playmate

Question
QUESTION: Dear Sandra,
 I have a couple of questtions:
1. I just got my Leopard Gecko yesterday and he is very friendly.I have been reading different articles about feeding and I was wondering if I should give him mealworms.He is pretty small though.

2. If I should not feed him that what should I feed him besides crickets?


Please reply

Thank you,

Emily


ANSWER: Hi Emily

At the moment there is a huge question in the Leopard Gecko community about the safety of feeding mealworms because there was a shortage and no one that produces them either knows what the problem was or they are not admitting it

Many Leo breeders have had very unusual breeding seasons with less eggs being laid-less females ovulating and more deformities in their hatchlings than ever

All of these breeders feed meal worms to their geckos

Normally I would say sure-go ahead and feed mealworms as I had always feed them to my babies in the past but I am not feeding them since the shirtage starteed nor do I intend to go back to them until the truth comes out as to what the production problem was with them

Your Leo will do fine on small crickets for the time being
Feed 5 at a time for a very small baby and 5 to 10 for a larger one twice per day
You can increase the amount as he/she grows larger

You can also feed small roaches and the occasional wax worm for treats
Don't feed too many wax worms-they are like candy to Leos
:)
I hope that this helps

Sandy aka LadyGecko


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Lady Gecko,
Hello it is Emily again. I am currently feeding my gecko occasionally mealworms. I have a few questions:
1. My Gecko also gives me a kiss and loves being handled and climbs up my shoulder should I let her stay up there or not because she is a baby.
2. Also my Gecko loves me every time I put her down she starts staring at me. I feel so bad. I am thinking that I maybe should get another gecko. Should I? Also if I do how do I introduce them to eachother.

Emily

Answer
Hi Emily

If you do decide to get a tank mate for your gecko you need to keep the new one in a tank of it's own for a period of 90 days/3 months to ensure that the new gecko does not have any parasites or anything else that can be passed from one to another

Females can be kept together after a quarantine period but you may find that you can have dominance problems even with keeping females together
It depends upon the geckos

Any Leos kept together should be very close in size and closely watched to make sure that there is no fighting and that one is not getting all of the food

Males should never be kept in the same tank

Males and females that are not old enough to breed and/or of sufficient weight to breed should not be kept together and if you are not prepared to deal with incubating eggs and raising and feeding the hatchlings until they are around 20 grams-old enough to sell-then you should not keep males and females together

Leos are not unhappy being kept solitarily and they can live their entire lives alone

As for kissing any reptile-remember that there is always a slight chance of disease transmission and I would never encourage anyone to do this

As for staying on your shoulder-if she jumps-she can hurt herself from that height and if she gets away from you and hides-small babies are very hard to find

I hope that this has helped answer your questions

Sandy aka LadyGecko