I have my first Leopard Gecko for about a month now. I feed her crickets I get from Petland Discount and keep a veggie dish in the tank, but she never eats the veggies. On my last trip to buy more crickets, I thought I might get some mealworms too to add some variety to her diet. The salesperson told me that Leopard Geckos are liable to swallow mealworms whole without chewing them; and then the still alive mealworms can chew through the Gecko from the inside out. Consequently, I didn't buy any mealworms. I bought some wax worms instead.
RE: Mealworms Can Eat Leo From the Inside Out: Petland Disco Leopard geckos do not need veggies, and I am almost certain they cannot digest them properly.
RE: Mealworms Can Eat Leo From the Inside Out: Petland Disco Please don't trust everything pet store employees tell you, they often (not always, there are some very good ones out there) have very little experience and will simply give you outdated information or try to sell you whatever will make them the most money. Mealworms CAN NOT eat through a leo's stomach this is a myth that we hear all the time here but is completely untrue. When a leo eats a mealworm it first chomps on at least a couple of times which crushes it. The mealworm then travels to the leo's stomach where it is disolved in stomach acid. There is no way a meal worm could survive this, let alone eat it's way out of the leo. Please be very careful with feeding wax worms. They hold vertially no nutritional value (they're basically just blobs of fat, think of them as junk food.) but apparently taste very good. This means that, after a while of being fed wax worms, some leos will refuse to go back to healthy feeders and will therefor not be getting all the vitamins and nutrients they need to grow. If you want to use wax worms, feed one, very occasionally as a treat but do not see them as a feeder replacement. EDIT: Punkygirl is correct, leos are insect eaters and therefore do not need veggies. Instead feed gutloaded insects and worms such as crickets, locusts, mealworms, superworms, phoenix worms, some roaches and I'm sure some others I'm forgetting!
RE: Mealworms Can Eat Leo From the Inside Out: Petland Disco Leo's are insectivores, they don't eat veggies...no need to even bother offering, she won't eat them. Mealies are fine, there is no way they can eat out of a stomach, they are dead by the time they get there and even if they weren't the stomach acid would kill them long before they could do any damage. That's an old urban legend that just won't quit. Pick up some mealworms, gutload them well, offer them to your Leo and don't worry about it. Go easy on the waxworms, they are high in fat and some Leo's decide they like them better than crickets or other, better foods. You can use them as an occasional treat but they offer little in the way of nutrition so shouldn't be used often.
RE: Mealworms Can Eat Leo From the Inside Out: Petland Disco I've read that leos eat scorpions in the wild and their stomach acid really hurt my bf's knee (left a powdery white stain and burned through some leg hairs) when one of mine regurged and flicked it across the room a couple of years ago. Both of mine love mealies over every other food I've tried, go ahead and give them a try
Re: RE: Mealworms Can Eat Leo From the Inside Out: Petland D Hi. I won't. I just figured I better double check to be on the safe side. Ha! That's funny then. OK. So how should I keep the wax worms? I get 14 for a dollar so lets say I'd like them to last 2-4 weeks. Can I just leave them in the cup they come in with what looks like wood shavings? Do they need any food or water? Thanks for the tips. =TBk
RE: Re: RE: Mealworms Can Eat Leo From the Inside Out: Petla you can give him one about 2-3 times a week... you can put em in gutload, that would be better.
RE: Re: RE: Mealworms Can Eat Leo From the Inside Out: Petla You can keep the wax worms in the cup they come in. Wax worms do not need feeding and will not eat normal gut load. If memory serves correctly, they naturally eat honey which is why leos find them so tasty!
Re: Mealworms Can Eat Leo From the Inside Out: Petland Disco Your first lesson that most pet store employees are idiots, except for the rare few. I used to work in a small fish/reptile pet store, and I'd get people coming in all the time telling me that an employee from (insert a big name petstore here) told them to use distilled water for their fish. Never mind the fact that I went into another big pet store to look at Leo's and the sales girl seemed to find nothing wrong with the fact that the two geckos I did look at had a bad case of MBD. BTW Ed has been eating mealworms and supers for about two years now, surprise, surprise his stomach is still intact. :wink:
