feeding a new 3" leo

I just get a little leo yesterday and it is really small about 3" but it did have a good fat reserve on it tail.

The question is what do I feed her? I bought crickets and meal worms from the pet store and I already have a colony of supper worms going for my beardies so I have baby supper too.

I know with bearded dragons they say to feed them food the size of between their eyes but she is so small I dont know if any of the food I got is small enough. And is it really ok to feed them meal worms? In the world of bearded dragons meal worms are a no no.

As a side not my leo is orange with black stripes, will he loose his stripes because I cant find a pic of a full grown striped leo.

Yes, his colors will change. As for food, I would try to mix in some wax worms; the crickets and meal worms are fine.

I'm not sure why mealies are a no no in beardies, it's not as if they can eat through the stomach of the beardie.

The general thought is that meal worms are low in nutrition and their shell is hard to digest so people feed them other feeders like crickets, supper worms, butter worms, horn worms, silk worms, stuff like that. But thats beardies.

trinity040400 wrote:The general thought is that meal worms are low in nutrition and their shell is hard to digest so people feed them other feeders like crickets, supper worms, butter worms, horn worms, silk worms, stuff like that. But thats beardies.

I can see that, larger animal needs more debate.

With leo's its fine to make mealies a staple, with a mix of others.

good to know thanks, also what time of day do you feed them? Or does it matter? Can I feed her before she goes to sleep in the day time?

Leo's are crepuscular, so they're active during the dawn and dusk hours. That would be your optimum chances in my opinion.

The same rule applies for leos, nothing bigger around than the space between their eyes. Pin head crickets should be fine, meal worm aliens. smaller meal worms, silk worms, butterworms. As long as they're no bigger around than the space between the eyes you should be fine. Just don't over feed larger prey items as it could cause your lil one to regurgitate.

I usually feed my leo after sunset, usually around 8-9 pm. Sometimes as late as 2 am

Thanks for all the help, so far she has eaten 1 small cricket, 3 meal worms, and 3 repti worms. And she has pooped and it looks good.

One more question though: I found it really hard to feed the cricket because I had to crush its hind end so it wouldnt run all over the place. Is there an easier way to feed them since they are so small it is really hard to do.

Also I am breeding supper worms so I have alot of all different sizes, do you think she could maybe eat some baby suppers?

trinity040400 wrote:One more question though: I found it really hard to feed the cricket because I had to crush its hind end so it wouldnt run all over the place. Is there an easier way to feed them since they are so small it is really hard to do.

That's the way I do it! To get them out of their box I use tweezers, usually grab one of their legs, stick them in the bag with the powder for a shake then either tip them into the viv, or get them back in the tweezers. I've missed their legs and squished their back end a couple of times before, one time some liquid came out of their mouth onto Olive's nose - she licked her nose, decided she liked it and went for the cricket! Make sure the tweezers aren't sharp though. I know they're aiming for the cricket but they're so quick you don't want them to injure themselves on the tweezers, or whichever utensil you choose to use.

I hadn't looked into worms yet. I've read about the Jamaican Black cricket and it sounds really nasty but the ones I have are small light brown crickets so they should be fine.