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Of course! Crested Geckos often find mealworms as a common food source fed by pet owners. However, pet owners need to understand that mealworms should be kept as a sort of snack that should be utilized every other day. Think of mealworms as treats, for example, treats that you could pick up in a retail store to feed your dog or cat shouldn’t be something to give them as a meal to be eaten every day. Our pets would get sick and then need to be taken to the vet for a diagnosis. Every pet reacts a specific way for overeating foods that are not meant to be a part of their daily diet.
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Advantages of Feeding Mealworms to Your Crested Gecko
Benefits in Effect to Your Crested Gecko Consuming Mealworms:
- Muscle tissue
- Bone marrow
- Decreases body fat
- Boosts their metabolism
If you’re in need for daily food sources for your Crested Gecko check out these brands
- Big Fat Gecko Smoothie Mix
- Pangea
- Zoo Med
- Leapin’ Leachie
To avoid any health hazards in the long run, experienced pet owners will often dust off mealworms before feeding them to their Crested Gecko’s. To avoid diseases, or infections such as Salmonella, Bursal disease, or Escherichia coli.
The following will review the specifics on mealworms nutritional value that they provide.
- 64% moisture
- 14% lipids
- 18% proteins
- 1.5% ash
- 9% carbs
Alternatives to Feed Your Crested Gecko
Crested Gecko’s are omnivores, they can rely on a vast selection of edible resources like us humans. Providing a diversified meal plan will satisfy your pet to a lavish lifestyle compared to their counterparts that live in the wilderness.
Fruits
The first on my list would be a great food source to use as a snack, fruit. You’ll often have them at your house to avoid going to the pet store. Doesn’t matter, almost any fruit would be suitable for your little gecko. Apples, strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, oranges, watermelon, bananas, papaya, baby food! Don’t worry, these are quite healthy solutions for your Crested Gecko to enjoy. These can be used as snacks or added to common meal plans to keep your pet nice and healthy.
Honey
Natural honey, just a drop or two will make your Crested Gecko heart’s delighted with a sweet sugary taste of love. Nutritional value is quite low in this resource for your pet. Honey is to be considered like a sort of junk food that’s good for every once in a while for your pet to enjoy something blissfully.
Read More: Can Crested Geckos Eat Dubia Roaches?
Variety of Insects
- Crickets, crickets bring a high nutritious element that your pet will enjoy with ease. Crickets are a natural food source that do not contain any hazardous materials such as preservatives. Crested Geckos will be happy to eat these gut-loaded insects on a daily basis, just be sure to mix up your meal plan for your Crested Gecko.
- Buffalo worms, a great food source for a balanced meal of protein and minerals. Best served in larger portions due to their size being roughly 2 cm long a piece. Your Crested Gecko will be filled with luxury.
- Calci worms, an elegant insect that is filled to the brim with calcium within their exoskeleton bone structure. A unique fact about these worms is that they have no need to be dusted, best served in variety packs for your pet to sustain a fresh diet.
- Morio worms, quite similar to the mealworm species, however, at a much larger size at about 6 cm long. These worms not only contain a heavy load of nutrition, the moisture within their bodies has a much higher expectancy than other worms. Your Crested Gecko will feast on a solid combo crunch of food and hydration.
Fun Facts About Crested Gecko’s
- Every Crested Gecko has a unique pattern of color. You will not find a single one of their kind that matches their pattern.
- This species of lizard does not have eyelids.
- That common saying for lizards to be able to grow their tails back as a defense mechanism doesn’t work for these guys. Once they lose their tail it’s gone for good. Just a factor this species wasn’t evolved into for adapting.
- There have been few reports however it has been confirmed that a select few of Crested Geckos can make noise. Like a dog, a small number of their kind have been able to bark, or produce screeching noises.
- Crested Geckos were known to have been extinct for over a hundred years up until the early 1990s, when a discovery was made that their species was in fact alive during a tropical storm.
- Besides humans, the biggest known predator that had been known to nearly kill off their species is the “fire ant.” In the wild these ants would work in large groups to take down Crested Geckos in the wilderness to be used as food sources that would last months at a time.
- Crested Geckos are known to be based out of Australia. Living in small groups of islands in New Caledonia.
- When Crested Geckos are hungry they will often stare at their pet owner when they are within the same vicinity to make pet owners acknowledge that they are hungry.
- More often than not, if you own a Crested Gecko you will be pooped on at least once when handling these little creatures. Factors are due to stress and anxiety and these lizards try to push the fact that they are disgusting to eat.
Read More: Baby Crested Gecko Care Guide!
Feeding Crested Geckos
The vast majority of reptiles are nocturnal, these guys are part of the majority. When it goes down to feeding the best time to feed these animals is during the evening. Feed younglings on a daily basis and adults 3 to 5 times a week. The feeding size of their meals should roughly be not any bigger than your lizard’s eye length distance.
For worms or other food supplements you should use their body circumference as a point of reference. Allow your Crested Gecko to hunt for its prey. Whether they are young or mature adults, let them work for their food. Doing so will manage a healthy consciousness for these lizards to maintain their hunting instincts.