worms or crickets once every week or two

because they have hundreds of geckos they cannot sit for 15 minutes, feeding every gecko Individually

this would take up all of their time and not leave them any time for cleaning and general husbandry

Frech clean Water should be left in the gecko’s tank at all times for your gecko to drink if and when it wants it,

there is an ongoing debate whether leopard geckos drink water or not, I know from first-hand experience that they do drink water.

Vitamins calcium and D3

As well as insects geckos will also need vitamin calcium and D3 to help them develop and grow without getting any healthy or bone problems.

Vitamins are needed to give your gecko the micronutrients it needs to grow and develop into a healthy adult and stay healthy, just like us humans are recommended to eat our 5 a day.

Calcium is to help develop the make bones strong, without this, your gecko can develop MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease) this will cause your Leo pain and it will have difficulty standing and walking.

D3  just like in humans is required to help with calcium absorption, too much D3 can be harmful to leopard geckos but too little can lead to calcium deficiency resulting in (MBD)

D3 is a natural vitamin that comes from the sun,  in the wild leopard geckos only come out during sunset and go home at sunrise so they only get a  small amount of D3,  just enough vitamin D3 they need to help calcium absorption

UVB bulbs are not needed in your Leos tank but must be supplemented with D3 powder, Some people do have UVB  in their tank but this is not recommended especially for new leopard gecko owners

if the bulb is too strong it will give too much D3 exposure and your gecko will spend most of the day trying to hide from the light.

I am not going to get into the whole UVB or no UVB debate in this post as it will take far too long, I will cover this topic in another post.

Reptile Vitamins are provided in powdered form from a tub

Calcium and D3 powder can come in either one tub containing both or 2 individual tubs

There are 2 main ways you can get your gecko to eat it

1. leave it in a dish for your gecko to eat as and when it needs it,  geckos are good a self-regulating what they need.
2. Dust the food with the powder before feeding your geckos

You can keep them all in separate tubs in the gecko’s enclosure and let them just eat it as needed.

Have 2 separate dishes one for vitamins and one for D3

I have it all in one dish (this is what a lot of the big breeders do as it saves time when looking after a lot of geckos.

Gut loading your gecko’s food

Gut loading your incest is also another way of making sure your leopard gecko stays healthy and gets in the vitamins and minerals they need.

Gut loading is the practice of feeding your incests highly nutritious foods before you feed them to your pet gecko,  you should gut load the insects 12 to 24 hours before feeding them to your gecko, depending on  what they are

Crickets should be gut loaded 12 hours before you feed them your Leo this will give them enough time to digest the food and provide a good source of vitamins for your gecko

there are a variety of cricket gut loading food on the market such as Fluker’s Cricket Quenchers

If you are feeding your gecko mealworms you should gut load them with carrots 24 hours before feeding them to your gecko as it takes longer for them to digest the food

you can also add some of the cricket gut loading food into a small dish for the worms to eat also

If you leave a dish of mealworms in your gecko tank for them to eat as and when they like you may choose to leave some food in the dish for the worms to eat

so they will be gut loaded when your gecko chooses to eat them.

Of course, this is not necessary if you keep vitamins in a dish and dust your insets when feeding them to your geckos

There is more than one way to make sure your geckos get their essential vitamins and minerals in

just choose a method that suits your lifestyle/schedule and your gecko’s eating habits.

Leopard gecko not eating

If your leopard gecko is not eating during the 10 or 15 minutes time period you are feeding them, there could be a few things you can do to make sure they are eating enough

you could try feeding them at a different time in the day you could feed them later in the evening 

in the wild Leos will come out and hunt for food from sunset to sunrise and spend the rest of the day in their caves hiding from predators and the sun’s UVB

if you want to know how much they are eating place 10 mealworms in a dish and leave it in their enclosure overnight

you can count them in the morning and see how many they have eaten if any while you were asleep

If you leave a small dish of mealworms plus feed them once a day for juveniles or once every other day for adults and they are still not eating there are a few things you could try

You could try varying up their food by changing super worms for roaches or crickets, etc.

There are a lot of reasons a leopard gecko will stop eating like, a new environment, feeling stressed, getting ready to shed see gecko shedding post here to cold, brumation Etc.

BUT REMEMBER

A leopard gecko can go for months without eating food and be fine, as long and your gecko is fit and healthy and not losing weight and has a fat tail its fine, 

they store energy in their tails and that can keep them going for months at a time.

Overfeeding

When feeding your gecko, Most geckos will stop eating once they are full but you do get the odd exception that just likes to keep eating and eating,

You should try not to overfeed your gecko as this will cause weight gain and also cause them to regurgitate their food.

If you think your leopard gecko is overeating you can normally tell by looking at them, 

like humans when leopard geckos put on too much weight, you can notice it around their stomach and tail.

Your gecko’s stomach should be relatively flat unless he/she is just after a feeding

Overweight geckos

Because geckos store fat in their tail, the general rule of thumb to tell if your gecko is overweight is by looking at their tail, 

a leopard gecko’s tail should be fat but not thicker than its head

If you think your Leo is overweight, you should feed it less often until it returns to a healthy-looking size, their tail should be fat but not as fat as its head.

Bugs to Avoid Feeding

Firefly, lightning bugs, or any other bug that glows.

Never feed your gecko any insect that glows or lights up in the dark, the chemical in the incest that causes them to glow in the dark is highly toxic and will kill your gecko, 

As I write this article there is no known treatment for your gecko as none have reportedly lived long enough to see a vet after consuming as little as one firefly.

To be on the safe side  just don’t feed your gecko any insect that you have caught inside or outside your home yourself

The reason behind this is that any wild-caught insects could contain parasites that will affect your geckos if eaten

also, any wild insect that has been living outdoors could contain mild traces of pesticides that can be toxic to leopard geckos.

Do leopard geckos drink water?

A lot of people say that leopard geckos do not drink water but they still leave a small shallow dish of water in their enclosure just in case

the reason for this because even if they do not drink the water it will still provide some moisture in the air.

The truth is YES leopard geckos do drink water, sometimes they lick the water off the sides of their moist hide or sometimes they drink the water directly from the water dish.

I had my geckos for about 5 months before I saw one of my geckos drinking all of the water out of the dish one day 

this may have been extreme circumstances because one of my kids was looking at her and then put her back in her enclosure

The next day I got out of bed I saw her standing on the floor I thought “How the hell did she get out” 

So I picked her up and she was cold, so I held her in my hands to warm her up for a little before I put her on her heat matt to warm up

But she ran directly over to her water bowl and proceeded to drink it all, 

poor little thing must have been really thirsty 

(of course, all of the kids got told to be careful in the future and make sure their enclosure is closed fully)

She crawled through a small gap the kids left, I noticed her trying to escape through it a few times after that but it was secure.

Can leopard geckos eat vegetables fruits or salad?

Leopard geckos are 100% insectivores meaning their body’s digestive system is only capable of digesting meat like insects, 

they can even eat small picky mice if they are small enough for them to fit in their mouth

Some gecko breeders feed smell picky mice to their female leopard geckos during the breeding season because of the additional proteins and nutrients.

Leopard geckos cannot eat any fruits or vegetables at all because of their digestive system,

it is not designed to process a functioning Cecum,  this is the part of the body that aids in the digestion of  Cellulose substances found in both fruits and veg.

they also have a short alkaline digestive tract, compared to herbivores with a longer acidic digestive tract to help them digest fruit and vegs.

research has been done that revealed that leopard geckos can eat fruits and vegetables 

but because they can’t digest them properly it is not recommended that you try to feed your pet Leo anything other than live insects and vitamin and mineral supplements

Leopard gecko’s food digestion

Leopard geckos cannot produce enough body heat to digest food on their own they require belly heat to digest their food. 

The belly heat provided should be around 90F – 32.2C

If an adequate source of belly heat is not provided your gecko will not be able to digest the food in its stomach

instead, the food will slowly rot and decay inside your gecko this can cause serious infections and your Leo can die from this…

Always make sure your gecko’s enclosure has an adequate source of belly heat. Your gecko’s life depends on it! 

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