Leopard geckos are popular pet reptiles. They are easy to grow and feed as well. Since they are carnivores, they will do pretty much everything they can catch.
If you observe the wild leopard geckos, you will find their interesting eating habits. They eat spiders, beetles, crickets, and other insects.
But the adult and the baby leopard geckos have different eating habits. Adults can eat any size insect, whereas the baby leopard can only eat soft and small insects. You can consider feeding your pet leopard with hornworms. It is a great food source.
Can leopard geckos eat hornworms?
The leopard geckos can eat hornworms. This insect is full of nutrients, including protein, vitamins, and minerals. You can allow the leopard to eat the adult and big-sized hornworms from the garden. Otherwise, you can order the live hornworms from online platforms like amazon.
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You have to be careful about the baby leopard geckos. They may struggle to eat the entire hornworm at a time. It would help if you offered them only the tiny and baby leopard geckos so that they can eat happily without any issues.
Blue hornworms:
You might worry if your leopard geckos can eat the blue hornworms or not. But the truth is different.
Blue hornworms are not poisonous. They also contain the same amount of minerals and proteins. Therefore, the leopard geckos can eat the blue hornworms.
The blue insects will only turn poisonous if you store them for a long time to use them on the plant. And it occurs with most of the insects; you cannot keep them for a long time. The living hornworms would be the best food source for your pet leopard geckos.
Tomato hornworms:
The interesting tomato hornworms might be another good food source for your adult leopard geckos.
This insect is larger than the previous one. Therefore, the baby leopard geckos can’t swallow them; however, the adult will find it tasty.
The adult leopard geckos can eat the tomato hornworms. You need to be careful while your pet is eating this insect. If you notice any unusual eating or swallowing problems with your pet, stop feeding them with tomato hornworms.
Do leopard geckos like hornworms? Can hornworms hurt leopard geckos?
Leopard geckos like to eat hornworms for minerals and protein. Mainly, the leopard is a wild animal, and it loves to eat pretty much everything it can catch.
Any insects will be the food source for the geckos. It has a solid digesting system that will help it to digest everything.
When they find the hornworms nearby, they try to grasp them and devour them. The hornworms seem an excellent source of their protein.
They can take all the required protein from a couple of hornworms. Therefore, they like to eat hornworms whenever they find them nearby.
Hornworms cannot hurt the leopard geckos. But you need to be careful when feeding the worms to your baby leopard geckos.
They have small mouths; therefore, they can’t be able to eat the entire hornworm and swallow it properly. The worms might create difficulties for them.
However, the overeating of hornworms might create digestion problems since it contains high amounts of protein. It will be a dangerous attraction as well.
So don’t make a habit of giving only hornworms to your leopard. Try to make a diet plan and follow it to get the best growth.
Can baby leopard geckos eat hornworms?
Baby leopard geckos can eat small size hornworms. But they can’t eat the adult and big-sized hornworms.
If you have baby leopard geckos, you must be careful about their eating habits. They won’t be able to eat large size insects. You will find some baby leopard geckos in the pet shop. Go there and buy some.
The baby leopard geckos will fail to swallow the entire adult hornworms. Notably, the size will be difficult to digest and to eat. Therefore, you need to buy small-sized or baby hornworms to feed your small-sized leopard geckos.
If you try to feed your baby geckos with adult hornworms, they might get stuck in the neck. It will be a dangerous situation for the baby geckos.
In contrast, small-sized hornworms won’t create such difficulties. They will go through the neck and become healthy food in the stomach.
Are hornworms healthy for leopard geckos?
Hornworms are healthy for leopard geckos. They contain minerals and protein, the two best nutrients for leopard growth.
Therefore, you should include them in your pet diet list. If you don’t have living hornworms in your garden, you can buy them from an online store.
Also, you will find them at pest stores. Before purchasing the hornworms, be sure they are alive and not toxic. Otherwise, the healthy ingredients will harm the leopard geckos’ health. And it will leave a negative impact on your pet’s health.
All the growing nutrients are in the hornworms. They help the leopard geckos to grow fast and be strong. But overeating will be dangerous for your pet. They might create fat in the stomach or the liver, leading to serious health issues.
It’s better to make a diet plan for your pet and follow it accordingly. You need to ensure that the diet has everything included. Minerals, vitamins, protein, and other ingredients must be there.
What are the nutritional values of hornworms for a leopard gecko?
Adult hornworms have the below nutritional values for a leopard gecko.
Protein:
Typically, the best part of the nutrients of hornworms is protein. It contains 9% protein of the total weight.
When your leopard gecko eats adult hornworms, it gets good protein. If it takes 4-5 hornworms, it will get enough protein for that day.
The number of hornworms will depend on the leopard age. You have to be careful while feeding your baby leopard with hornworms. They won’t be able to digest too much protein at a time.
Minerals:
If you want to know the best part of giving hornworms to leopard geckos, the answer would be minerals.
Adult hornworms contain 85% minerals that will keep your pet healthy. The importance of minerals for reptile health is unavoidable.
The minerals also make it easy to digest protein and fat. So, it’s a great source of minerals for wild animals like leopard geckos.
Fat:
A leopard gecko will get 3% of fat from a single adult hornworm. This amount will vary from hornworm species. It’s not a big concern for the leopard’s health to digest the 3% fat. Instead, it’s an ideal amount to keep the growth.
Calcium:
When a leopard eats an adult hornworm, it gets 4.6% calcium, which helps build the small bone and become healthy. And that’s another tremendous nutritional value that your leopard will get from the living hornworms.
How many hornworms can a baby and adult leopard gecko eat?
A baby leopard gecko can eat 4-5 small-sized hornworms. You cannot offer adult or biz size hornworms to your baby leopard geckos because it will become a swallowing issue for the baby.
Since the baby leopard gecko is very tiny, you should not obsess it with the burden of food. Therefore, 4-5 small-sized hornworms would be a better choice.
In other words, an adult leopard gecko can eat 3 to 5 big or adult-sized hornworms. They can eat the entire hornworms without facing any issues.
But when the hornworms are too big, you should never offer it to your leopard geckos; instead, you can provide the small size hornworms.
The number of hornworms for the leopard geckos will mostly depend on the size and age.
If it passes a few weeks and becomes a growing leopard gecko, you may offer them a bit more, but not too many at a time. Leopard geckos don’t need too much food to survive.
How often can I feed my leopard gecko hornworms?
Once a month would be the best diet routine to feed your leopard gecko hornworms. But the time will be different for adult and large-sized pets.
If your leopard gecko is an adult, you can offer 3 to 4 times a month. It will be enough to provide the best amount of protein.
You cannot offer more than that because of health issues. Overeating hornworms will be dangerous for wild animals. They will react to the hornworms and refuse to eat them. One of the main reasons could be the digestion problem.
Stop feeding if you find your leopard gecko doesn’t want to eat hornworms. Check out your pet’s health and go for the proper treatment.
Final Thoughts
Although leopard geckos can eat hornworm, and they love it, you need to make a diet plan for them. Overfeeding hornworms will damage natural growth and might also create health issues. It’s better to offer the hornworms once or twice a month. More than that will not be safe.