What do pet geckos eat?
Different species of geckos have different nutritional needs. For example, you would not feed fruit to a leopard gecko, which is carnivorous, when you could feed fruit to a day gecko. Always consult your veterinarian or expert at your local pet store before starting a diet for your pet gecko. That said, a pet gecko will eat much of the same food as a wild gecko. The hard part is finding the ingredients. Geckos eat many different insects in the wild, which may be difficult to breed or buy. In addition, most geckos don’t do well eating dried or pelleted foods, even those made from ingredients they eat. In general, pet geckos do best on a live, natural food diet.
The backbone of any carnivorous pet gecko’s diet includes crickets and grasshoppers. These insects are not only cheap and readily available, but they also contain a lot of nutrition. That said, it’s important to make sure insects are mixed with mineral supplements, especially calcium and vitamin D. Other common foods include mealworms, waxworms, superworms, and flies. Larger geckos can also eat pinky mice to help them maintain a healthy weight. Remember that insects can bite a pet gecko, so it is important to remove insects from a pet enclosure of geckos if they are not eaten for an extended period of time. In addition, some species can also tolerate processed gecko supplements.
As for fruit-eating geckos, common fruits to include in their diet include:
- apples
- bananas
- figs
- pears
- Grapes
- berries