How to switch to a bowl?

I was feeding my two guys by just letting them eat the worms off the ground, but then when I would clean I would find the worms underneath stuff. I know this was not good, so I purchased some of the small worm bowls. I put them in and placed the worms in them and neither of my guys seems the least impressed. Anybody have any ideas as to how to entice them to the bowl. And how long can they hold out before I worry? Thanks again everybody!!

Linsey

A ceramic soap dish works great as it is smooth so the worms can't get out and low sided so the leos can see them easily. You place it close to their favorite hide and put a few worms in there so they can be active, stop worms in leading up to the dish, trail the leo, then let them see you drop worms into the dish. Repeat often and they'll learn eventually. The biggest thing is getting a bowl big enough for the worms to nice to trigger prey drive, and you should actually use 2 so theres no competition or fighting at/over the dish.

i have komodo critter dish its great high enough to keep them in and shallow enough for cleo to see when mealies are inside. google it and ul se what i mean

This works great as both food & water bowls. Mealworms can't get out of these types of dishes. You can also keep crickets and dubia roaches in them, they can't crawl out if you pull out their hind legs, which is great for keeping them contained so they aren't roaming around the cage gnawing on your geckos. Superworms, majority of the time they can't get out of these dishes, but on rare occasions I've seen large ones get out.

As for training them to eat from the bowl, I find that some geckos naturally learn how to eat from a bowl and are good eaters, while others tend to be more lazy and if you don't drop it in front of them, they'd rather just not eat.

If you are feeding mealworms, try putting in a lot of them so they move around more. Movement is what triggers their hunting instinct. So having more than they need would make the worms move around and make noises that should attract your geckos.

Leopard geckos seem to prowl around more when all the lights are out, so leave the mealworms in a dish over night and they should see them, and eat them if they are hungry.