How Many Mealie or Crix do you feed?

[MichaelJ]

We feed the majority of our colony meal worms as a staple. A few are stubborn and will only eat crix... But were making strides to change that slowly but surely..

Anyhoo.. I spoke to three different people today via email and just to get a general idea of how much (not how often) people feed their animals. How many mealies or crix.. The reason I ask is because they all gave me completely different numbers and the last three books and articles had even more variance..


Mealies - 8-10 for both ages daily depending on age - we keep detailed records of everything each one does so we do adjust up or down based on how they are eating.

Crix - Juves get 2-5 depending on crick size and size of Leo
Adults - 4-6 depending on their patterns of eating..

Really everything we do with them is dependent on our close study of their patterns.

I just wanted to see what everyone else does?!

Some people think I'm a bit AR about my habits of keeping records so tightly but it's the only thing that gives me control to see how everyone is doing at all times and look at history and know exactly what may or may not need to be changed. Also is something is happening that isn't exactly visible I can jump on it before it gets too far to reverse.

Mj

 

[GeckoMandi]

I really don't keep count on my adults I give them I know about 20-30 mealies in their bowls every 2-3 days and so far they are fat and chunky. I have 1 out of 14 geckos that only eats crickets and he won't touch a mealie.

Hatchlings I feed everyday sometimes every other day about 6-10 mealies.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

I don't keep a count really, I fill up the dish and check it daily for mealies and throw in crix when I have extras from the chams.

With about 20 leos I guess I use about 10,000 mealies a month so about 16 per leo per day depending on size and beeding, they also gets pinks form tiem to time.

 

[ReptileMan27]

I usaully have a dish of mealies, dont really count how many I put in a dish. For crickets, I dont just drop them in, feed using tongs, dont generally count anymore. I guess after feeding leos and other geckos for years, you kind of just know, dont need to really count out lol.

 

[gothra]

I give my adults 12-15 mealies every 3 days; the younger ones I feed them daily or every 2nd day (same quantity).

 

[boutiquegecko]

Hey neighbor,
We don't count either. I fill adult bowls every few days and hatchlings daily. With hatchlings I start out with only a few every day and as I see they are gaining weight/pooping etc, I half fill thier little bowls too. Crickets are a every few weeks thing for us and I put in about 10 per adult and any that aren't eaten in a few hours goes, but usually they're gone.
You could go by weight too to notice a problem if trying to keep up with how many things each leo is eating is too much. I have weights on everyone and if I notice someone not wanting to eat I will weigh them weekly to keep a closer eye on them.

 

[GeckoJunkie]

Same as several others.

I really dont keep count I just keep mealies in a bowl avaiable to them at all times. If it looks like one is not eating well or something then I might start keeping a count or a check to see how much they are eating. And crix are fed one maybe twice a week, with them I just put a few in each cage and check back and put a couple more in as they eat them.

 

[nightseer00]

I feed mine mostly superworms and mealworms with the occasional waxie. I had crickets before but none really seemed interested and they were a pain in the butt because they kept getting out somehow.

i was thinking about getting some new bugs though, maybe roaches or silkworms?

 

[MichaelJ]

Well we keep a journal of everything and count everything each night. It may take a few minutes longer, but we can really keep track of all the Leo's trends. We give ten to our juves and babies 10-15 and 15-25 to adults. A few who only eat crickets because they are stubborn we'll give 8-10. All of these counts are based on what we track. If we see one finish his/her bowl nightly we'll up it by a few and see if it takes. If we notice a decline in feeding we'll try other food items. If we notice anyone getting fat we back of their feeding by a few worms or crix to get them in shape.

Juves and babies get fed every night, Adults every two nights.

What may be different about us is that we have 25 Leos and two gravid females. 2 Golden Geckos, and 2 Gargoyles. So just keeping track by eye is tough to remember. With breeding and selling to others we want to have as accurate a system we can offer.

We also get fecals done bi-monthly by our awesome Vet who has also become a personal friend. (He's terrible at golf though) Don't tell him I said that.

We also weigh everyone in the house every Sunday.

Like I said many people think I'm AR about them but we've got so much to keep up with I don't want to leave anything to chance.