Meal Worm Dish? Plus Calcium/Vitamins...

[Snuffles379]

Hello all!
My Leopard Gecko is around eleven and recently he has started eating differently. He doesn't chase crickets nearly as often and when he does try to chase them he hardly ever gets them. Either he is too slow, he cannot see them or misses when he lunges at them.
So I have began to give him giant meal worms more regularly, I've always thrown his food in front of him and have never tried any kind of dish. However, after seeing many of your enclosures in the forums I've noticed many people have dishes with meal worms in them. My problem is I have no idea if he'll find the worms in the dish or if he'll climb over the 1/2 inch rim (needed to keep the worms in) to eat them out of a dish. He often has to see them moving right in front of him to even go for them. Whats your experience with this? Do dishes work? Not work?
Also I saw a lot of people with what looked like small calcium dishes as well. I've never done this because I gut load my crickets but what if I were to put some calcium powder inside the meal worm dish? He's eating a lot of them now and I don't gut load them so would that be a good way for him to get calcium? or would it be too much and/or put him off eating them?

I'm just looking for some general advice and suggestions. Thanks very much!

 

[doublet74]

Ok first of all I wouldnt feed him "giant mealies" they are given supplements to make them "giant". Second I keep reg.calcium in a apple juice lid at all times in my cage. Third when you dust your feeders use calcium with D3. Fourth I also only dust every other feeding with D3. And once a week with a multivitamin. Yes dishes work. They can still smell their food. Also gutloading mealworms is as simple as keeping them in wheat bran with a piece of fruit or veg. for moisture. Good Luck !!!

 

[Snuffles379]

Ok first of all I wouldnt feed him "giant mealies" they are given supplements to make them "giant". Second I keep reg.calcium in a apple juice lid at all times in my cage. Third when you dust your feeders use calcium with D3. Fourth I also only dust every other feeding with D3. And once a week with a multivitamin. Yes dishes work. They can still smell their food. Also gutloading mealworms is as simple as keeping them in wheat bran with a piece of fruit or veg. for moisture. Good Luck !!!

Thanks for all the advice! I already do keep my mealworms in wheat bran, I had no idea that was efficiently gutloading them so that's fantastic.
About the giant mealworms, I have attempted to give him normal mealworms but he's around 78g and they are so small he won't even give them a second glance. Do you have any other recommendation that I could get at a common pet store? Other than crickets of course. I've heard of superworms but from what I read they are not nutritious enough to be a large part of his diet.

I'll work on getting a dish for calcium for him tomorrow.
Thanks again for your reply.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Superworms are like mealworms, but meatier and larger. You should give them a try.

 

[Sathis]

You might try leaving some mealies in terrarium anyways - mine are in a quite large glass bowl, not too deep. good for my morning muesli - however they manage to find the worms no matter what, even if the bowl is a bit deeper. I put lots of mealies inside, a little bit of carrot and some wheat bran on bottom. This way the meal worms stay pretty active and stimulate the gecko better than e.g. one worm, which does not move as much alone.
My geckos are just as big, and they love meal worms - when they eat it sometimes looks as if they has spaghetti for supper I think your gecko just needs to get used to them (and yeah - superworms are not a basic food for geckos)


I always keep a dish with calcium and vitamins in my enclosures just in case a gecko wants some Regularly I have 3 dishes - with mealies, water and supplements.