One of the most important factors in the health and well being of your Leopard Gecko is a healthy diet. Leopard Geckos are insectivores, like many other reptile creatures, which means that they feed on insects, such as spiders, moths, mosquitoes, and worms.
Adult geckos can be fed live prey every other day while baby leopard geckos should be fed everyday. You can adjust the feeding to suit your specific geckos needs if this schedule doesn't seem to work for your pet.
Two appropriately sized mealworms for every inch of a leopard gecko's entire length is all that's needed, but you can treat your pet to waxworms or superworms once a week. Most geckos do prefer to hunt and capture their own fresh prey as opposed to being given dead or pre-killed prey to eat.
You can also feed your gecko crickets, but when giving a gecko crickets as prey, you need to make sure that you use crickets that are small enough for your gecko to hunt.
A large cricket for your gecko could cause your pet alot of stress and a hungry cricket will attack and could harm your gecko.
You can offer your gecko anywhere from 4 to 8 crickets at one time. If the crickets aren't eaten within a couple of hours they should be removed and used for the next feeding, so that they don't cause your gecko any unnecessary stress. It is normal for geckos to eat the skin that they shed, so they may not always need the same amount of food for each feeding.
Super-worms, mealworms or anything else that can be contained in a dish can be left within the cage without putting the gecko in any danger.
As a treat you can give your adult gecko an occasional tiny pinkie mouse. One that is only a few days old will be small enough for an adult gecko to handle. Actually, pinkie mice are a wonderful choice to offer breeding females.
Wax-worms are also a good occassional treat for your gecko. Even though geckos love wax-worms, they are very fattening and generally unhealthy for geckos.
To prevent your gecko from choking, the prey that you offer your pet should be no larger than half the width of your gecko's head.
The skin that they shed, and then consume, does help to supply them with protein and additional healthy nutrients.
One of the better ways of keeping your leopard gecko healthy in regards to feeding it, is to gut-load your geckos prey 24 hours prior to feeding it to them. Gut-loading is feeding the crickets or other insects a very nutritious, high quality diet before feeding them to your gecko. Offering your gecko a healthier insect in turn makes a healthier gecko.
Chick or hog mash can be used to feed the insects or you can use things like fruits, vegetables and grains. You can also purchase a powdered supplement from a pet store for the intention of gut-loading the prey. Along with gut-loading, you can offer your gecko calcium and vitamin supplements by sprinkling the prey with powdered supplements prior to feeding them to your gecko.
Calcium and vitamins are very important to the overall health of the leopard gecko. When dusting the prey, you do want to be careful not to get dust in your geckos eyes.
Providing extra powdered calcium is also needed to enrich the diet of baby leopard geckos and breeding females.
Your gecko should also have fresh water available at all times. Stagnant water is a breeding ground for bacteria which can lead to disease in your gecko so the water should be changed regularly.
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