Anyone know anything about Geckos or Superworms?

[homestarmy]

My girlfriend acquired a Tokay Gecko which can eat these "superworms", crickets, or mice. We've been feeding it the worms.

Link to pics of Tokay!

One place that sells them cheap and gives us lots of them doesn't give us any bedding for them. One place sells bedding, but we'd have to ship it, etc. Other alternatives we have been told are bran and oatmeal, but they don't necessarily have the protein and calcium that the lizard needs.

However, we can buy jars of cricket feed or "gutload". That has all the stuff that they need. Is there any reason why we can't just use that as bedding? We're actually trying that now with a test group, but I was curious if anyone knew about it.

 

[Thraxen]

Bedding for the crickets? I don't see why not, but be warned that crickets stink. I tried keeping some for a while, but got sick of the smell. Now I just keep meal worms on hand and gut load them with veggies. But I don't have a Tokay, so I don't know if meal worms are enough for them. Now I just buy crickets by the dozen and drop them in the enclosure every now and then to give the gecko something to hunt down.

Here's a pic of my gecko (Giant Day Gecko named Brynn): Link

The pic is a couple of years old now, but she looks pretty much the same, except maybe just a little bigger now.

 

[homestarmy]

Nice Gecko! I'll show my gf .

And as far as using crickets... we had them a couple of times and yeah... they stink like hell! Plus, I don't want to drop them in his cage, because he'll take awhile to eat them and they'll just stink that up too.

I just want to use the cricket gutload as a bedding for the worms. These are like mealworms but larger. Maybe they're exactly what you're using?

So for your worms, do you give them any bedding at all, or just toss in veggies? We use bedding and toss in veggies for moisture.

 

[homestarmy]

Thraxen - my girlfriend wants to know where you got your bamboo, we could use something like that!

Also, how do you water your gecko?

 

[step-dawg]

Dude, that is one cool looking Tokay! I don't know much about reptiles, but that tokay looks beautiful.

 

[homestarmy]

Thanks ! He sure is a good looking pet, but he's not the greatest for holdind and cuddling, haha. When we hold him, he does his best to jump away and then climb up the walls where we can't get him!

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
Nice Gecko! I'll show my gf .

And as far as using crickets... we had them a couple of times and yeah... they stink like hell! Plus, I don't want to drop them in his cage, because he'll take awhile to eat them and they'll just stink that up too.

I just want to use the cricket gutload as a bedding for the worms. These are like mealworms but larger. Maybe they're exactly what you're using?

So for your worms, do you give them any bedding at all, or just toss in veggies? We use bedding and toss in veggies for moisture.

Meal Worms for Tokay's are fine. Just drop the worm in front of it. He has to be hungry and spy it quickly or the meal worm will bury itself in the bottom.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
Bedding for the crickets? I don't see why not, but be warned that crickets stink. I tried keeping some for a while, but got sick of the smell. Now I just keep meal worms on hand and gut load them with veggies. But I don't have a Tokay, so I don't know if meal worms are enough for them. Now I just buy crickets by the dozen and drop them in the enclosure every now and then to give the gecko something to hunt down.

Here's a pic of my gecko (Giant Day Gecko named Brynn): Link

The pic is a couple of years old now, but she looks pretty much the same, except maybe just a little bigger now.

That looks like the Geico Gecko.. unlike that scary monster the OP posted.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
Nice Gecko! I'll show my gf .

And as far as using crickets... we had them a couple of times and yeah... they stink like hell! Plus, I don't want to drop them in his cage, because he'll take awhile to eat them and they'll just stink that up too.

I just want to use the cricket gutload as a bedding for the worms. These are like mealworms but larger. Maybe they're exactly what you're using?

So for your worms, do you give them any bedding at all, or just toss in veggies? We use bedding and toss in veggies for moisture.

Well, I don't have a problem with the crickets stinking up the enclosure because I have live plants in there. The bottom contains several inches of soil and gravel. So it more or less is its own ecosystem. There are actually pill bugs and a couple of earth worms in there (and I have no idea how they got there!). I don't even have to clean up the gecko poop. If it gets on the glass I just wash down into the soil. Also, I just put medium sized crickets in there and she eats most/all of them within about two days.

Actually, I think you are right about the superworms. They appear to be the same thing as a mealworms... or maybe just a larger variety. The local pet stores carry two sizes of meal worms (small & large). I buy the small, but the large may be the same thing as superworms.

The meal worms I buy come with their own bedding. It looks like come sort of grain husks (looks similar to saw dust). Then I just add in things like carrots and lettuce. Then go through the veggies pretty fast. A lot of people keep them in a refrigerator (pet store does too) to keep them from developing as fast, but I found that they didn't really eat much (if at all), so I keep them as room temp. The only draw back to keeping them at room temp is that they start heading into the final stage of development before becoming full blown beetles in about one to two weeks. So I buy them in packs of 50 once every week to week and a half. They are cheap, so big deal. Which reminds me... I need to go by the pet store today or tomorrow

Originally posted by: homestarmy
Thraxen - my girlfriend wants to know where you got your bamboo, we could use something like that!

Also, how do you water your gecko?

Places like Lowes have bamboo poles real cheap. I think that's where I got them. Just look in the garden section. I then bought some suction cups and cut the bamboo so that it was just barely shorter than the length of the aquarium. I put the suction cups on the end of the bamboo, put it down in the aquarium at an angle, and then rotated it to wedge it into place.

As for watering, I read where a lot of people on the internet said that it's hard to get geckos to drink out of a water dish, but mine does just fine. In the wild they apparently drink dew off leaves. That's less of an issue now though since I bought a cheap misting system. There is a 2-gallon bucket and small pump under the aquarium. Then some tubing runs up and split off to two nozzles... one on each end of the aquarium. Three times per day the pumps kicks on for 1 minute (actually I think one of them is set for 2 minutes). This accomplishes 3 things for me. One, it keeps the humidity up in the aquarium. Giant Day Geckos are native to Madagascar, so they like high humidity. Two, it waters the plants. I never have to pour water directly into the aquarium for the plants. I just had to find the right balance. At first I had the misters on too long and the bottom of the aquarium start to develop standing puddles in the soil. The aquarium was starting fill up with water. Finally, three, it provides water for the water gecko to drink off of the leaves.

BTW, love the coloring on your Tokay.

 

[zinfamous]

Nice looking gecko; and great pics by the way! Someone knows what they're doing. My pops is a herpetologist/biologist. If I can rem; I'll ask him something about it next time we chat (Unfortunately, such questions always turn into an interesting, yet lengthy lecture). His lab many years ago used to be stocked with mealworms and crickets for all fo the critters he had hanging around. Of course, he always had snakes or lizards crawling around the house too.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
That looks like the Geico Gecko.. unlike that scary monster the OP posted.

Yep, the Geico Gecko is a day gecko too. You can tell because he has round pupils. Naturally nocturnal geckos, like homestarmy's Tokay, have vertical slits for pupils. There are actually a couple of Geico commercials with Giant Day Geckos in them. For example, there is one where the Geico Gecko is talking to 3 or 4 green geckos on the ground. Those are all Giant Day Geckos like mine. They all even have identical red markings like mine.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

wow that gecko looks crazy :Q

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: Dean

Originally posted by: homestarmy
Nice Gecko! I'll show my gf .

And as far as using crickets... we had them a couple of times and yeah... they stink like hell! Plus, I don't want to drop them in his cage, because he'll take awhile to eat them and they'll just stink that up too.

I just want to use the cricket gutload as a bedding for the worms. These are like mealworms but larger. Maybe they're exactly what you're using?

So for your worms, do you give them any bedding at all, or just toss in veggies? We use bedding and toss in veggies for moisture.

Meal Worms for Tokay's are fine. Just drop the worm in front of it. He has to be hungry and spy it quickly or the meal worm will bury itself in the bottom.

Yeah, they bury themselves extremely quickly, so we feed him with tongs. He looks, rears back for a couple of seconds, then STRIKES!

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
The meal worms I buy come with their own bedding. It looks like come sort of grain husks (looks similar to saw dust). Then I just add in things like carrots and lettuce. Then go through the veggies pretty fast. A lot of people keep them in a refrigerator (pet store does too) to keep them from developing as fast, but I found that they didn't really eat much (if at all), so I keep them as room temp. The only draw back to keeping them at room temp is that they start heading into the final stage of development before becoming full blown beetles in about one to two weeks. So I buy them in packs of 50 once every week to week and a half. They are cheap, so big deal. Which reminds me... I need to go by the pet store today or tomorrow .

These must be a different species, because you specifically cannot keep them in the fridge like you can the regular mealworms, I think they will die. We have had some for a couple weeks, and none will start to morph. These ones need very specific conditions for that according to what my girlfriend looked up. And these things devour whatever you give them pretty FAST, especially for their size, and especially if you've gotten them from Petco, where they sit on the shelves and aren't fed until they die (they have cups of half dead ones).

Petco sells them for around $5 for 50 (which is likely under 50), but they come in a nice deep cup and with bedding, but the place I'm getting them at now sells 25 for $2.50, but each time they've easily given me more than 50, the first time, much more. Only downside, no bedding. But we're testing the cricket stuff.

How much do you pay for yours?

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
Places like Lowes have bamboo poles real cheap. I think that's where I got them. Just look in the garden section. I then bought some suction cups and cut the bamboo so that it was just barely shorter than the length of the aquarium. I put the suction cups on the end of the bamboo, put it down in the aquarium at an angle, and then rotated it to wedge it into place.

As for watering, I read where a lot of people on the internet said that it's hard to get geckos to drink out of a water dish, but mine does just fine. In the wild they apparently drink dew off leaves. That's less of an issue now though since I bought a cheap misting system. There is a 2-gallon bucket and small pump under the aquarium. Then some tubing runs up and split off to two nozzles... one on each end of the aquarium. Three times per day the pumps kicks on for 1 minute (actually I think one of them is set for 2 minutes). This accomplishes 3 things for me. One, it keeps the humidity up in the aquarium. Giant Day Geckos are native to Madagascar, so they like high humidity. Two, it waters the plants. I never have to pour water directly into the aquarium for the plants. I just had to find the right balance. At first I had the misters on too long and the bottom of the aquarium start to develop standing puddles in the soil. The aquarium was starting fill up with water. Finally, three, it provides water for the water gecko to drink off of the leaves.

BTW, love the coloring on your Tokay.

Thanks for the advice on the bamboo, that is completely perfect for our setup. My girlfriend had been thinking of something like that, and we had been looking at crappy fake plants, but handn't found anything.

We have been watering our Gecko with a squirt bottle by spraying the fake leaves that are in his aquarium. That's the way he's been watered for a while. And that helps with the humidity as you mentioned. We have temp and humidity gauges setup, and we use the coconut husk bedding to keep up the humidity. We also set up a water dish just incase, but he doesn't take notice at all. He's actually pretty keen on somehow pooping in it too! But he doesn't spend any time on the ground either, except when he's done a crazy jump and lands there, and then, only till he gets back to the glass. Does your Gecko spend any time on the ground? Our Tokay has a little swing too btw.

We also were thinking about using one of the things where you can put a bottle on the top with a small valve and run tubing into the cage where it drips at a very slow rate. The hole in the top of the mesh of his cage says that a previous owner must have done this. He's been moved around a few times (he's supposedly got a biting problem too, but we've been lucky).

Thanks for your info!