Fruits

[bromide]

Can you feed your leopard gecko fruits? I know they are carnivorous, but have any of you ever tried it? Would it be bad for their health?

 

[T-ReXx]

No. Leopard geckos aren't designed to digest plant matter.

 

[Jordan]

yes its bad for them. As said above they arent designed for it.

 

[Enigmatic_Reptiles]

Yup, not good for them at all. Someone I sold a gecko too a while ago use to put pieces of fruit in with the worms in the leos cage (thinking this would keep the worms alive longer and gutload continually). Well the gecko ate a piece of apple and died 2 days later...moral of the story...only feed appropriate insects to them.

 

[Dog Shrink]

Yup, not good for them at all. Someone I sold a gecko too a while ago use to put pieces of fruit in with the worms in the leos cage (thinking this would keep the worms alive longer and gutload continually). Well the gecko ate a piece of apple and died 2 days later...moral of the story...only feed appropriate insects to them.

Awww that's sad... so how do we avoid that from happening if we suggest to people to put a piece of food in their mealie dish to make them more active to attract the leo? I know, obvious answer right make it bigger than the leos mouth right...

 

[T-ReXx]

Apple seeds contain arsenic. I suspect that is what happened.

 

[M_surinamensis]

Apple seeds contain arsenic. I suspect that is what happened.

Amygdalin, hydrogen cyanide. Not arsenic.

And really unlikely to be a cause of death in a lizard, the amount present is very small and it's all contained inside the seed, the outside of which is pretty close to indigestible. Maybe if multiple seeds were cut in half or crushed, then ingested. Maybe.

I'd guess that the two things, eating apple and dying, are largely unrelated. That is just a guess though, a necropsy would be required for a definite answer. There's no reason to feed a leopard gecko any sort of fruit anyway though, best case scenario they pass it largely undigested. Worst case it could cause some harm as the complex sugars in the apple go undigested but start to rot before it's expelled.

 

[Daedric1]

Awww that's sad... so how do we avoid that from happening if we suggest to people to put a piece of food in their mealie dish to make them more active to attract the leo? I know, obvious answer right make it bigger than the leos mouth right...

Yep, exactly.