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gecko stopped eating crickets is that ok?

B

bandit42

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i have 2 adults that practically grew up on crickets. but since i introduced the mealworm dished to them they no longer eat any crickets. is that something i should be concerned with? they both still gain weight and are very fat. just let me know what you think. thanks to all and any replys
 
Nothing wrong with that, mealies are perfectly fine for a staple diet. Most of my leos are raised on mealies, I do mix other stuff in for a variety occasionally but just mealies are fine :).
 
I agree, mealworms are a good staple diet if the crickets don't work out. My 1st Leo was all about mealworms and grew just fine :)
 
This is normal for some reason alot of my geckos have switched foods before. As long as the mealies are gutloaded(fed right) and the leos are getting enough calicum and D3 then they will be nice an healthy. People don't understand that the insect isn't healthy enough for your leo unless you feed it the right things 1st. I use chicken feed and carrots/pot. most times. This seems to make them very healthy. My leos are having a problem always wanting something else too. Some of my breeders now only want pinkies and some want only waxworms now. These are only supposed to be treat food. So when they want to still eat the staple diet foods like mealies and crickets then thats good! Your better off then the position I'm in now. I think they like a change in their diet. Maybe feed them both or after they get used to mealies see if they want crickets again. But if I were you I stay w/ mealies there so eay to take care of, feed and breed!! I can telll you how to breed if you want then you'd never have to buy another mealie again from someone else. The pet store are not healthly at all!! I bet you like the mealies better too right??
 
i would love for you to tell me how to breed mealies. I gutload all my mealies for 2 days before feeding. Also i would prefer mealworms to crickets because the growth rate/ and fattening up of the geckos is much faster.
 
It doesent matter what your feeding, mealies or cricks, gutloading is a must, didnt bring that up because I assumed you knew that and you obvisouly do. As far as breeding mealies go, I am attempting to breed them now, always bought them in bulk but thought breeding would be easier. What I was told to do, is take like 200-300 mealies and set them up with food like normally, keep a eye on them when some turn into beatles, seperate the beatles into another container set-up the same as for the mealies and the beatles should breed. I did that and have beatles and seperated them but havent seen any eggs yet :(, maybe I am doing something wrong?.
 
Personally I think its fine........ but try to get them back on crickets.
The reason being for me that is, is because my leo got a little overweight. I dunno about you but I prefer a muscular more healthy animal then one that is lying around and fat. Just my opinion, Spartacus is OUT! :ack2: :ack2: :ack2:
 
No, your not doing anything wrong there just too small to see. We've always got more mealies than we can use and so will you. I hope you got alot of mouths to feed b/c if you used that many mealies to breed and let that many become beetles your prob have no less than at least a million or 2! Actually more. You probably could use alot less than 200 to have plenty of mealies to feed everything. But thats just depends how many mealies you want.
This is what we did. 1st we did take some mealies to let them change to the Alien stage(sorry don't know name) then beetle and didn't use as feed. But I've also learned that we didn't need to use as many. If you ever see them before they turn into a beetle it looks like an alien. There white and don't eat or do anything except when picked up they wiggle. Yes, them I'm sure you've seen them and threw them away right? I always did and now do again. Well there's more than one way to do this for sure. It's just so easy. But start w/ those Aiens and seperate them into a container w/ nothing in it. Thats what we did- then we checked that container daily/every other and took them out when they turned into beetles. Then put them in the breeding container w/ a substrate and fresh vegs/fruits. They use the substrate to bury down and lay the eggs in. We use chicken feed as the substrate. Then as the beetles die we take them out and keep placing new ones in. Soon your start to see little mealworms that grow very quick, it's great w/ breeding we always have the right size mealie. The chicken feed also is perfect for the mealies to eat. They will too and it's very healthy. We also put in carrots mostly,some pot.,fresh fruits and vegs. But I found that the carrots are alot less messy/moldy and we get the baby carrots so there all ready- so easy. The beetles and mealies will eat fresh vegs and/or fruit. Thats all the beetles will eat. I put more of the vegs/fruits in when you see the mealies to just to make sure they can all get enough. Thats what we typically use to gutload w/ also it works really good. I'm breeding Wax worms now too. I just bought a kit to start that. There alittle harder b/c they container is much tougher to come up w/. They become moths instead! The beetles are much easier to keep, there non-flying and can't climb up the plastic. The waxworm kit comes with it's own container and tiny screen on top so air can get in and the waxworms are now all over the outside of the container there are so many and so small nothing could keep them all in. The mealies can't climb up the sides like that! The kit was worth it, I can tell I'm about to have more of them then I need too! I believe that covers it all. I hoped I helped. Someone told me all they used was 8 beetles/mealies to start their colony and they had thousands! If that gives you an idea of how many you need to start, I don't want to see you take from ones you can use as feeders now b/c they usually just change over to aliens when your gutloading, you can just use them and still have a colony of mealies.
 
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