Feeding your pet leopard gecko is quite a simple process once you have the basics. You don't need any fancy food or an overly varied diet. Your pet Leo will be quite happy and healthy with a staple diet consisting mainly of crickets. Just remember these three golden rules to leopard gecko feeding:
Size Matters - the first thing the pet store will ask you when you go in to buy crickets is "what size?" You may think that a cricket is a cricket, but you should be careful about buying just the right size for your gecko. Why? Well, your gecko's mouth is only so big and you don't want him to bite off more than he can chew. A hungry gecko will attempt to eat any live insects you feed him and he's not a good judge of size. This is a problem, particularly for younger gecko's who are likely to have a difficult size with large crickets.
Your gecko's food should never be bigger than his head. Therefore, baby geckos should get small crickets, juvenile geckos need medium crickets, and adult geckos should be fed large crickets.
Quantity - once you know what size of prey to buy, the next big question is how much you should be feeding your gecko. To begin with, younger geckos should be fed every day. As they get older you can space out meals to every other day. You can gage how many crickets your Leo will need at each meal by closely observing the first couple of feedings. Once you've added the crickets to his tank give him 10 to 15 minutes to get his fill. Then remove any uneaten prey from the tank. Keep track of how many crickets he can comfortably eat in that amount of time. After a couple of days you can figure out an average number of crickets that your gecko should be fed.
Once you've got that magic number, only feed your Leo that many crickets at each mealtime. If he's still growing, add a cricket or two every once in a while to see if his appetite has increased and adjust accordingly.
Quality - When I say quality I'm not talking steak vs. hamburger but rather junk food vs. well rounded diet. Don't be fooled into thinking that just any crickets will give your leopard gecko all the nutrition he needs. Geckos are insectivores so they get all of their nutrition from the insects that you feed them. The only way to ensure that you are giving your Leo everything he needs is by making sure you know the crickets you feed him are good quality prey. You should purchase them from a pet store because they are raised for exactly this purpose.
Once you bring the crickets home take the time to feed them to maximize their nutritional value. This is known as gut-loading. Give the crickets fruits and vegetables to munch on for several hours. Just before feeding them to your gecko, dust the crickets with a calcium supplement (sold at pet stores). These two additional steps will help fulfill your Leo's nutritional needs.
Finally, set up a schedule for feeding that you can stick with because your Leo will begin to expect food at certain times.
Want to learn more about leopard gecko feeding? Visit my website at http://www.aboutleopardgeckos.com for helpful tips and information on buying, keeping, and breeding leopard geckos.
沒有留言:
張貼留言