Mini mealworms, how many is ok?

Hello,

I've switched rambo onto mini mealworms as the normal ones looked a bit hard to swallow for him (8cm-ish baby)

Tonight he ate 10 mini worms... and lastnight he had 8..

am i right in thinking hes a greedy gecko and probably needs half of that?

Thanks

nah feed the babies however much they want to eat. It all goes into growing at that age, your more you feed em the quicker they grow.

Thanks jordan! il let him munch to his hearts content then

Within reason until his hearts content. I would be uncomfortable letting him eat more that 15 in 1 sitting. Too much and he could regurgitate his entire meal.

I used to just leave a bowl full of mini mealworms in the enclosure, and I would notice them go up and eat a few every so often and just replaced them when needed.

Thats the best way in my opinion Becca

Yes, this is the way I do it with my babies.

just my two cents...i agree with kel on this one! some babies can be quite enthusiastic eaters and will eat so much they puke, untill they get the idea to stop eating once they are full..just use common sense and you will be fine.i am not disagreeing with the others, just watch him and use your judgement.

I've kind of figured him out now, he just eats what he wants too, i cant always get mini mealys for him so hes on normal size sometimes too generally has 8-10 mini's or around 4-5 normal size worms, i have crickets too but hes not really a cricket kinda gecko, seems more scared of them than anything (even the pinheads)

i will never feed any of my leopards crickets! for one, they stink and escape...for two, i am using mealworms and dubia roaches. i think if you gutload your mealies, you will never have problems. i have not yet fed any of mine dubia roaches yet, but once i get my colony up and going, it will be my main food source. they have the highest nutritional value of any feeder i have found so far. they are pretty expensive as far as feeder insects go, but i am a firm believer in feeding my animals the best food available. my dogfood is $50 a bag for 35 pounds, but i would never feed him anything else...and i do the same for my reptiles.

The good thing about leo's though, is that if they eat too much and DO regurg; they will never eat that much again. In the event your baby does regurg, don't allow him to eat for the next day so he can build back up the stomach acids.

Sad thing there Rick is my dollar a pound dog food. (Or the 25 for 50 pounds food some of the othes eat) is likely better than your 50 dollar food. Wanna compare Crickets also carry parasitesas well as being smelly and noisy, and altho dubia may have a better nutritional breakdown han mealies they have twice as much shell to digest. Best feeder is phoenix worms. You don't even need to suppliment calcium if you use them. Maybe check out my nutritional breakdown thread for more info there.

Rick I deleted your last post as it was taking the thread off topic. Sorry, you can repost it in the appropriate thread if you would please.

no worries Kel

Geckos do seem prone to some binge eating once in a while.

The past couple days Jasmine has been snubbing her nose at the mealworms.
After alot of reading on these threads and the potential problems with crickets I am transitioning her to mainly mealworms. She has been eating maybe 1-2 a day and won't touch them otherwise. But then she just decided to clean out the bowl (maybe 6 of them in there). But they were pretty small ones so no worries!

Just something to keep in mind feeding mini mealworms to a gecko that can eat larger prey really isn't doing them any nutritional favors. Same problem of more shell, less animal meat means their harder to digest and their system is working harder to digest. Feeding appropriately sized food, being nothing larger around than the space between the eyes, really is better for the animal. You feed less, they get more out of the food they are eating and prey that is too small will be less appeaing than appropriately sized prey.

Just curious but why are you using minis? Is your leo a hatchling/young juvie under 3 months old?

I've been using mini's for rambo and amber as im pretty sure they are still quite young. I've had them both just over 4 weeks now and they were around 6-8cm when i got them, im guessing they are around 3 months old? They do eat normal size mealys from time to time but i ge the feeling they are a little bit big for them

I feed the same size mealworms no matter what the age.
Regular mealworms from hatching, just less of them.