When to Upsize Mealworms

[Jolenels]

Dora was eating small mealworms, she is about a year old give or take a month. I had to switch where I was getting mealworms from because of quality but these ones seem even smaller. When do I switch sizes? There is only small and large around here.

I gave up on crickets after the last ones escaped my keeper! My chihuahua had a field day catching and eating them but I wasnt too pleased. So meal worms are my only option. She isnt very big...I actually havent seen a size change in over a month.

Also, off topic, but how do I tell if she is a she? Or a he? In the most painless way possible as Dora is not fond of me touching her. I am the only one she will take food from but she's sketchy when I hold her. The people who can hold her with no qualms don't want to do the sexing. Go figure. lol

 

[Geckomaster743]

Normally you feed the gecko the size in between the eyes but I feed them depending on how energetic they are, and how active they are towards the food I offer them. Normally if Dora is excited to eat then you should feed her bigger worms or Worm's that move around a lot. You don't want to give worms that are too big though, Giant worms can be too big though I have a gecko named Neo who is REALLY fierce when he hunts that Im forced to give them to him. They are slow so he can find them and when he bites Worm juice splats every where. So it really depends on how easy it is for your gecko to eat the worm. If shes doing fine with small worms then just continue to feed small worms but in a larger quantity. So maybe a few more then you already feed her. You can also mix the worms up if you want too some Small some Big. So yeah there isn't a certain time but if you think your gecko would hunt better eating bigger ones then its really your choice.

On other topics we have a Thread in the Breeding Geckos section that talks about sexing geckos. It has some thing to do with a V Pattern of the pores under the gecko near where they eject poop. There are also these thick buldges males have that females don't. It's really hard to sex a gecko when they are babies.

 

[Caleb C]

Like Darkmaster said, people say to get mealworms the size of the space between their eyes, but imo, that's too small.
I feed mine 5 mealworms a day the size of the fattest part of their tail. It's a little smaller than the size of the head, and bigger than the size between the eyes. It'd be best to google how to sex, as there are pictures. There's should be a V of small pores where the body meets the tail if it's a male.

 

[acpart]

I start my hatchlings off with smaller mealworms (I breed mealworms, so I just separate out the small ones) but by the time they're 4-5 weeks old they're eating regular sized ones. Even my adult Coleonyx who are 10 grams can eat regular sized mealworms.

Aliza

 

[Star1]

The easiest way to tell the sex of one that doesn't like beong held is to put them in a clear container they can't escape and look at their underside.http://www.reptilecare.com/leopardgender.htm here's a site that shows how it looks if its male or female. When they're in the container it's easier to tell because they aren't squirming around