Mealworms?

[Lollapaloozafan]

Is feeding mealworms to my leo gecko healthy/safe? I usually give her crickets but I wanted her to have some variety. The reptile store is super against them but I know other leo owners that give theirs nothing but mealworms. Very conflicted with this. Insight would be nice. Thank you

 

[JadedGeckos]

it is fine to do a only diet as mealworms.. is it good... eeh.. not really.. but they dont die from it. mealworms dont have alot of nutrition compared to say dubias and crickets.

my leos was on a mealworm diet before i got them.. and when i got them i started to buy crickets instead since they are bigger, fatter and had more nutrition. and now.. my leos HATE mealworms.. they go up to them... lick them.. look at them some more... lick them even more... and walk away.. but if you put a cricket infront of them they snap like a alligator snapping turtle.

so even if you want to give them variety with mealworms as i wanted to do as a treat.. they might just not want them anymore.

 

[Lollapaloozafan]

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback. I'll more then likely stick to crickets and dubias after these are gone.

 

[JadedGeckos]

if you have mealworms you can just let them pupate and or turn into beetles and see if your leos like those as treats! thats what im waiting for at the moment but they are slow to pupate since its not too hot in the room where they are

 

[Lollapaloozafan]

I dont think they could pupate in my apartment, its pretty chilly in here haha gotta love that AC

 

[acpart]

Here's an article about feeder nutrition written for Gecko Time by Mark Finke who works for Timberline. Compare mealworms and crickets. Mealworms have less calcium and more fat, but otherwise are fairly comparable:

Nutritional Value of Commercially Raised Insects - Gecko Time

Up until recently there was little detailed nutritional information about commercially raised insects. However in the last 10 years the nutrient content of the most common commercially raised insects has been published in peer reviewed journals. These analyses include house crickets (Acheta...

www.geckotime.com

Aliza