Feeder Inscets: The Debate

[utsukushii]

Researching the subject can lead to very mixed conclusions. Some people say Leopard Geckos absolutely need crickets because mealworms have harder exoskeletons and less protein/calcium. Others swear by mealworms because they can be easily managed and are less likely to spread unwanted materials throughout the vivarium. Both can be easily gut-loaded/

Comments

[winks7985]

i like to switch it up. crickets, mealwaorms, hornworms (i love hornworms, and so do the kids).

i was having a similar issue with crickets, and i was talking to a co-worker, and i asked what she did with her crickeets that she would buy at the expos. she said she freezes them then thaws them out and tong feeds her geckos. i tried this with a small batch, and i had great success with it. it makes it easy for me to "keep" crickets. and my leos all learned how to eat from a bowl.

but i also like to give them some live stuff every now and then. that's why i like the hornworms so much. they're full of yummy goodness, don't stink too much and are easy to keep.

good luck!

[natasha_fawn]

Gut-loaded and dusted crickets and mealworms for my girl. I just buy them from the local pet store (which gives me a great excuse to go in and say hi to all the critters regularly). She gets crickets more often than mealworms because there's more digestible material in the crickets, but I like her to have variety and she really likes mealworms. If I didn't have such a soft-spot for silkworms I'd try those, I'm sure she'd love them, but I just can't.

[dragonbloodink]

Mealworms and superworms with crickets if I can't get anything else. I feed crickets by putting them in a sterilite tub and adding the gecko, then putting the top on. It's an awesome feeding frenzy. XD With no mess in the cage either.

[janetwolf]

I do a mix of dusted/loaded mealworms, crickets and wax-worms depending on the gecko.

Kodiak is 1 1/2, he eats everything, any time, anywhere. He can be faked out by the freeze dried mealworms and will eat them out of the dish. The Crickets he eats live and hunts for them, same as the wax worms.

Mojave almost 4 and is picky as hell. Freeze dried anything, no. Wax-worms she will usually eat eagerly. Crickets have to be the right size, not too big because the chirping scares her and they move too fast. Not too small, too hard to catch. Then it depends on her mood if she feels like striking or not. She can go for days without eating by her own choice. She's been doing that for over a year and her tail is fat so it doesn't worry me too much.

[kallistonire]

Mojave sounds a lot like Ace. He wouldn't touch freeze-dried. He gets really funny about striking too; sometimes he does this pathetic little snap, because he's lazy and doesn't want to have to actually move in order to eat, then other times he leaps on them straight away.

Normally he eats gut-loaded, live mealworms. I do give him the odd waxworm, but if I give him too many he susses out that he likes waxworms a LOT more than mealworms and refuses to eat them.

He was on crickets for about the first year of his life, then all of a sudden went right off them. And I haven't tried them since; I don't like them jumping about the tank and crawling over everything when Ace decides he doesn't want to eat right then. And they smell.

[utsukushii]

Pierre will gobble up both freeze-dried mealworms and crickets, but he doesn't get the euphoric close his eyes, lift his head and smile as things wriggle in his tummy look when eating them. (It's an adorable look, despite the gruesomeness of the situation for the wrigglers.) Which works out well when I've run out of live feeders and can't make it to the pet shop.