| If you're thinking about getting one of these great | | | | greens, dandelions, or cactus powder. You can even |
| little critters as a pet, then one of the most | | | | make a gel comprised of agar and cactus powder |
| important leopard gecko care concepts you must | | | | that works both as water and as food. |
| learn about is 'gut loading.' In a nutshell, gut loading is | | | | If you've read this far you might be wondering how |
| the practice of giving the insects nutritious food | | | | leopard geckos are able to get the nutrients they |
| before feeding them to your leopard gecko, | | | | need in the wild without anyone to carefully gut load |
| effectively using them as shells to transport that | | | | their food. The answer is firstly that in the wild their |
| food into your leo's belly. Without gut loading, feeder | | | | diet is much more varied. In the wild these geckos |
| insects such as crickets and mealworms are simply | | | | eat pretty much anything they can overpower, |
| not nutritious enough foods to keep your pet in good | | | | including all types of insects and even small rodents. |
| health. | | | | In captivity by contrast, their diet is likely to be |
| Note that 'not nutritious enough' a lot of the time | | | | limited to just a few staples like the two big |
| means 'too high in phosphorous and too low in | | | | favorites, crickets and mealworms. |
| calcium.' Commonly used feeder insects usually have | | | | The other reason wild leopard geckos are able to get |
| these characteristics, which is a problem, because | | | | the nutrients they need is that in the wild, the insects |
| calcium is essential if these geckos are to avoid | | | | and rodents that they eat will in turn have had a |
| metabolic bone disease. Research show that gut | | | | much more varied diet than those bred by humans |
| loading is a very effective way of ensuring that | | | | as reptile food. |
| feeder insects carry the necessary amount of | | | | If you own a leo, then learning about how to |
| calcium into the bodies of reptiles that they are fed | | | | properly gut load feeder insects in order to replace |
| to. | | | | the much more varied diet that it would get in the |
| In terms of what to use as gut load, a calcium | | | | wild is a really important responsibility in leopard |
| fortified chicken egg laying mash fed to the feeder | | | | gecko care that you have. Establish a good routine |
| insects 24-48 hours prior to them going into your | | | | for gut loading your leo's feeder insects early on, and |
| leo's terrarium is effective. However if you are raising | | | | you'll be doing the best you can to ensure that your |
| the feeder insects yourself, an even better option is | | | | leopard gecko leads a long and healthy life. |
| to raise them on high calcium food such as turnip | | | | |