# My Leopard gecko will only eat wax worms



## LeglessCricket (Nov 10, 2012)

I recently brought a 3 year male leopard gecko, have had him a few days now and he will only eat wax worms. He shows no interest at all in crickets and this is really what I want him to be having. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could get him to eat them? The previous owner said he's not a big eater and favours worms, what are your opinions? Should I just keep him on worms? 

Thanks


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## micky0 (Jul 25, 2012)

LeglessCricket said:


> I recently brought a 3 year male leopard gecko, have had him a few days now and he will only eat wax worms. He shows no interest at all in crickets and this is really what I want him to be having. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could get him to eat them? The previous owner said he's not a big eater and favours worms, what are your opinions? Should I just keep him on worms?
> 
> Thanks


To be honest it is good he is eating , some dont in first few days. Try crix every now and then but if he is on worms , fine just gut load em :2thumb: sounds like he is doing ok


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## katevictoria (Oct 19, 2012)

Wax worms can be very addictive and are very high in fat! They are like gecko Galaxy bars  Taste heavenly but are ultimately gonna give you a heart attack!

It might sound harsh, but if their tails are fat enough leave them for a day or two, no meal worms or anything just water and calcium, and just drop a cricket in on the thir day. If they are hungry enough, they will eat it!!


Good luck!


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## vgorst (Sep 27, 2011)

Cruel to be kind and all that. If he's 3 years old and got a nice chunky tail he can last a long time without eating. Don't feed him anymore wax worms and try every few days with crickets or mealworms. Once he's hungry enough he'll take what he can get, sometimes they need a little persuasion to get them to eat properly.


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## LeoBoris (Jul 21, 2012)

Don't feed wax worms as a staple diet its like us eating chocolate for every meal! no more wax worms now don't give in, try crickets, locusts or dubia roaches  


_Posted from Reptileforums.co.uk App for Android_


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## LeglessCricket (Nov 10, 2012)

I wasn't going to give in but he is 9inches and only weighs about 67g. His tail looks quite skinny and that's what worried me. But will just offer him crickets now! I'm sure he'll come around to it!


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## vgorst (Sep 27, 2011)

LeglessCricket said:


> I wasn't going to give in but he is 9inches and only weighs about 67g. His tail looks quite skinny and that's what worried me. But will just offer him crickets now! I'm sure he'll come around to it!


That's a good weight for a leo. Keep monitoring his weight, if it drops drastically then you may need to make another plan of action.


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## JohansonLeos (Sep 26, 2012)

Hi
I know sethiman who sold you the gecko and have seen the gecko eat before:2thumb:
I don't think he is a big fan of crickets and I know that he hasn't tried locusts but I have seen him eat loads of mealies and super worms and even mealworms as I have looked after him before:2thumb:. If I were you stop feeding the waxworms for a bit and let him get hungry (only 2-3 waxworms a week usually ). This does sound cruel but he has stopped properly growing, his tail is reasonably fat and a few days won't do any harm to his health. I have seen him eat other foodstuffs so he is probably just being picky and once he gets a bit hungry he will eat what you give him. Also, when leos are new theymight be off their food and can take up to 2 weeks to settle in properly :2thumb:.
Hope that helps
:2thumb:

Edit: just reading through again and saw you said that sethiman said that the gecko favours worms. Sethiman means mealies and supers


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## micky0 (Jul 25, 2012)

Just read this again ha ha I could of sworn you put meal worms , scrap what I said lol , I got meal worms on the brain as thats all my beardie is eating at the moment . Yeah wax worms are not the best mate


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## sheena is a gecko (Apr 22, 2011)

As has been said i would let him go hungry for a few days then try offering some crix or mealies. leos can be funny things we have a couple that prefer mealies and will only eat crix or hoppers if they are starving, others prefer their food to have legs and will sit looking at a bowl of mealies for a week before they will eat any. If he has been used to and raised on worms you might find it takes quite a while to get him to eat crix or hoppers but you should be able to trick him into eating mealies instead of waxies. Let him get hungry then offer the mealies if he doesn't take them on his own then try offering a few from tweezers or dropped on the floor in front of him so he can see them wriggling. If he still won't take them try putting one or two waxies in a bowl of mealies, hopefully he will grab for the waxies and get a few mealies at the same time and then realise they are food. That should be last resort though, he should get hungry enough to eat other types of food if he is a healthy adult male. Bear in mind it's getting towards winter time now and some adults are slowing down on their eating a bit.


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## LeglessCricket (Nov 10, 2012)

Not all that related but just curious as to how much and when others feed their adult Leo's on the regular? How often you dust with calcium? Just your general feeding schedule?


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## katevictoria (Oct 19, 2012)

I have two greedy buggers, i leave a bowl of mealworms in there all the time with a sprinkle of zoo med flies (smell horrendous but are a good supplement), once a week i dust them with nutrobal and i leave a calcium bowl in there all of the time. 

Mine don't necessarily eat the calcium out of the bowl, but do tend to get it on there noses and then lick it off? im happy with that as long as they get it into their systems!

I tend to give them about two crickets each every other day, sometimes more if they look like they are still hungry (which is pretty much all of the time). Reasons for only doing it every other day is that i find if i feed them too much all they want to do is sleep, they arent very active, and two, if you leave crickets in there and your leo isnt hungry and doesnt eat them, the longer the cricket is in there the more chance the cricket will nip your leo! (and other things like if theres any poop in there, the cricket might eat the poop and then your leo will indirectly eat its own poop, never good :s) 

Mine are also spoilt brats, i do sometimes handfeed them crickets and mealworms and Dubia roaches that i sort of dunk in the calcium. I find the best way to get mine to eat mealies is to get the mealies in some tweezers by the tail, and they swirl around the tweezers to try and free themselves, the twirling seems to get my leos attention and they eat it even if its got the calcium powder on!

To my knowledge leo's vant overdose on calcium, the more the better, but they can on nutrients like the VIT D3 supplements you can get. so try to limit that to once a week maybe?

p.s. dont know if you know about gutloading, but its basically an added extra to get some vitamin C into ur leos. When you buy your mealies, if you put some bran and some orange chunks and some carrot chunks into the mealies, they will not only last longer but will make them extra nutritious for your leo! 


Sorry thats such a long reply!! Seem to have got carried away haha!!
X


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