Leopard geckos are insectivorous, meaning they feed on insects. Most leopard gecko owners will occasionally feed worms to their geckos as treats or every other day as a staple. Leopard geckos do not ordinarily feed on worms in their native habitat, but this doesn’t indicate that they cannot eat them. Nightcrawlers are some of the common worms, and you might wonder;
Can leopard geckos eat nightcrawlers?
Yes, leopard geckos can eat nightcrawlers. The worms contain some rich nutrients beneficial to your gecko and are also a suitable choice when trying to expand the menu of the lizard. Nightcrawlers offer an occasional excellent alternative to your leopard gecko’s staple diet. Even so, these worms are only ideal for the lizard as a treat.
Leopard geckos feed on various worms and insects. But not all are safe for the lizard. Even for the safe ones, it is good to know that some insects are only ideal as a treat, not a staple. Below, we discuss nightcrawlers, their nutritional value to leopard geckos, and whether you should provide them as a staple, among other things.
What Are Nightcrawlers?
Most people wonder whether nightcrawlers are earthworms.
Well, nightcrawlers are a type of earthworm mainly found in most of North America and Europe. They have a simple anatomy as their bodies resemble those of typical earthworms.
Nightcrawlers are common in fields, lawns, and gardens with relatively loose soil. As they burrow deep in the soil, they play an essential role in soil fertility by aerating it.
An adult nightcrawler has a length of between 6 and 8 inches. Despite their simple anatomy, these worms have a head with a tiny brain and multiple hearts along the various body segments. Breathing happens through their moist skin since they have no lungs. In addition, nightcrawlers lack other developed organs like eyes, and they majorly depend on vibrations in their surroundings.
Nightcrawlers Nutritional Value
| Nutrient | Content |
| Moisture | 83% |
| Proteins | 10% |
| Fat | 1.6% |
| Calcium | 440 mg/kg |
| Phosphorus | 1,590 mg/kg |
Benefits of Nightcrawlers for Leopard Geckos
Now that we know what nightcrawlers are, we can discuss whether they are suitable for your leopard geckos.
Source of Proteins
Nightcrawlers have decent amounts of protein. The nutrient is vital to leopard geckos for the growth and effective functioning of various organs. Although the amounts are not optimal, they are an excellent addition to what the lizard gets from other sources.
Source of Moisture
Leopard geckos are not good at drinking water; as such, they mainly get hydration from their food. Gladly, nightcrawlers have a significant moisture content. Therefore, they can be a good choice for a dehydrated leopard gecko.
While they are good at hydrating the pet, leopard geckos do not need a lot of moisture; thus, giving nightcrawlers to your leopard gecko too often can cause diarrhea. It is another reason why these worms are only suitable as a treat.
Fat
One of the most remarkable physical features of a leopard gecko is its fat tail. These lizards store fat in their tails as a reserve for when they cannot hunt or find food. It is a survival mechanism. Nightcrawlers have some fat which can help keep the gecko’s reserves in good shape.
Risks of Feeding Nightcrawlers to Leopard Geckos
While nightcrawlers are a good source of nutrition for your beardie, there are some risk factors for these worms that you need to know. These factors are why leopard geckos should only be given these nightcrawlers as a treat.
Low Calcium Levels
Nightcrawlers are poor in calcium content. Calcium is a vital mineral in leopard geckos as it promotes good bone health and general growth and development of the lizard. As such, giving your leopard gecko this worm will subject the lizard to a deficit of this crucial mineral. Calcium is an essential mineral for your gecko’s development and prevents them from suffering the deadly metabolic bone disease.
A solution to this can be dusting the insects with calcium powder when giving them to your pet leopard gecko to enhance the calcium amounts the pet takes.
Risk of Impaction
Nightcrawlers can grow as long as 10 inches, which can pose a severe challenge to your leopard geckos, especially juvenile ones. A standard leopard gecko meal is 2.5 to 3 inches long, so a mature nightcrawler is significantly bigger. Your leopard gecko might be unable to chew the worm properly, leading to poor digestion or impaction.
To minimize the risk of impaction and choking when giving your leopard gecko nightcrawlers, choose the small worms measuring less than 2 inches, irrespective of whether the pet lizard is a baby or an adult.
The drawbacks of nightcrawlers to leopard geckos are significant and can’t be ignored. Therefore, only give your leopard gecko nightcrawlers as a treat to ensure that your pet lizard gets the benefits of this worm but does not suffer severely from the drawbacks.
As with all other leopard gecko insects, be careful where you source the nightcrawlers from. While wild ones might be readily available, they might carry toxins and illnesses.
Even when giving nightcrawlers to your leopard gecko, it is wise to mix the worms with other beneficial insects, such as dubia roaches.
Preparing Nightcrawlers for Leopard Geckos
Some leopard geckos do not like nightcrawlers, and you should not force the pet to eat them, mainly because there are other better insect options. However, if you have established that your leopard geckos enjoy eating nightcrawlers, the next step is to prepare the meal for feeding.
Before feeding your geckos, you need to ensure that the nightcrawler meal is; healthy, safe, optimally nutritious, and in the right quantities so that your gecko gets maximum benefit. Here are vital tips to guide you.
Sourcing Your Nightcrawlers
When looking for nightcrawlers for your leopard geckos, you should avoid getting them from your backyard because they are unsafe for your gecko’s consumption. Most of these nightcrawlers will have chemicals absorbed from insecticides sprayed on the soil. Others may harbor parasites and diseases that are deadly for your gecko.
Instead, it is always safe to source your nightcrawlers from reputable stores and breeders. If you buy them online, always check the store’s rating to ensure they sell quality nightcrawlers.
Alternatively, you may also opt to rear them yourself- this way, you will control what the nightcrawlers feed on and thus ensure the worms are safe you’re your pet’s consumption.
If you decide to rear your crawlies, it might be wise to first get in touch with your vet so that they can advise you on what you need to do so effectively.
Gut-Loading Your Nightcrawlers
Gut loading is another important exercise you need to do to ensure that you provide your geckos with the necessary nutrition.
It refers to feeding your nightcrawlers with nutritious food within at least 24 hours before providing them to your leopard geckos. The nutrients that the nightcrawlers eat within this time will ultimately end up in your gecko’s body.
Gut loading helps nutritionally improve the quality of the nightcrawlers that your geckos eat. The best foods for gut loading your crawlies needs to be high in calcium-phosphorous ratio, proteins, and vitamins for them to benefit your geckos.
You can also gut-load the nightcrawlers with protein-rich foods.
Dusting With Calcium & Vitamins
Dusting is similar to gut loading as it ensures that your geckos get as many nutrients as possible. It involves mixing calcium powder and multivitamins with the nightcrawlers before feeding them to your gecko. This ensures that as the geckos eat the nightcrawlers, they equally absorb the vitamins.
Mix about ¼ teaspoonful of the mineral with the nightcrawlers for each meal. You can repeat this after every few days to avoid feeding them excessive vitamins and minerals.
Dusting should be no longer than 5 minutes before each meal. It ensures that maximum nutrients are absorbed.
A key reason why dusting is essential for geckos in captivity is that they may not get enough sunlight to synthesize sufficient vitamin D.
In addition, nightcrawlers have a high phosphorus content, about three times that of calcium. Thus, adding calcium through dusting helps improve the calcium-to-phosphorous ratio in the gecko’s meals.
Better Insect Alternatives for Your Leopard Geckos
Evidently, nightcrawlers are not an ideal staple for leopard geckos. Therefore, exploring other sources of food for the pet reptile is crucial.
As we mentioned earlier, nightcrawlers are not the best source of nutrition for your leopard geckos. Therefore, they should only be fed occasionally as treats. Below are far more nutritious insect choices for the pet lizard.
· Mealworms
Mealworms are one of the typical diets for leopard geckos. They are nutritious and also easy to feed since they do not bite or emit strong odors. Mealworms are also low-fat, making them suitable staple food for your gecko.
· Crickets
Crickets are a well-known source of nutrition for your leopard geckos; due to their low-fat content, they make an excellent source of nutrition as they don’t put your gecko at risk of becoming obese.
They also provide nutrients such as proteins and calcium essential to developing your juvenile geckos.
· Dubia Roaches
This is another excellent food choice for your gecko owing to its rich calcium and protein content besides moderate fat amounts.
Your gecko will get the best nutrition and value when you provide dubia roaches together with crickets and mealworms.
Another reason for including dubia roaches as part of your gecko’s nutrition is their ability to reproduce. They are pretty easy to rear and multiply.
So a few roaches could quickly reproduce and feed your gecko for a long time.
· Waxworms
Waxworms are another everyday meal for leopard geckos, and most gecko owners love them as they are pretty nutritious and easy to feed.
The only issue is that waxworms have high-fat content meaning that your leopard gecko can easily become obese. Therefore, you should feed them in moderation and with other nutritious, low-fat meals.
· Hornworms
Hornworms are another great source of nutrition for your leopard gecko. Due to their high protein and moisture content, they are especially suitable for dehydrated and sick leopard geckos.
· Butter Worms
Butter worms are another nutritious meal that you may consider as food for your geckos. However, as their name suggests, they have the highest fat content of all worms.
As such, you should feed them occasionally as they can easily make your geckos obese. Feed them as treats and consistently with other low-fat insects like dubia roaches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Nightcrawlers And Earthworms Similar?
Earthworms and nightcrawlers are almost similar but have a few differences, like their feeding patterns where nightcrawlers feed at night while earthworms feed during the day. Also, nightcrawlers have segmented bodies, while earthworms have smooth, unsegmented bodies.
Can Leopard Geckos Eat Earthworms?
Just like nightcrawlers, earthworms offer good meal treats for your leopard gecko. However, they are most suitable as treats, not regular food, because of their high-fat content and reduced nutrition. Furthermore, while leopard geckos can eat earthworms, not all geckos may want to eat them.
How Many Nightcrawlers Can A Leopard Gecko Eat In A Day?
When you decide to treat your leopard geckos to some night crawlers occasionally, you should do it with moderation to avoid overfeeding. As discussed above, overfeeding your leopard geckos can easily result in impaction, which may turn fatal.
About 5, 3-inch long nightcrawlers are enough per feed. So, treating your geckos once or twice weekly is enough for proper development. Something worth noting is that you should be keen on the length of the worms, especially for juvenile geckos, to avoid the risk of impaction that comes with more mature nightcrawlers.
Conclusion
Leopard geckos can eat nightcrawlers. These worms provide some nutrients essential to your leopard gecko’s development.
However, while they offer a good source of nutrition, they are also low in calcium, making them unsuitable as a staple food. Thus, nightcrawlers are only good as a treat for the leopard gecko.
Ensure that you buy the nightcrawlers from reputable stores or breeders only. It will help you avoid purchasing sick nightcrawlers or those carrying chemicals and pesticides.
The length of the nightcrawlers is also worth considering; to prevent the risk of impaction.
