Feeding time

[luxxman]

As a soon to be leo owner I have some feeding questions. I already have a Bearded Dragon and I don't feed him inside of his enclosure but in a separate feeding tank. It seems from reading that most of you just let your geckos eat in their tanks. I know having some mealies in there wouldn't be too hard to keep contained but it can be a real pain to track down those non-eaten crickets or roaches after feeding time. If you only put in a few bugs at a time will the leo's usually chase after them and hunt, or are they more mellow feeders?

My BD is a very lazy hunter lol. There can be 30 roaches running around him and he'll just casually wait in one spot for the dumb ones that walk right under his chin haha. Sometimes he has to move a bit but he just doesn't have an aggressive approach to hunting. That is why I like the separate feeding tank for him with no hiding places for the bugs to get into. But from what I can tell, leo's don't seem to eat as many bugs as he does either.

 

[lil_katiedan]

Leos are usually very fiesty hunters (of course there are always some lazy ones). We feed a staple of mealworms which are simple enough to just throw in a bowl and leave, although roaches are a great feeder as well. We're not a huge fan of crickets because of the obvious stink, noise, lower nutrition value and chance of parasites. As for roaches your gecko will most likely eat them right away, if not just leave a few in over-night. Hope this helps!

 

[Scott&Nikki]

I refuse to have roaches in my home, so I feed him mealworms and crickets. For a while he was not eating meal worms at all, so I would just throw in how ever many crickets he was usually eating and using the tubes from the cricket keeper to get out the extras. Now I throw in a few less crickets than normal and then he eats some mealworms. The second I throw crickets in, even if he is in his hide, he comes flying out to eat them. I love watching.

 

[luxxman]

I would take a bin full of 1000 roaches over 25 crickets any day lol. I just can't stand the smell of the crickets, and the chirping drives me insane. I live in an apartment so I don't have a garage or anything to store them in to get away from the smell and noise. Plus the roaches are so much easier to keep a colony of and they have softer bodies making them easier to digest.

Sounds like it shouldn't be much trouble to feed them in the tank so I'll just have to play around with how much of anything I put in at a time.

 

[Scott&Nikki]

Well, my leo is still a baby, so the crickets I get for him do not chirp yet. I only keep 2 dozen crickets at a time, so they do not smell either. I can't stand the look of roaches. I just can't do it...

 

[ReptileMan27]

Leos are fine eating in their cage, remove any uneaten food because cricks and leos have been known to chew of toes and stress the leos. I personally prefer to feed a varied diet but cricks or mealies can be fed as a staple.

 

[luxxman]

I like the idea of a varied diet, I try to do that with my BD. I already have the roaches and I can pick up mealies and small amounts of crickets to change it up a bit. Plus I sometimes order silkworms and phoenix worms as a treat for the BD so there would be that as well. It seems that feeding for leo's is fairly easy so that is going to be a nice change lol.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I just got my first order of dubia roaches, and my geckos didn't know what to do with them! LOL! My blizzard female jumped on them, though...

 

[GECKOMAN]

Leos are fine eating in their cage, remove any uneaten food because cricks and leos have been known to chew of toes and stress the leos. I personally prefer to feed a varied diet but cricks or mealies can be fed as a staple.

:main_yes:

I think the same, I feed mine a staple of crickets and mealworms
with a treat once in a while of waxworms, or a pinkie for the female
after or before breeding:grin2: .

 

[eyelids]

I just got my first order of dubia roaches, and my geckos didn't know what to do with them! LOL! My blizzard female jumped on them, though...

LOL! I haven't tried roaches yet, but it's one of my New Year's resolutions to add more of a variety to my Leos' diets.

 

[GECKOMAN]

I haven't tried roaches yet but I am going to try to get a colony of dubias going this year to.:main_yes:

 

[ByRandom]

Whenever I was feeding the smaller Lobster Roaches to my geckos, it took them no time at all to figure out they were a food item. They loved them! Very good feeders, very prolific.