Feeding advise

[cuepoint76]

Hello folks. Can anyone offer some advice on how to train a Fat Tail to eat mealworms? I just bought a double het White Sock/Amel female the other day and she hasn't shown much interest in them as of yet. She's eats crickets like nothing when I put them in her tank, so I know the stress of a new tank isn't affecting her appetite. I would just prefer to feed her a staple diet of mealworms. I'm not a big fan of maintaining crickets. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[acpart]

Fat tails generally don't eat mealworms. Sorry. Good luck.

Aliza

 

[gixxer3420]

Out of my 21 adult fat tail breeders not one of them will eat worms. You may have to just deal with feeding him/her crickets.

 

[Imperial Geckos]

Unfortunately when dealing with Fat Tails, you will always have to have crickets on hand. They are picky eaters, even to the point to where the ones that eat mealworms usally wont even eat superworms. But no healthy Fat Tail will refuse a cricket.

We run a predominantly cricket free operation. However, we have the select few, that were not produced by us, that will only eat crickets so we need to have them on hand.

All of our babies are started on mealworms. The ones that wont eat, will be fed crickets, then we will try to switch them over later on. If they dont switch, then thats it, we will continue to feed them crickets. None of our geckos are treated differently or fed differently because of what they eat. However, he have noticed faster growth rates and healthier weights on our fat tails eating on a staple diet of mealworms. It has also been much easier to keep the weight on our breeding females throughout the breeding season.

However, when you get an adult or sub-adult that has fed on crickets their whole lives, its almost impossible to switch them over to mealworms. It easier to switch them over to superworms because they are larger and they move a lot more, but the success rate is still pretty low (from personal experience).

So when buying a Fat Tail, if you dont want to deal with crickets, its best to ask the breeder what the geckos current diet consist of.

Good Luck! :main_thumbsup:

 

[gixxer3420]

Actually they get more nutrients from crickets. They get fatter on meal worms because its a fattier food.

 

[Imperial Geckos]

Fattier is not always bad; especially when we are putting these animals under the stress of breeding every year. Regardless of the analytical results of crickets and mealworms they both require gutloading so as to ensure proper nutritional requirements and also they need to be dusted with some sort of vitamin/calcium powder. I believe with proper gutloading and monitoring the weight of every gecko, like one should do regardless of what is being fed mealworms are a better staple diet than crickets.

Also feeding mealworms benefits the health of your gecko. Crickets are known to carry various nematodes such as pinworms, which can be a debilitating parasite that requires medical treatment. Crickets also roam free within the geckos tub/cage where they can feed on your animal’s feces thus providing a terrible food source and possibly eating more parasite eggs and adding to the load of nematodes your gecko can have leading to a sick gecko.

We can sit here for days arguing which is better, point is many breeders including myself use mealworms as staple with no ill effect. I have had many gecko that needed to be wormed do to an overload of nematodes, thats was just a little fact to be used as fuel for thought. Both have their pros and cons. The choice is up to the personal keeper and what they feel is better for their animals.

 

[Jade Icing]

I am starting to see that.

 

[gixxer3420]

I will stick with crickets. JMG seems to be having great luck with it. Yeah a lot of the smaller breeders use or try using meal worms. Fatter fat tails doesnt less productive in breeding. Its what ever you feel like using or what ever your gecko is actually going to eat.

 

[Imperial Geckos]

I will stick with crickets. JMG seems to be having great luck with it. Yeah a lot of the smaller breeders use or try using meal worms. Fatter fat tails doesnt less productive in breeding. Its what ever you feel like using or what ever your gecko is actually going to eat.

You are correct. Fat and Overweight Fat Tails are poor breeders. And I am not telling you to switch over to mealworms and have nothing against those that feed crickets. I know JMG has had good results feeding crickets. I have a couple of geckos from them and 3 out of 4 geckos i have from JMG never switched to mealworms. However, Urban has been feeding mealworms to their Fat Tails and they seem to be doing pretty good too :main_rolleyes:.

Again its all personal choice..and more importantly what your Fat Tail will eat!! :main_thumbsup:

Cheers!

 

[cuepoint76]

Thanks for the tips guys. Both points made a lot of sense. I'm not ready to give up on the mealworms just yet. I purchased a male too and he caught on real quick with mealworms. We'll see...

 

[Carinata]

I have successfully converted 1 of my ATFs to mealworms......yes one AFT. I have a stinking feeling I am going to have to do crickets. I do however offer my geckos a very diverse diet, in a month they have the option of Superworms, crickets, waxworms, mealworms, live pinkie mice, and dubia roaches. It is best IMO to offer AFTs a very diverse diet as it is with any animals. My snakes get mice, rats, birds and the occasional rabbit kit.