HELP with worms and crickets. I feel so BAD

[leopard love]

My gecko is 3 months old and i was trying the trail and error method too and then i found out he eats about 8-10 meals worms every night. well i went to go get more worms today and the lady at the reptile store told me to start feeding crickets the ones that are SUPER tiny and that should be his main food not meal-worms, she told me 5 crickets and 2 worms dusted of course. well i felt so bad because this is my 3rd week owning him and he finally learned to eat from the dish, so when i put the crickets in and the meal-worms in he ate 3 crickets, but it took a little bit for him to see them and then he kept going to the dish it was so sad... what do i do? its sooooooo hard to grab the tiny crickets.

 

[tb144050]

its sooooooo hard to grab the tiny crickets.

Hard for you or for him to "grab the tiny crickets"? If I am trying to take crickets out of a tank, sometimes they are easier to remove when they are dead..."squish first, ask questions later."

I won't partake in the mealworm/cricket debate because there are pro's and con's to each, but I choose a main diet of crickets with some occasional mealworms.

If he isn't "trained" to hunt crickets and I want him to hunt, I would feed only crickets for a couple weeks. He should be hungry daily and he will get better at finding/catching them. If he isn't hunting, he isn't hungry enough..

I do have a couple of picky eaters. I give them all 5 each night, and 2 geckos usually eat 2 or 3, leaving 2 or 3. I leave them in there (against recommendations).....In the morning they are usually gone. If they aren't gone in the morning, I squish them, throw them away, and only give 2 crickets on the following night. So the picky eaters are usually eating the following daily quantities: 4, 2, 4, 2, 4, 2.

However, if I look in there the next morning and I see 3 or more, I squish/trash and I do not feed that gecko that night...obviously that gecko wasn't hungry (due to shedding or other reasons)... On the next feed, I resume 4, 2, 4, 2..

So, morale of the story: If he just isn't hunting at all, don't feed him for a day. If he doesn't CHASE the crickets on the following feed, take them out and feed the next day. Repeat until he is hungry enough to show some effort.

Note: Make sure his habitat and floor temps are right. Any stressful, even improper floor temps, will make them refuse to eat. If it loses more than 10% weight, seek assistance quickly.

 

[leopard love]

Okay thank you, my floor temps on my hot side is 93 degrees and he is a very good eater and is hungry every night since he is only 3 months. but i dont think he can see them. they are so small haha and he keeps going to the cricket dish during feeding time. and i feel bad. but i will try since i just bought crickets might as well not waste it and i bought the cricket water/food so idk. Feels like a waste to me until he can eat bigger ones that he can see. (HaHa) and is hard for me to grab the crickets i dont mind grabbing them but they are just so darn tiny

 

[tb144050]

They sound too small to be worth hunting..lol One common "rule of thumb" is to feed crickets "no longer than the width of your leo's eyes."

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I disagree with the pet store lady who made you feel bad. It is totally okay to feed 8-10 mealworms every day or two to your leo (how often depends on his size. I feed my babies a diet that's 75% mealworms and 25% dubia roaches. I feed large mealworms and if I fed crickets would go with 1/2 inch ones for the leos since they can easily eat them from the day they are hatched unless they are super tiny. If you're buying pinhead crickets they are probably way too small for your leo.

 

[leopard love]

Yah she told me if I got the medium crickets too big so idk it was only $2 for 30 of them but I idk I think ima still do some crickets but mainly mealworms he barely learned to eat from the dish nd he kept going there. Ill just use theses as much as I can and then buy the bigger ones. But gosh !! They smell

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[leopard love]

And yes my gecko is only 3 months old and he loves his mealworms he usually eats 8-10 a night

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[Olympus]

You can judge the size of the crickets yourself, as long as they aren't wider than the space between his eyes they are appropriate. A varied diet is always going to be best, so mealworms/superworms can be part of the diet but so can crickets. Throw in other things too if you can get them (butterworms, silkworms, roaches, etc.)

 

[leopard love]

okay i will do thank you all for making me feel better