maintaining a healthy weigh for your leopard gecko

Here specifically we’re going to be talking about leopard geckos. Keep in mind many other geckos have this problem though. Female leopard geckos lay eggs regardless if they have been breed or not. For some people it’s frustrating because It’s hard to keep a steady weight. With leopard geckos it’s very important to keep their tails nice and chunky and to do that you need to keep them feed with a consistent schedule. Here’s a couple pointers if your having problems with getting weight on them.

DIET
Many people use meal worms and crickets although these are the most easy to find staples they aren’t the best possible staples you  can use. Crickets have carotene in their exoskeleton which makes it hard for your gecko to digest. Crickets have also been known to carry parasites and aren’t even the most nutritious for all the work you have to put in to keep them. The best thing to do is to feed them nutritious insects in replace of the less nutritious insects. Many people have concluded to the option of just feeding off more insects but this will not work. It really doesn’t matter how much, it matters the nutrition level. You could feed them 100 mealworms and they still wouldn’t gain weight because it’s pretty much just eating chips if you dont gut load.
Many people also feed their geckos tons of wax worms to make them gain weight. This is horrible do not do this it’s like feeding a child tons of candy to make them get cavities. This could also cause more problems because wax worms are a treat for your geckos and they might go completely off their food if you feed it to them consistently. The best thing to do is give your gecko a wide variety diet here’s a list of a couple feeder insects that would be great as a variety.
-hornworms
-mealworms
-crickets
-Phoenix worms
- grubs
- Dubia/discoid roaches
- earthworms
As you can see there’s many to choose from. And those are good to add as an addition because in the wild they would not just be eating one type of insect they would be eating whatever they could find. A variety is very important and this can play a big role in your geckos health. Now let’s go over some basic staples.
Some of the most basic staples are crickets and mealworms. A lot of breeders swear by only using  mealworms is perfectly fine. Using mealworms as one of your main staples as in addition to crickets is perfectly fine. The best way to get your mealworms to have the upmost amount of nutrition is to gut load them with fibrous and hydrated vegetables and shake them in vitamin or calcium powder. The amount you feed them is dependent on how old your gecko is. If they are a baby 5-7 every day, juvenile 8 every day t, subadult 10 every other day, adult 15- 20 Every  two days. Depending on the age of your gecko this is the chart you should follow. Also their food must be the size in between their eyes. Or else they can end up choking on the food if it’s too big.
The best possible diet you could give them if you are trying to have them maintain a healthy weight or overall looking for a better staple would be
- Silkworms
- Dubia/discoid roaches
- gut loaded crickets
I’ve been on a mainly meal worm diet because of the pandemic that’s been the only thing available. But I just recently ordered silkworms and mulberry leaves and I’m gonna try to hatch out my own  worms. Many people stray away from silks even though they’re the best feeder  insect you can use because of how expensive they are.(chonky boi)
 On eBay, Amazon, ECT it’s 15 worms for $23 including shipping. To me that’s  way too expensive. But you can also get the eggs online for way less. You could get 100 eggs for 10 bucks. Silkworms don’t live for very long so it takes a short amount of time for them to actually get big enough for your gecko to consume.
silkworms are still the better route if you’re not to good  with roaches.
So to conclude this overall information, overfeeding will not make your gecko gain weight, A better route then mealworms and crickets would be silk worms, don’t overfeed wax worms, Feed them how do you normally feed them depending on their age, and last but not least check their weight! Track it at least every month. Or at least every few weeks at best. I hope this help to you! I will soon be giving an update on how the silkworm project went on my YouTube channel (untamed Reptiles) Bye!