What To Feed Baby Geckos – All You Need To Know
A gecko, depending on its subspecies, can be carnivores or omnivores. Leopard geckos, Tokay geckos, and African fat-tailed geckos are carnivores while crested geckos can eat a small portion of veggies and fruits.
Geckos are wonderful pets to have at home and are lively and sociable companions, for adults and children alike. Baby geckos? That’s as adorable as you can get.
Feeding A Baby Gecko – Where To Start
An insect-based diet
Most baby geckos can feed on small insects and arthropods. They can be fed a few crickets and mealworms daily: five to seven mealworms or crickets until they grow up to 4 inches. The rule of thumb is that the insect that you’re feeding your baby geckos should not be bigger than the width of the gecko’s head.
As your gecko grows, you can slowly introduce larger foods.
However, you can also offer other bugs like roaches, super worms, silkworms, soldier fly larvae, and wax worms to make sure you round off their diet. Also, keep in mind that it is recommended that you gut load the insects at least 10 to 12 hours before you feed them to your gecko.
If you are using frozen insects, then allow them time to thaw in a container before you feed them.
Your baby gecko will need a diet that is rich in calcium, vitamins, and minerals, with adequate fats, but not too much. Calcium in particular is a very important part of your gecko’s diet.
If you are raising your insects to feed to your gecko, remember to lightly dust them with some calcium powder, preferably with an additional vitamin D3 supplement two to three times a week before you feed them to your gecko.
| Food | Suitable for Newborn Geckos |
|---|---|
| Dubia Roaches | Yes |
| Crickets | Yes |
| Mealworms | Yes |
| Waxworms | Occasionally as a treat |
Plant-based diet
Day geckos, crested geckos, and a few other species can consume fruits, flowers, and nectar in their menu. You can feed your baby gecko small slivers of papaya, figs, grapes, raspberries, pears, apples, dates, strawberries, watermelon, pineapples, mangos, and other suitable fruits.
Irrespective of what subspecies they belong to, never feed baby geckos avocado, star fruit, or any citrus fruits.
You can also feed you baby gecko certain vegetables like bits of zucchini, carrots, peas, and leafy vegetables like lettuce and cabbage. Many gecko owners avoid feeding them spinach, garlic, and onions.
| Food | Suitable for Newborn Geckos |
|---|---|
| Collard Greens | Yes |
| Dandelion Greens | Yes |
| Turnip Greens | Yes |
| Squash | Occasionally as a treat |
The Importance Of A Balanced Diet
A baby gecko, or a hatchling, is usually 3 to 4 inches long. The males grow up to 8 to 10 inches, while the females grow up to 8 to 10 inches.
Baby geckos do not have a fully developed skeletal system, nor do they have a fully developed immune system. They are susceptible to not just common juvenile diseases but can also develop certain diseases as they age, as is the case with their species.
They also need a good source of vitamins and minerals to help build their bone density and strength. This is why their food and subsequently the nutrition they get through that food must be properly evaluated and administered. A proper feeding regimen can go a long way to ensure that your baby gecko leads a long and healthy life.
Gut Loading
So we’ve covered a few variations of beneficial nutrition to help your baby gecko grow big and strong. An important addition that will cover off any deficiencies in the nutritional spread that needs to be given is something called gut loading.
Gut loading is feeding the insects that your gecko will eat with the optimal nutrition 24 hours before your gecko’s meal.
The first thing to consider is to hydrate the insects, so you would use fruits with high naturally occurring water content like celery, oranges, and melons for example. As for the solids to be fed to the insect, you can simply use leafy green foods and whole grains. Yes, you are feeding the food itself!
Metabolic Bone Disease
We read earlier how important it is that your baby gecko gets enough calcium and vitamin D3 through his food. Geckos that grow indoors, without access to adequate UV light that helps them make vitamin D3 and with enough calcium will develop a metabolic bone disease or MBD. You can read more about what is needed here
In this condition, the calcium to phosphorus ratio is less than the ideal 2 to 1 ratio, as a result of which, their bones will not ossify, instead of remaining spongy and prone to fractures and constant bruising.
