# Can you keep Leopard Gecko?s on Mealworms?



## philofbof

*Can you keep Leopard Gecko’s on Mealworms?*

Can you keep Leopard Gecko’s on Mealworms?

I have only had my Leos for 1 week and I have found 2 small crickets hopping round the house. 
I was just wondering if it was possible to feed Leo’s on Mealworms only?
I extremely careful when feeding crickets, I only open the box inside the Exo Terra Glass Terrarium with only one of the doors open, and close the box before I take it out. The Crickets are only small so I have filled in the holes on top of the Exo Terra Terrarium.

Any advice would be great full as my wife does not fancy a house full of Crickets, and is already talking about taking the Leo’s back ………..

Any help or advice would be appreciated

Thank you,


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## lekkie

keeping them on just mealies wouldnt really be benificial enough, but if the crix around the house are bothering your wife, what about roaches rickeezee sells ones called dubia roaches you can buy them in colonies and keep feeding what you breed, the good thing about dubias is they cant climb so as long as u have some height, they wont escape on you either. 
i think roaches are excellent for lizards and mine go crazy for them, its just wether you can handle roaches in your house:2thumb:


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## Crownan

Many many many Americans do it.

I would say a varied diet is always best


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## fantapants

you need to vary the diet as much as possible. i agree that a roach colony is s good idea, we breed roaches and all of our lizards love them. mealies will turn into beetles eventually, so you are not really going to change anything! get some roach hotels from ebay, the escaped crix will get stuck in there, but be VERY ceraful that your leos cant escape and get stuck in them. 

unfortunately, insect escapees are pretty normal when you keep a reptile. i always thought my mates house was infested due to him being a lazy bugger, but now we have lizards, i see how easy they escape. try a cricket keeper if you havent already. or keep them in the shed outside on top of a heat mat. then go outside with one of those wrigleys ball shaped gum holders or a sealed plastic box. fill it up with the food you need, seal it, and DONT open it until you get it in the viv! after 30 minutes, anything they havent eaten, suck it up with a handheld hoover and empty it in the compost bin. shouldkeep the mrs happier.


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## markandwend

There is no problemo keeping them on mealies all the time, dont believe what people say about them not being good for the leo's as this is not correct! You could always give him/her hoppers a few times a week.


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## negri21

a varied diet is best , 

but some american breeders who breed 00s of leos a year use mealworms as a sole food source . just make sure that they are gut loaded properly


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## sparkle

A full and varied diet is best for any animal whether reptile or mamal etc... however i shal answer your question as best i can as i feel a simple OO yes its fine or NO WAY isnt really giving you the info u need to decide.. 

mealies CAN keep the gecko alive of course and sometimes have no adverse affect but the chitin value in mealies is high.. and ive heard of people who keep leos saying that the lack of calcium to phosphorus ratio in mealies has been indicated in liver problems ... and can also cause other various health issues...

that of course doesnt mean leos cant survive on them... a child can and wil survive on crisps and chocolate.. that doesnt mean its necessarily good for them though.. to make it a bit better feed your mealies on grated carrot and other vege too... this gut loads them and at least then the leo is taking in a gutloaded bug 

I have only kept leos a short while but noticed in the year I had them that when fed on mealies for a few days their poo was full of undigested mealies.. they seemed less active too. i siwthced them back and bingo they picked up again.. it may have had nothing to do with the mealie only diet that week but i never tried it again to check..

i think mealies are extremely hard to digest for smaller reptiles hence the reason people suggest never feeding young beardie mealies.. however some people do seem to use them without problem.. but if u browse this form for a while u wil see mealies have caused problems for various keepers too... its really down to personal opinion as theres no definitive tests..

so anyone who says its 100% fine or 100% wrong.. isnt really correct as such..

If you are going to feed mealies then it is also suggested you wait unitl they have just shed their hard skin and they are white and soft.. this can be a pain though as they all go through the shedding of this skin at different rates..

What you can do however if money isnt a problem is feed them calci grubs ( also called phoenix worms) these are excellent feeder items.. and high in the calcium phosphorus ratioe required by lizards... they are however much more expensive than mealies... but if you used mealies AND claci grubs 50/50 of the time this might be at least one option...




Everyone has different opinions though but I tend to research as much as i can than just take the easy route with my animals..

it would be nice if mealies were a really good source of protein as they are cheaper and easier to deal with than crix or locusts but id prefer to go through a bit of hassle than take the easy route.. as for phobias OH MAN.. i used to lock crix in boxes in another box outside my house... im ambaressed to say it.. and then I had to wait on my BF coming every day to feed my lizards... it took until he was really ill for me to get over the fear as it was a case of the lizards not eating or me braving it to give them cirx.. i had a few glases of wine called my best mate and we managed it.. since then although i disliek them i cope...


do a little bit more research off the forum and chat to people who have both viewpoints I guess..

Personally after research about feeder items i give all my animals lots of choice...


Sorry for the wrong reply but i think feeder issues are one of the most important questions on the forum.. so id prefer to give a blanaced answer than a quick yes or no..



its taken years for me to cope with them and i can still only use tweezers.. the thought of holding one in my hand makes me shudder.. but now if ones running around i can at least squish it whereas a few years back i ran screaming from the house..

maybe let your partner know that .... she might feel a bit better thats theres hope for her phobia... then again she might not.. LOL


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## Siman

Mealworms = good staple diet. 

I know tons of people who purely use mealworms and as for offering a varied choice, my leo's don't seem to want a varied choice.

They don't like crickets, locusts and haven't tried roaches as they're one bug thats not allowed to enter my house. They like the mealworms, leos are fine on purely mealworms, there we go.

Plus sparkle, i always thought that it was just because bearded dragons are unable to digest meal worms as efficiently as leopard geckos can. Something about over head heating to under belly heating and the levels of acidic in the stomach.


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## sparkle

Siman said:


> Mealworms = good staple diet.
> 
> I know tons of people who purely use mealworms and as for offering a varied choice, my leo's don't seem to want a varied choice.
> 
> They don't like crickets, locusts and haven't tried roaches as they're one bug thats not allowed to enter my house. They like the mealworms, leos are fine on purely mealworms, there we go.
> 
> Plus sparkle, i always thought that it was just because bearded dragons are unable to digest meal worms as efficiently as leopard geckos can. Something about over head heating to under belly heating and the levels of acidic in the stomach.


 
wel thats the thing... i was giving an example of beardies and leos ... but when i fed my leos on mealies i noticed undigested mealies in their poo and as i said they seemed lethargic.. i switched back to all the bugs and bingo they were back to normal..

I know loads of people that only feed mealies and then find they animals cant hunt crix or locusts so i also wouldnt want to do that... u never know the day something might happen and we need to rehome our animals. liek an ilness or a move abraod.. what if the next home wasnt going to feed mealies..

this is why i stopped handfeeding my WD.. someone mentioned that if anything ever happend to me and they next owner couldnt hand feed what then.. so now she both can hunt and handfeed.. 

aniamls can be transitioned over from one feeder inisect to several easily.. it takes time and determination .. i had to do it with a beardie once fed only on mealies but after 4 months he fed on all the insects and was retunred to his owner 

but in my post i explain that everyone has their own opinion... personally id love to be able to feed all my animals JUST mealies.. cheaper and easier by far... but I just feel its better to give them a varied diet..

i aslo elaborated in my answer to gut load mealies too... and perhaps think about phoenix worms etc as they have an excellent calcium phosphorus ratio.. phoenix worms/ calci grubs are loved by all my lizards.. including my team of cresties... i just wish they werent so expensive


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## Siman

sparkle said:


> wel thats the thing... i was giving an example of beardies and leos ... but when i fed my leos on mealies i noticed undigested mealies in their poo and as i said they seemed lethargic.. i switched back to all the bugs and bingo they were back to normal..
> 
> I know loads of people that only feed mealies and then find they animals cant hunt crix or locusts so i also wouldnt want to do that... u never know the day something might happen and we need to rehome our animals. liek an ilness or a move abraod.. what if the next home wasnt going to feed mealies..
> 
> this is why i stopped handfeeding my WD.. someone mentioned that if anything ever happend to me and they next owner couldnt hand feed what then.. so now she both can hunt and handfeed..
> 
> aniamls can be transitioned over from one feeder inisect to several easily.. it takes time and determination .. i had to do it with a beardie once fed only on mealies but after 4 months he fed on all the insects and was retunred to his owner
> 
> but in my post i explain that everyone has their own opinion... personally id love to be able to feed all my animals JUST mealies.. cheaper and easier by far... but I just feel its better to give them a varied diet..
> 
> i aslo elaborated in my answer to gut load mealies too... and perhaps think about phoenix worms etc as they have an excellent calcium phosphorus ratio.. phoenix worms/ calci grubs are loved by all my lizards.. including my team of cresties... i just wish they werent so expensive


Not trying to make an argument like, just stating something i once read.

I've tried giving mine locusts and they kill it and walk off. I've tried crickets, they just plain don't like those. I only have one leo who will eat crickets so he gets them now and again just to keep his hunting speed up.

To improve his focus and hunting speed i sometimes use big ole tweezers and drag a mealie around reasonably fast (about cricket speed) quite fun to watch them sprint around trying to get it. Works even better when i do it with the waxworm treat they get probably once a month.


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## Athravan

All the large USA breeders feed exclusively on mealworms, and a lot of the big UK breeders are doing it now too. I personally cannot comment on the nutritional value of a mealworm, but for them to be successful and produce such healthy looking leopard geckos, it does suggest that mealworms are an adequate diet.

I know my leos i've had imported from the USA fed exclusively on mealworms have been very healthy, and I've continued to feed them on mealworms as this is all they have ever known.. although I do give hoppers as well, but more as a treat than a staple. Mine have perfectly normal solid poos never an undigested mealworm in sight. I don't have many though so can't really comment on a large scale.

I would question as to whether if a leopard gecko is brought up on crickets, it has the same digestive capabilities as one given mealworms from a young age perhaps?


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## philofbof

Thank you for all the info here, can anyone explain how they go about feeding Crickets, I know that this may be a strange request but with me being new to this I could be doing something wrong. 
What I do is……my Crickets are kept in the plastic box we but them in and then we put that box inside an Exo Terra Flat Faunarium Plastic Terrarium (so they can not escape from there at least). Then I take the Cricket box out of the bigger box and only open that box inside myExo Terra Terrarium and let the Crickets jump out in to the Exo Terra Terrarium. I hope you can follow this so far, but as far as I can tell im doing nothing wrong I hope….


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## Siman

Athravan said:


> All the large USA breeders feed exclusively on mealworms, and a lot of the big UK breeders are doing it now too. I personally cannot comment on the nutritional value of a mealworm, but for them to be successful and produce such healthy looking leopard geckos, it does suggest that mealworms are an adequate diet.
> 
> I know my leos i've had imported from the USA fed exclusively on mealworms have been very healthy, and I've continued to feed them on mealworms as this is all they have ever known.. although I do give hoppers as well, but more as a treat than a staple. Mine have perfectly normal solid poos never an undigested mealworm in sight. I don't have many though so can't really comment on a large scale.
> 
> I would question as to whether if a leopard gecko is brought up on crickets, it has the same digestive capabilities as one given mealworms from a young age perhaps?


I would imagine it would be the case of my dogs, my dog was bought um from a pup on dog food, we tried him on other foods upon hearing that dog food wasn't the best and his stomach couldn't handle it.

I guess if their stomachs get used to working in a particular way to digest what is commonly ate then changing it for something else would either mess it up a bit (perhaps cause lethargy) or just get passed through...


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## Kev132

Correctly fed/gutloaded crickets are the best staple diet for a leopard gecko, no doubt... 

if you feel a mealworm, its quite tough, but once gutloaded (we use eurorep cricket diet) they feel quite soft, and this is when we offer them to our animals.

heres a few examples of our adults for you, make your own minds up ?


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## celicachi

is it expensive to just use crickets compared to just mealworms?


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## Grond

Kev132 said:


> Correctly fed/gutloaded crickets are the best staple diet for a leopard gecko, no doubt...


Do you have any evidence to back up this argument?

I feed all 80+ of my leos and all offspring on mealworms exclusively and never have any problems whatsoever.

They are all active and healthy, and grow and breed well. : victory:


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## celicachi

aren't dubia roaches too big for leopard geckos? and are they easy to breed?


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## jools

celicachi said:


> is it expensive to just use crickets compared to just mealworms?


Crickets will be a bit more expensive than mealworms yes, but not as expensive as locust etc. My baby Leos are fed almost exclusively on WELL GUTLOADED mealworms and do very well. The thing that most ppl have against crickets is that sooner or later they escape. Small dubia roaches are great for Leos, easy enough to breed if you need a lot. Don't know if it would be worth the effort for just one Leo tho.


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## celicachi

this might be a sill question, but how do you gut load mealworms? do you just throw in a mix into the tub?


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## Grond

celicachi said:


> this might be a sill question, but how do you gut load mealworms? do you just throw in a mix into the tub?


I keep my mealworms in oats/bran at all times, and then add in veg scraps periodically. This way they're always well gutloaded! : victory:


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## oobernoob

Feed all my leos pretty much exclusively on mealies. Gut-loaded with bran/porridge oats, and ocassional table scraps.
Never had problems, never had any MBD, all my leos look and act very healthy indeed!
In fact, i'd go as far as to say that mealies far surpass crickets when considering a staple diet for leos.
I've no scientific or nutritional info to back this up, only the fact that all of my hatchlings only really started to bulk up and look healthier when switched from crickets to mealies (yes the crix were gut-loaded too). I fed the hatchlings on crickets to start with as they are nice and small and pose no digestion threats that you hear of (eating out of the stomach etc), then when they reach around 12-14grams i switch them to mealies.


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## naja-naja

you can feed them exclusivley on mealies, i do.


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## collaredlizards

Hi, 

It is absoulutely fine to keep your geckos on an exclsuive mealworm diet, you may find as they get older they may benefit from a variety. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via private message.

Many Thanks

Tommy Gardner


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## Kev132

Grond said:


> Do you have any evidence to back up this argument?
> 
> I feed all 80+ of my leos and all offspring on mealworms exclusively and never have any problems whatsoever.
> 
> They are all active and healthy, and grow and breed well. : victory:


a year and a half ago when i made that post, there where pictures there to "back it up" : victory:

if you read it propperly, all our leo's are fed just mealworms too, boy dontcha love old threads being dug up ! :lol2:


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## Grond

Kev132 said:


> a year and a half ago when i made that post, there where pictures there to "back it up" : victory:
> 
> if you read it propperly, all our leo's are fed just mealworms too, boy dontcha love old threads being dug up ! :lol2:


I normally spot that too! :bash:

What I meant was as you stated that 'crickets are the best staple diet for leos, no doubt' you must have some evidence or research to back up such a positive statement.

Photos of healthy leos is not evidence, as I could post photos of my healthy leos which have never eaten anything but mealworms.

I'm not arguing, just genuinely interested to know if there is data to show that crix are better than mealies. : victory:


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## jools

Crix and locust / roaches are usually regarded as being a better staple for Leos as they have a lower fat content. BUT what research has been done to show what is the optimum fat/protein/carbohydrate ratio for Leos? It may be that they, especially when young, actually need that higher fat ratio. However that is not to say that they should be fed to the point of obesity which has been shown to be life limiting. Where is Saedcantas when you need her?:whistling2: All I can go by is my personal experience. My babies / sub-adults thrive on a mealworm only diet. My adults get a varied diet because that is what they are used to and refuse to take mealworms.


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## Kev132

Grond said:


> I normally spot that too! :bash:
> 
> What I meant was as you stated that 'crickets are the best staple diet for leos, no doubt' you must have some evidence or research to back up such a positive statement.
> 
> Photos of healthy leos is not evidence, as I could post photos of my healthy leos which have never eaten anything but mealworms.
> 
> I'm not arguing, just genuinely interested to know if there is data to show that crix are better than mealies. : victory:


Woah your still not getting me, the pictures posted where of my leo's fed on a staple of mealworms, not crickets


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## Grond

Kev132 said:


> Woah your still not getting me, the pictures posted where of my leo's fed on a staple of mealworms, not crickets


Fair enough....

*goes to polish his glasses......*


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## daniel11

well they do in the usa and that would be agood diet but it is better using crikets or locust.
there might be some info on this site i aint checked in a while. leopard geckos help - Home
regards dan


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## Grond

daniel11 said:


> it is better using crikets or locust.


Would you like to tell us why?


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## Kerry-Louise

i feed mainly gut loaded mealies.. few crickets a week.

Works for me so this is what i will continue to feed : victory:


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