New gecko with mealworms as staple

[JeepFreak81]

Hello everyone! I'll be picking up a new leopard gecko very soon. I have a habitat almost done for it. I plan to feed mealies as a staple diet. What i was hoping to find on the forum was a guide to feeding with mealworms. Basically a how to for dummies. Lets assume nothing and go from there. I'd like to buy enough at a time to go a month. Walk me through the process daily, weekly, monthly.

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[acpart]

You have to hope that your new leopard gecko will be willing to eat them. I bring up my hatchlings on mealworms to make it easier for inexperienced buyers who are freaked out by crickets. However, I have to admit that most of my adults are sick of mealworms and prefer crickets and superworms. However, I sold a gecko to friends in 2005 (and another 2 in 2010) that still eat mealworms.

I don't count my mealworms. I put them in a dish and let them go at it. Some geckos need the "drop it in front of me" method. Rather than try to anticipate numbers now, just get a container of 50 mealworms, consider putting them in some higher quality gutload than what they come in (Flukers cricket food power [not gel cubes] from the petstore or, for example, gutload from progeckos.com online), give them some leftover vegetable peels for hydration, put them in a dish for the gecko, with a little gutload at the bottom to keep them from climbing out to look for food, and see how fast you go through them.

Does that help?

Aliza

 

[Fencer04]

All of the advice above is perfect. I do use mealworms as a staple right now. I have a roach colony setup and I'm waiting for it to be established enough to feed off of.

I feed my adults 15 mealworms 4 to 5 times per week. Most of them tear through them right after I put them in the bowl and others take a few at a time for a while. It is also important that you dust your mealworms. I think that doing it twice a week is right because not a lot of the calcium and vitamin powder will stick to them.

All my babies get mealworms and almost all of them need to have them dropped in front of them to initiate feeding.

 

[JeepFreak81]

All great advice. I was also hoping someone would tell me more about what to do with the mealworms? Keep them in fridge? What is best to use for gutload. How long before i feed should i take them out of fridge if that is where i should store them? Also i will likely introduce super worms at some point, and maybe crickets although i'm hoping to avoid those noisey stinky little buggers. Thanks for the tips so far.

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[Fencer04]

I have my own colony so I keep them out of the fridge in a 3 drawer setup. If you aren't going to breed your own mealworms I suggest the following:

1. Put the worms in a tupperware with a couple of inches of Old Fashioned Oats.
2. Put some holes in the top and keep it in the warmest part of your fridge. Too cold will kill them.
3. Once a week take them out and put some carrot or potato slices in the tupperware and leave it out with the top off for 24 hours.
4. Put back in the fridge.
5. Repeat.

You can feed the gecko from the tupperware and replace the mealworms as necessary. This will cut down on the dead loss as well as make sure the worms are well fed and nutritious for the geckos.

 

[Dimidiata]

I have a drop it in front of me leo. -_-. PAIN. Now, you will probably want a storebought gutload so you can get max nutrients since you going to use mealies as a staple. I will say that you may have to suck it up and get crickets or superworms(look like big meal worms but are MUCH more healthy). Be sure you do give some variety every now and then, your leo more then likely will get tired of mealies tbh but some stay ok. I simply fed rango as many as he would eat when he was younger and now im still feeding him maybe 4-5 supers a day if he wants them. He also get mealies and crickets.

 

[JeepFreak81]

Well they sell supers at petco and petsmart downstate, i could feed those but i thought they were high in fat and should not be fed as a staple. Are they kept the same way as mealies?

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[Dimidiata]

I was under the assumption that they were lower in fat, many of the members here use them as staple. They are bascily kept like mealie without the fridge part. The die in the fridge. They also wont turn pupa aslong as thy arnt seperated.

 

[JeepFreak81]

I was under the assumption that they were lower in fat, many of the members here use them as staple. They are bascily kept like mealie without the fridge part. The die in the fridge. They also wont turn pupa aslong as thy arnt seperated.

Good to know will have to look into supers as a staple. I'm a bit worried that they will be too big for the little guy when i first get him

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[Coby78]

Good to know will have to look into supers as a staple. I'm a bit worried that they will be too big for the little guy when i first get him

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When I first got my gecko, I got the medium sized supers, and as soon as she could, she gladly took the large ones. She's also a "drop it in front of me" kind of gecko, and I've only gotten her to eat supers and silkworms. Mealies just didn't stimulate her enough.

If your store has medium supers, I think you and the gecko would enjoy them a lot.

 

[Dimidiata]

If they dont you can always pick the smaller ones out of the container when you feed .

 

[Taquiq]

Superworms have more fat than mealworms, but have a much better meat to chitin ratio. This makes them easier to digest, as meat is easier to digest than chitin. About four or five mealworms equal a large superworm, which makes superworms them less expensive in the long run.

 

[JeepFreak81]

Well got my gecko today and since they were feeding mealies, i bought some to get started. I will probably switch to supers though. Sounds like the way to go

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[acpart]

I've fed good size supers to geckos as small as 11 grams (she wouldn't eat anything else). If you get supers from a bigt chain pet store be sure to open them before you leave the store and count them. I've often found that half or more are dead, or that there's nothing in there. The petstore isn't trying to cheat but they get the supers pre-boxed and don't check them. Also, I think some of them get too cold and then die.

ALiza

 

[JeepFreak81]

Well i stopped by the local petstore and picked up some mealies and supers. They only sell one size of each. "Ecko" went after the mealies and gobbled them right up. He was interested in the super but i think they are too big for him....he would hunt it then seemingly decide it was too big to eat. Might have to wait for him to grow. Question is what do i do with my 25 supers now?

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[Dimidiata]

Do you have fish? or chickens?

 

[JeepFreak81]

Nope, well i have a couple small tropical fish. Maybe ill just try keeping the supers for a while and periodically try feeding them to my leo

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