5 ways of feeding your leopard gecko live food - Updated

There are a number of different ways in which you can feed your leopard gecko. How you feed your leopard gecko can influence its natural feeding and hunting behavior, which is sometimes overlooked. By feeding, I refer to introducing live food into the vivarium, not the supplementing with calcium (these are covering in some previous blogs). There are a number of different and inventive ways to put live food into the vivarium.

1. Bag shake method

The bag shake method is very simple. Just get some crickets or locust and place them into a bag with some calcium powder in and shake well. This gives an even coverage of calcium to all the live food in the bag. The main problem with this method is that it can be quite messy to get the live food out of the bag and can leave to escapees if you shake the bag too much.

2. Feeding tub method

The feeding tub method is very simple just like the bag shake method. Just get some crickets or locust and place them into a tub with some calcium powder in and shake well. Again, this gives an even coverage of calcium. This method is less messy than the bag shake method as they are easier to put into the vivarium. However like the above method you can easily get escapees so you still have to watch what your doing!

3. Termite/Feeding Rock

These are great for simulating natural feeding and can make your leopard geckos feeding fun to watch. You dust the crickets before hand and then put the mound into the vivarium. When they come out of the one or two holes in the rock they are hunted by your gecko. The only downsides to this method is that the crickets don’t always come out and they can rub the calcium supplement off before your gecko eats the – or it could be a while before they come out.
4. Feeding Tongs

Feeding tongs are instruments that are used to feed your gecko by hand without getting your fingers too close to your geckos mouth. This is a great method if your gecko is ill or not feeding well. The problem with this method is that unless your careful then your gecko can bite the tongs. The feeding tong has the potential to cut your geckos mouth which can lead to infections if your gecko is a bit over zealous with its feeding.

5. Hand Feed

The hand feeding method is just like the tong method but using your fingers. This method builds up the trust of your leopard gecko and is great fun to do occasionally but should never really be a staple way to feed your gecko. Constantly feeding by hand can cause your leopard gecko to become fat as it never really has to hunt for its food. If your not careful or you use too small a prey item, your gecko could accidentally bite you. Its best to do this method when the are over 5 or 6 inches. I prefer this method to using tongs because I think its safer and builds the bond between you and your gecko.


As you can see there are a couple of different feeding methods available for you to try out. Leopard geckos will respond differently to each method so its more about finding which method best suits your gecko best. A variety of feeding methods can stimulate your leopard gecko and its always fun to watch a leopard gecko feed.

Leopard Gecko Guy