Do you love iguanas, chameleon, geckos, and other lizard species my friends? Then, we you come to the right place right now, because we would discuss about one of animal from lizard’s species called gecko. Who, on earth didn’t know about this animal? Yes, the lizard that creep up upon your walls, followed by their extraordinary sounds which you would immediately know the source of the sound. Most of the people only know that geckos was wild animals that lived in the wildlife.
You could see this species in swamps, trees, and bushes, or even in your house (although you have no idea how on earth that animal came from). Even though I am not a big fan of this animal – don’t mind me – a lot of people love geckos and keep them as pets inside their houses. Well, some people would try as best as they could to get rid this animal out from their houses (included me), but apparent, some people adore this animal as beautiful and exotic animal.
However, on today’s article, we would give you some advise on 3 ultimate diet to keep geckos healthy; and of course, this could be apply for all gecko’s species that you keep inside your house. Similar to other pet, keeping gecko surely requires some proper nursery; from the new habitat and cages: how to constructing your lizard’s living spaces, how to properly take clean your beloved gecko, and ultimately, how to provide your gecko the perfect healthy diet foods.
As a responsible owner, you must fulfill all these missions if you want your beloved lizard live longer, happy, and the most important, healthy. Geckos mostly was lived in warm climate areas all over the world. Around the world, in some cultures, geckos would not only keep as pet, but also become human livestock which is happened mainly in Asia. There are several species commonly kept as a pet, such as: common leopard gecko, crested gecko, African fat tailed gecko, and etc.
So, are you ready to give the best foods for your geckos? Here are 3 ultimate diet to keep geckos healthy!
Food Guideline for Gecko
Gecko bring the daily “wildlife” diet menus even through the captivity. What is that mean? Well, if you notice that some exotic animals (especially herbivorous animals) while living inside captivity, they could adapt with the other “human-made” food for them, such as dried-food nor package foods, but that is not the case on geckos. The most perfect source of foods for geckos are living creature. Unlike geckos other lizard species friends, iguana which still could be feed with dried-food product as a treat.
But, geckos, their digestion system is not not really created for those type of foods. Consequently, you should be ready to purchase living creature, or if you want to reduce the outlay, breed live insects would be the best option to consider. However, some gecko’s species make fruit as their daily diet too, in case your pet gecko is one of them, feed him or her with the pureed mixed fruit or make it by yourself. Simply just mix different type of foods – make sure you pick the fresh ones – and serve it for you beloved gecko.
Geckos in general was classified as insectivorous species, and they primarily would eat all kind of insects and all crawlies animals. Examples type of geckos species that are pure-blood of insectivorous are leopard geckos, African fat-tailed geckos, and house geckos. Other geckos species such day geckos and crested geckos are recognized as frugivorous species; that’s mean they could also eat fruits. Furthermore, let’s go to the best foods choices for your beloved gecko
1. Mealworms
Mealworms is one of the healthiest source of food for geckos. Where can you get mealworms? Well, there’s a lot of supplier who could support the need of your gecko. Most of supplier would pack the mealworms into a pound package and sell it; but, you could request on particular ponderosity based on the need.
Mealworms inability to escape bring you much benefit unlike other insects which could try to escape. But, similar to two sides of a coin, the inability to escape also become mealworm’s unattractive characteristic for geckos to eat them. Keep in mind, that geckos loves active preys, because it a lot of dun during the hunt time. Another problem is that sometime mealworms are just too large for some geckos. However, here are pros and cons of mealworms:
- Pros: it would be no smell and mess, very easy to breed, high source if protein, decent lifespan, found easily, and cheap.
- Cons: it doesn’t gut load well, slow movement that create unattractive look, highly amount of fat, unbalance ratio of calcium to phosphorus.
2. Crickets
Crickets are the most popular geckos source of food. Some people would try to breed crickets for themselves because on that way they could safe the cost of geckos daily outlay. But, some people who mostly didn’t have much time to take care of the breed, would prefer to purchase it. Well, actually, you could found cricket’s supplier easily than you thought.
The other benefit when you purchase it, is that you could request the size of the crickets. A larger cricket would be hard to eat by gecko. But, other problem you must prepare is that cricket have a very unpleasant scent to ignore. Plus, crickets are professional escape artists, they could vanish without any trace anytime they want. So, yes, it is a lot of trouble for you to handle. However, let’s check the pros and cons of crickets:
- Pros: gut loads well, attractive prey to hunt, low fat but highly protein source of food, cheap and easily to find.
- Cons: short lifespan, could protect themselves by biting your gecko, unpleasant scent, jumpy, could hide in crevice, and very noisy animal.
3. Silkworms
Silkworms would be our last type of food of 3 ultimate diet to keep geckos healthy. Silkworms are one of the best source of food to feed for your beloved gecko. But, let me remind you to only order it in small quantities, why? Apparently, silkworms only have lifespan within view weeks. Another problem is that silkworms are unpopular and it’s a little bit hard to find its supplier. So, neither you breed or hunt to get this animal. However, let see the pros and cons of silkworms:
- Pros: highly moisture, low fat, and easy to digest.
- Cons: unattractive type of prey, hard to find, need special requirement to be feed, and a little bit expensive.