What Do Baby House Geckos Eat?

Geckos are one of the most common lizard species kept as pets. Baby house geckos may be a pleasure to have in any family and may develop into tough adults if cared for properly. The key is to learn as much as possible before obtaining them so that you can start them off on the right foot.

The world’s largest lizard species, the gecko, has more than 2,000 different varieties. Leopard and crested geckos are among the most popular pet lizards. Day geckos and Tokay geckos are two lesser-known species of Gecko kept by hobbyists.

When newborn leopard gecko hatchlings are 3 to 4 inches long, they’re tiny. Adult female leopard geckos reach a length of 7 to 8 inches while males grow to 8 to 10 inches in length. Crested geckos of both genders usually grow to 4.5 to 5 inches in length when they emerge as adults.

Baby geckos are available for sale in pet stores and breeders so that owners can get to know their pets at a young age and watch them develop. Baby geckos, on the other hand, have immature cartilaginous and immune systems that make them more vulnerable to sickness than adult geckos. To avoid the formation of frequent juvenile illnesses, they must be fed and cared for appropriately when they are purchased in order to attempt to prevent them from developing.

What Do Baby House Geckos Eat?

Baby house geckos should be fed a combination of tiny prey items. With the inclusion of fruit flies and other small flies, silkworms, occasional mealworms, and other insects, cricket feedings may form the majority of their diet. Before feeding a gecko, load it with a gut load. Twice to three times per week, dust the prey with a calcium supplement, and once a week, add in a multivitamin.

During the night, feed your typical house geckos. Daily feeding is necessary for juvenile geckos, but adult geckos may be fed every other day. Feed your household gecko as much prey as it can consume in ten minutes. Provide a tiny shallow water dish with fresh water on a daily basis, even though typical house geckos may drink from condensation. You can use this bowl for soaking if required.

Small crickets and mealworms can be fed to baby house geckos every day. Insects should not be bigger than the width of the gecko’s head in general. When lizards approach adult size, they may be fed insects twice a week and receive larger creatures, such as super worms, waxworms, and Dubia roaches.

Before feeding your gecko insects, make sure they’re fed a diet that’s been supplemented with vitamins, calcium, and minerals. Before feeding a gecko with insects that you have raised yourself, lightly dust them with calcium powder three times a week, vitamin D3 twice a week, and a mineral supplement once a week.

Insects may be placed in tiny shallow dishes into which newborn geckos can climb to eat them. If a baby lizard is unable to reach the dish on its own, it can be fed one bug at a time until it is old enough to feed itself.

The number of insects that a gecko can consume in one sitting should be served at a time, or else the lizard’s skin may be chewed. Furthermore, daily fresh water should be provided to the lizard in a shallow dish from which it can be drink. The evaporating water in the dish will also aid to raise ambient humidity.

How To Feed Baby House Geckos?

The house gecko (also known as Mediterranean gecko) is a wonderful reptile for novices and experienced reptile keepers because it is inexpensive to purchase and can be really easy to take care of. These tenacious little lizards are named after their propensity to hide and live indoors, making them ideal pets for a home enclosure. The average lifespan of a house gecko is five to ten years, but you may take action to look after your gecko properly and guarantee she has a lengthy life.

Step 1

Every day, give your gecko fresh water. Once a day, fill a tiny, shallow water dish for your gecko with fresh, chlorine-free water. The water dish should be kept on the chilly side of the tank. You may use it for bathing yourself or your gecko, and most geckos drink water droplets from daily misting rather than their water bowl.

Always offer dechlorinated water to your gecko as distilled water lacks the necessary nutrients and minerals for them. Avoid giving your gecko untreated tap water since it may be detrimental to its health.

Step 2

Offer your gecko a high-protein diet. Your baby house gecko, or juvenile gecko, must be fed five to six times each week. Adult geckos require three to four feedings each week. Insects like crickets, waxworms, mealworms, roaches, and silkworms should be fed to your gecko.

Do not confine your gecko’s food to too little space. Please make sure the insects are longer than the width of your gecko’s head. Remove any remaining insects from the aquarium floor since they might irritate your gecko’s skin and eyes if chewed on.

Gut loading insects is also useful for keeping your gecko healthy. Gut load the insects with a balanced diet about 24 hours before offering them to your gecko. Then, give your gecko the gut-loaded bugs. Do not offer wild-caught insects to your gecko because they may carry ailments.

Step 3

Supplement the food of your baby house gecko. Dust your gecko’s food with a calcium supplement before feeding him. The frequency with which a juvenile gecko should be dusted differs from that of an adult. To avoid over-supplementing the diet, check with your veterinarian about how much supplement to dust on your gecko’s food.

Choose a calcium supplement with vitamin D3 and apply it twice to three times each week instead. If your veterinarian recommends one, use a calcium pill that does not contain extra phosphorus.

How To Take Care of Baby House Geckos?

Setting Up An Enclosure

The majority of pet dealers sell geckos in 10 to 20-gallon glass tanks. If you use plastic storage boxes, such as those for sweaters, that are at least 1 foot tall, the lizard won’t be able to jump out. Twenty gallons is ideal for bigger individuals or when more than one gecko is kept in the same

Larger gecko tanks may be more difficult to maintain warm and humid enough, allowing the gecko to avoid being under heat and UV lights. All enclosures must have a tight mesh top to prevent escape and encourage ventilation.

A little, inverted plastic box with a cut-out door filled with moist moss or vermiculite may be placed within the enclosure as a hide box to help keep the humidity high enough for the gecko to shed its skin properly. To help keep humidity and satisfy the gecko’s need to climb, live or artificial plants can be placed in the enclosure.

Adjusting The Temperature

Supplemental heat is needed for all species of gecko, regardless of their kind. Heat can be provided with an over-the-tank heat bulb or an under-the-tank heating mat placed at one end of the tank. Hot rocks are not advised because they may become extremely hot and reptiles often don’t move away from them before being burned.

A temperature range is needed in a gecko tank, with a warm end and a cool end. The required temperature range for a gecko species is determined by their kind. All leopard gecko habitats should have a warm zone of 90°F and a cool zone no lower than the low 70s°F. Crested geckos are more comfortable at slightly lower temperatures, with the war zone ranging from the upper 70s to low 80s°F and the cool zone being no less than 70°F.

Point-and-shoot temperature guns, which are available in most pet stores, or standard temperature strips or thermometers that stick to the tank’s inner walls should be used to check temperatures on a daily basis. Depending on the ambient room temperature, the quantity of heat supplied may require adjustment seasonally.

Humidity levels must also be measured with hygrometers, which are called humidity gauges. To ensure that lizards stay hydrated and shed their skin properly, the humidity level should stay between 50 and 70 percent. Daily misting of the aquarium helps to maintain humidity at a proper level.

Because many gecko species are nocturnal in the wild and active at night, they are not exposed to a lot of sunlight. Due to the idea that UV light doesn’t impact baby house geckos, some veterinarians and reptile breeders argue that because they aren’t harmed by it, no lizard is.

Geckos having to use UV light, however, is a contentious issue, and certain veterinarians believe that when geckos are exposed to a few hours of daily UV radiation from a full-spectrum UV bulb, they do better and are less prone to develop common skeletal diseases like a metabolic bone disease.

What Are The Natural Predators of Baby House Geckos?

Snakes, spiders, birds, and species brought by men such as cats and dogs are among the predators. The much smaller goliath tarantula stalks these animals in the northern South American rainforests, using its poison to paralyze and liquefy the gecko’s flesh.

Hawks and owls typically dwell in climates that are too chilly for geckos, but when temperatures drop below freezing and these birds move south, these reptiles become a preferred meal.

How Do Baby House Geckos Protect Themselves From Predators?

Baby house geckos are small creatures that face a number of natural threats. Small birds, snakes, frogs, and other bigger reptiles all seek out geckos. Geckos have learned to defend themselves effectively as a result of this. Passive defense includes fleeing and hiding, which is one part of their defensive mechanism. Some geckos may try to attack as a defense mechanism when they are provoked or terrified.

Detaching Their Tails

Tail loss is one of the most well-known gecko defense mechanisms. This is exactly what it sounds like because when a gecko’s tail is grabbed, the tail detaches and continues on its own. The tail is lost, allowing the gecko to flee. Aside from a few minor blood losses, losing the tail has no effect on the gecko. The tail then regenerates over time, allowing it to be used as a defensive and escape mechanism if necessary.

Camouflaging

Although geckos are generally colored, they can also control their coloration to mimic the environment. This helps them blend in with their surroundings and become nearly undetectable to predators by changing colors at will. Depending on the colors of the forest around him, a satanic leaf-tailed gecko from Madagascar can turn orange to green to brown to yellow.

Using Their Senses

Geckos have excellent vision, hearing, and smell. To find food, geckos utilize their eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell. It’s also a method for geckos to detect predators when they’re nearby.

When a predator is sighted, each gecko responds differently. Some may run away rapidly, while others might try to blend in order to avoid being discovered. This is a defensive strategy that is passive.

Biting To Defend Themselves

Some geckos don’t bite. Some are timid and try to avoid human touch as much as feasible. If other animals or human hands come too near, even if you don’t intend to harm them, other geckos will bite. Tokay geckos, for example, which are bright and colorful lizards up to 12 inches long bite without provocation. Leopard geckos, on the other hand, are peaceful and docile and far less willing to bite than tokay geckos.