Hi! I’m back with two more questions…
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Where is the best place in the house to keep a leopard gecko? Are they bothered by noise (i.e. yelling, stomping, etc.)?
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Is a food dish necessary for live prey?
Thank you so much for all your help!
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it really depends on the gecko. I had a nervous little one who would always hide at movement and lights. So quiet room is better for him.
My girls I have right now are very chill and will just hang out when people are moving about or music is playing. One will even follow the cat or dog back and forth when they pass by the enclosure. They don’t mind a busy room. -
bowls make it a lot easier. The prey can season themselves if you sprinkle a bit of vitamin or calcium powder in there. It’s also easier to count how much they’re eating. Most of the prey that you would use a bowl for wouldn’t be too annoying (except super worms) to the gecko, but they can also create waste or possibly multiply or become too Numerous depending on how many you feed at a time vs what your gecko eats.
Tong feeding is the easiest way to keep track of all feeding. If feeding crickets or super worms, I would only feed as many as you can see your gecko eat. Preferably by tongs. Both can become nuisances and can bite and injure the gecko if there’s too many loose in the enclosure.
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Just to clarify: all insects should be supplemented with an all in one product such as Repashy Calcium Plus. The “If” is misleading; “since” would be a better phrasing.
I personally feed superworms and roaches in a bowl, and let crickets loose for the hunting enrichment. I tong feed butterworms and hornworms. So long as the number of crickets is appropriate and the gecko is fed when it is hungry, the risk of injury is outweighed by the benefit of the hunt, IMO.
I don’t actually dust any of my insects so your comment would also be misleading and possibly lead to over supplementation and possible vitamin overdose.
I provide my geckos with separate dishes of vitamin and calcium so they self regulate themselves. The only downside is you do have to monitor your geckos habits a bit more … But I don’t have the issue of leftover frass in vitamins in the bowls if they were being left after feeding.
That’s actually a debate I’ve been having with myself- I’ve heard that both dusting on supplements and providing in the tank could lead to overdose. Personally, I’m leaning towards dusting, because then I can be sure I’m regulating the amount they get. However, if you have any evidence to the contrary, I’d love to hear it! And thank you for your help, I really appreciate it 
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Generally the way I’ve done it was with a staggered dusting. If you’re using a separate calcium and vitamin do calcium one day and vitamin the next. If it’s a blend do every other day instead
For the dish of vitamins I generally blend them together and leave them in a small shallow dish. If you have a gecko that runs over and gulps a big mouthful of it immediately or you find most of it missing the next day then you wanna switch to dusting. They’re just one that can’t be trusted not to OD, and I would not put a gecko like that on sediment either. They’ll have a setup with some flat or round stones big enough not to eat with a little sediment dusted between the rocks.
With my girls I’ll either see a little depression in the middle the next day or I see them wander over and take a lick or two before wandering off when they get a fresh batch.
Here’s a research-based article I wrote a while back for dart frogs. Note that leos may be able to get their D3 needs met with UVB (though I don’t know that there’s solid evidence that this is as effective as oral supplementation across a wide range of captive conditions – I’d appreciate links to published documentation of it), and leos also can convert carotenoids to Vitamin A (again, there’s no documentation on the captive efficacy of veggie “gutloading” of insect prey regarding Vitamin A):
As for the current talk about oversupplementation risks – this is not borne out by vet science. Undersupplementation (leading to MBD, and in some species hypovitaminosis A) kills and harms more herps than any other nutritional issue by far, and oversupplementation through dusting insect prey is virtually unheard of. The relative risks of each aren’t even on the same planet.
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Dart frogs and leopard geckos are two entirely different animals.
I have worked in a veterinary hospital and vitamin OD can definitely be in issue. Just because it’s rare doesn’t mean you should encourage it. Many times the symptoms of vitamin overdose can be very similar to vitamin deficiency.
If you are giving a calcium with D3 to a leopard gecko every time you feed you can actually promote kidney failure in them. VitD overdose can cause sluggishness, joint pain and make them stop eating. And guess what? If you mistake that for MBD and try to fix it, it just made the problem worse.
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Their diets are not relevantly different, though. What gets supplemented is the diet, not the herp – this goes back to that 1970’s bird nestling study that got the topic of insect prey supplementation started (I think this is the study). The calcium (and Vit D, and Vit A) is supplemented to balance out the lack of those substances in the feeders.
If you could link to any published papers supporting the overdose by dusting claims, I’d enjoy looking at them. Thanks!
I’m not debating over this. I have personally seen animals in a medical setting be overdosed on vitamins. I am not scouring the Internet for documentation because you somehow don’t believe this is possible.
Feel free to believe what you want, but many owners have been concerned over the risks of overdosing their Leo’s on D3 or worked with rescued animals that were.
From dusting insect prey? Or from the availability of supplement dust loose in a dish?
Yes, I know owners are concerned, but this is a concern just like the Vitamin A overdose concern of the 1980 that turned out to be unwarranted and is literally still killing herps today (with overmarketing of beta carotene based supplements based on their “safety”).
Respectfully, I don’t think the hobby moves forward if claims aren’t backed up with evidence-based documentation. I’m certainly not denying your experiences or your veracity, but discussion of public data matters. I’m not sure the repeated claim about mistaking hypoD with hyperD is reasonable, either; looking to the supplementation history will clear up the distinction instantly.