The leopard gecko is an attractive creature, popular among reptile lovers. Its friendly personality and docile nature make it a lovable pet. Also, handling it is very easy due to its small size. Interestingly, a healthy leopard gecko can live up to 20 years. It’s easy to keep and has minimal habitat requirements.
You can pet a leopard gecko even if you have no prior experience in handling reptiles. But like any other pet, if you want your leopard gecko to live with you for as long as 20 years, you have to know what can leopard geckos eat.
A healthy diet is crucial for the well-being of your gecko. You have to understand that you can’t feed it anything you like.
What Can Leopard Geckos Eat?
Leopard geckos are carnivores and will eat whatever they can catch. In the wild, they eat crickets, beetles, spiders, and scorpions. However, they can also prey on baby mice, small snakes, and birds.
Leopard geckos are highly active in the wild, and they rarely fatten. But as pets, they are very much prone to becoming fat. To keep your gecko healthy and fit, you have to monitor its weight and give it a well-balanced diet.
Crickets, dubia roaches, mealworms, waxworms, and hornworms are all healthy food options for your gecko. All these foods have different nutritional values. So, you can mix various insects and worms to provide the required nutrition to your gecko.
Try not to include too much fat in its diet, such as waxworms or superworms. However, you can treat your pet occasionally with them. As geckos are predators by nature, you must give only live insects to your pet.
Ensure you don’t give raw meat to your geckos like mice, as they are high in fat and low in calcium. It’s always good to dust the feeder insects with vitamin and protein powder to cover for any nutritional deficiency in your gecko’s diet. The insects should be gut-loaded the night before feeding.
Leopard Gecko Diet Schedule
The nutritional need of a baby gecko is much more than the adult gecko. Hence, you need to take extra care of your little one. It requires frequent meals consisting of smaller insects. Also, it needs more protein and calcium, so gut-load and dust the insects with calcium powder before feeding.
For up to six months, feed your gecko every day with as much food as it can eat in 15 minutes. After six months, it can be fed on alternative days with the same amount of food. Once your gecko is above a year, you should limit the feeding to only twice a week.
Water Needs
Make fresh water available to your leopard gecko at all times. You can keep a small bowl in its tank so that it can drink from it whenever it wants. Make sure you change the water and even clean off the leftover food regularly. Rotten food or unclean water can make your gecko sick.
Adult geckos can go about two weeks without eating. So, try not to overfeed it as too much food can make it sick. You should maintain regular visits to your vet to ensure your gecko is healthy. Take it to the doctor immediately if you see anything unusual in its behavior or eating pattern.
