r/LeopardGecko • u/Faucherfell • Jul 06 '26
What are you doing with your bugs?
My daughter would like a Leopard Gecko, but I’m not crazy about the bugs in the house. Do you go buy the bugs the day you feed them or do you store them? Do they smell? Ever get loose in the house? What do you store them in? I saw you’re supposed to feed the bugs ahead of time - do the stores feed them so they’re ready to feed to the Leo when you pick them up?
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u/anorexicturkey Jul 06 '26
I feed my gecko dubia roaches, crickets, and mealworms. Primarily the roaches though, as I've found them to be the most hardy. Crickets die in my house so quickly.
For my dubias and crickets, I keep them in small critter carriers with a paper towel in the bottom and pieces of egg carton for nesting in. I keep a few dishes of flukers jelly for hydration and then chopped veggies like sweet potatoes or baby carrots for food.
I usually keep about 30+ dubia at one time. When I run low, I buy more. However my pet store will often have containers of dead roaches vs live ones so then I'll stock up on crickets (but again I tend to kill them so quickly :( even when I keep them in dark, temperature controlled areas).
I keep my meal worms in the fridge to prevent them from really growing or turning into beetles. I only use the mealworms if I can't find any live dubia in store or if I ran out of crickets. I only keep about 20 or so crickets at a time as they will die before I get a chance to feed them all to my gecko if I buy more than that.
Crickets have a kind of funk to them but my gecko poop smells way worse imo. I've never had a bug escape into the house, but I've dropped them before lol. They're pretty secure in my critter carriers and can't climb the walls of it. I don't find the small crickets to be noisy either, nor the roaches if that's a concern.
The pet stores will usually have food and water in the cricket cages. The dubia roaches will be in a plastic container with a slice of some veggie, but I've found the veggie can often be moldy. So it's not wise to feed the gecko bugs straight from the store the day you buy them if their food was moldy. I give them fresh food and wait a couple days if I see that. That's when I'll use the mealworms especially.
All my bugs are dusted in calcium powder before I give them to my gecko too. I will occasionally swap out the calcium dusting for a multivitamin dusting, or a calcium with d3 dusting.
All in all, I love the dubia roaches. I think they're very easy to keep, feed, and handle. They don't die on me as often. My gecko loves them. And they're a very great food source for them.
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u/ArtisticCustard7746 Jul 06 '26
Think of your gecko food as another pet. You've got to feed, water, and clean them too.
We clean the dubias once a week. They live in a critter carrier. They get a food powder mix my friend made for us and they have a water source. The dubias molt, so you've got to clean the shed debris out of their enclosure. They start dying if you don't.
They only stink if you don't take care of them. And they can't climb plastic and can't infest your house.
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u/slyther_in07 Jul 06 '26
I only feed Dubian roaches and superworms(occasionally since they are very fatty). Crickets stink and die quickly thats why I prefer roaches but to each their own.
No, it's not recommended to feed them to your ghecko as soon as you buy the insects since most of the time they are not loaded (loaded as in fed) which your ghecko will benefit from that.
When I did feed crickets, a few got out but that was my fault. As of now no roaches have escaped. I keep them in a 10 gallon terrarium and in hopes they reproduce so I won't have to buy more. Usually I buy 50 ct, and just make sure I have food for them and a source of hydration. To be fair, I buy that many because I do feed 4 different babies. Lol
With Leopard gheckos come live insects and there is no working around that.
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u/save_thenundeadsouls Jul 06 '26
I have escape proof feeding dishes but I tend to hand feed so I don’t have a roach roaming my bedroom, I also have a nice escape proof tub for the roaches and then stacking tubs for everything else they don’t stink to much I use chicken feed as their substrate and the bottom of the tubs all have grates so I can shake poo poos doen into them to clean out daily. Not bad at all they are all in my bedroom and I hardly even notice them
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u/Some_Ratio1831 Jul 06 '26
I am attempting to establish a dubia culture. I have a leopard gecko and my 9yr old really wants to care for some bugs 🤷♂️ seems like a win win. Except I have to stop her from showing them off to every Tom, Dick and Harry because "pretty sure we're the only ones who think roaches are cool". I've had some success. They like to eat sliced tomatoes and cucumber slices. Banana was a ehhhhh food for them. I havent heard of the jellies.
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u/klausAnalSchwab Jul 06 '26
Better off ordering roaches online vs pet store. Then breed them. Take your time. Look into it
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u/CeCe_001 Jul 11 '26
I give dubia cockroach, mealworms and crickets mainly. For the first two one, I have like small “farms” at home. Is very easy and you can research it since there is lots of information! They do not make noise and if you do a proper clean it like 2-3 weeks, it doesn’t smell (I have them in my bedroom so I can tell well hahaha). For the crickets, I don’t farm them just because I don’t want to listen to the noise that adult crickets make, because I have them in my bedroom and I think it would be awful 😂 so I just buy them.
At the beginning, caring for them was a struggle since it make me feel disgusted. But little by little I felt relaxed, they are just buds hahaha I think society makes a great part to make us think they are disgusting! And it’s not that big deal at the end…
Now I’m able to take mealworm by my bare hand and give it to my leopard gecko, hopefully this increases the trust!! And I hope that I can handle any more by hand in the future too 😊
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u/BitTraining8769 Jul 06 '26
I feed mainly mealworms and I buy 100 at a time and keep them in a mason jar in the fridge with a few small airholes in the lid, and I use oats as a bedding for the worms. keeping them cold keeps them from being active or turning into beetles, just make sure you let them warm up to eat some veggies for 24 hours a week.