A Guide to Feeding Insects to Your Crested Gecko

Last Updated: January 27, 2023

Feeding your crested gecko a variety of healthy foods is a big part of taking good care of it. Insects are a natural part of their diet, but not all bugs and worms work for them. What insects can crested geckos eat?

Crested geckos can eat Dubia roaches and crickets regularly, up to three times per week. Other feeder insects vary by species, but none are quite as good for cresties. Insects do not contain all the nutrients crested geckos need, so these “live feeders” add to a premade commercial ‘complete gecko diet.’

“Complete Gecko Diets” (CGD) are well-balanced and contain all the nutrients a crested gecko needs. From a nutritional perspective, you don’t need to provide more insects.

Yet, many people want to give their pets live bugs. Insects serve as enrichment and add more protein to their diet. Serving some live insects is beneficial when done correctly.

Crested geckos are omnivores that eat many things, including insects, in the wild. If they eat an array of insects in their natural habitat, can’t we feed them whatever we like?

Unfortunately, no. Each species is distinct. Some are hard to swallow or digest, and others are full of fat. Those specifics can make a difference to your pet’s health.

By the end of the article, you will know everything you need about the insects crested geckos can eat!

Background Info

What Insects Do Crested Geckos Eat in the Wild?

Many keepers want to know what an animal eats in the wild so they can copy it. Bugs are a staple part of a wild crested gecko’s diet, but which ones?

New Caledonia is an island in the southwest Pacific with unique biodiversity found nowhere else. Studies estimate the number of distinct insect species in New Caledonia to be between 8,000 and 20,000!

That seemingly simple question, “what insects do crested geckos eat in their natural habitat,” is difficult to answer.

Even if we did know what insects crested geckos eat in the wild, it is unlikely we could get them. Most are endemic, which means they only live in one place. They are not available for purchase here, and their breeding habits are unknown.

But, even though we can’t match their natural diet, we can learn from it.

And just because a wild crested gecko couldn’t get the bugs you can get locally doesn’t mean they aren’t safe or healthy for your pet.

It does mean we need to look more carefully before trying something untested by the community that has cared for crested geckos over the last twenty-five years.

What Makes an Insect Good or Bad?

So, when we don’t know what they would eat in the wild, how do we know what is good for them?

Feeder Insect Nutritional Quality

Like any other food, we can evaluate the nutritional quality of various insect species. The most relevant nutrients are protein, fat, carbohydrates, and the vitamins calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P).

Protein is essential for providing energy, building and maintaining muscles, and proper organ function.

Fat plays a vital role in vitamin absorption and provides essential fatty acids.

Carbs serve as the body’s primary energy source.

Reptiles, including crested geckos, can become calcium deficient, which leads to brittle bones. Eating foods with too much phosphorous makes this worse, so a proper ratio of the two is necessary. Ideally, we want twice as much P as Ca in every bite.

Like so many things, too little and too much can create problems. High-fat foods can contribute to obesity in pet lizards. Too much fiber can lead to digestive issues. Not enough calcium can result in metabolic bone disease (or MBD), but (way) too much can cause an overdose.

The other factor here is how much water or moisture an insect has. Crested geckos get most of their liquid from their diet, so feeding them dehydrated or low-moisture insects removes a crucial water source.

One quick note- there is some variability in the nutritional value of insects. Why? Because the contents of the insect’s digestive system change its nutritional value. To get the most out of it, keepers should “gut load” their feeder insects and feed them healthy foods within 24 hours of offering them to their pets.

Ease or Difficulty of Digestion

Like humans, not every food is equally easy for a crested gecko to digest.

Food that is high in fiber can be difficult to digest since the stomach needs more effort to break it down.

Some insects, like mealworms, have a tough exoskeleton, which can be difficult for the intestine to break down. If one of these gets stuck in the digestive tract, it can cause a blockage (also called impaction).

Insect Size

Crested geckos come in different sizes and grow over their lifetime. It makes sense that the appropriate size of a feeder insect will change, too.

The long-standing guidance for selecting the size of the food for your crested gecko is “no larger than the gap between the eyes.” This measurement directly correlates to the width inside their mouths, where food that is too big could get stuck.

Selecting insects smaller than this reduces the likelihood of choking or digestion problems from “eyes bigger than their stomach.”

Danger

Some species can be dangerous to a crested gecko. Insects have defense mechanisms, like bites and stings, to protect themselves.

Good food sources present a no-to-low risk to your pet.

Good Insects For Crested Geckos

Top Live Feeder Insects

Keepers give their crested geckos all sorts of insects and worms, but some are better than others. These are the best options to use most often.

- Dubia Roaches are the most popular and (arguably) the best option for crested geckos. Dubia roaches have a slight-to-big nutritional edge over the other insects (depending on which one you look at), mainly in protein and Ca:P ratio. They don’t bite your pet and don’t make noise or smell, so storing them is relatively painless for you, too. Most importantly, many cresties find them tasty and choose them over other feeder insects! Dubia roaches are the go-to live feeder insect for crested geckos.
- Banded Cricket is the next front-runner for crested geckos and is the mainstream staple of feeder insects. They have a lot of calcium (in actual milligrams, not in comparison to phosphorous), good protein, and fat. It is easy to find these crickets at most local pet stores, which makes them a good beginning feeder insect. Their Ca:P ratio is poor but is manageable with calcium powder. Banded crickets are a solid option as a live feeder for cresties.
- Black Soldier Fly Larvae, or BSFL, are the larval stage of the Hermetia illucens. Like the other top recommended insects, they are nutritious and easy to keep. They are one of the few feeder insects with a well-balanced Ca-P ratio, and you don’t need to dust them with calcium before feeding them to your pet. With proper care, they last for about two weeks. Black soldier fly larvae are a good feeder insect for crested geckos.

Good Options, With Limitations

Some insects have some nutritional strengths but aren’t ideal all the time.

Hornworms are caterpillars of the Manduca genus hawk moths. They are bright green and have a distinctive spine on their heads that gives them their name. Because they are nutritious, hydrating, and low in fat, they make great feeders. Offer them to cresties when they are small and along with other insects. Note: wild hornworms’ natural diet makes them potentially toxic. Never feed wild hornworms to your pet. Captive-bred hornworms are good feeder insects for crested geckos occasionally.
Silkworms are nutritionally in the middle of the pack, with high water content and less protein. Their fat % is above dubia roaches and crickets but below the other worms. The Ca:P ratio in silkworms is the “best in class,” but it’s still poor enough to require a calcium supplement. Silkworms can serve as a treat, as many crested geckos like them, and their high water content helps dehydrated lizards rehydrate more quickly.
Mealworms are just as accessible as crickets but are different nutritionally. While their protein and vitamins are fine, they are high in fat, making them better treats than a staple food source. Mealworms can be difficult for a crested gecko to digest and many keepers do not give them to their cresties. Avoid feeding crested geckos more than a few small mealworms at a time.
Waxworms are the highest fat-content live feeder we looked at. They have enough nutrients to justify them as a food source but it isn’t healthy in large quantities. Waxworms are a fine treat for crested geckos but not a good staple feeder insect.

Insects to Avoid

Superworms are a distinct species from mealworms but have similar nutritional value. They have the worst Ca:P ratio of all the insects we are looking at, and there are concerns over impaction because of a hard outer shell. Some superworms are so large that they are difficult for smaller crested geckos to swallow. And they are known to bite. Like mealworms, they can be uncomfortable for crested geckos to digest. Avoid feeding superworms to your crested gecko.
Grasshoppers are most similar to crickets. They have more protein, less fat, and a better Ca:P ratio, but one that is still not good. Grasshoppers are high in fiber and can grow very large, which increases the possibility of making it hard for cresties to poop after eating them. Transporting live grasshoppers is not allowed in the US (they are considered a ‘native insect pest’), so live versions are difficult to come by unless you catch them in the wild, which has other problems. For many keepers, grasshoppers aren’t viable or the best live insect for crested geckos.

Feeding Instructions

Eating live food stimulates crested geckos, both physically and mentally.

Hunting is part of their way of life in the wild. Recreating that experience keeps your crested gecko physically fit and engaged instead of inactive and bored.

Step 1. Before You Serve the Insects - Gut Loading

Most insects raised as feeders for pet lizards contain few nutrients naturally. But, by providing them with a high-quality meal before feeding them to your crested gecko, the insects become a more nutritious meal.

How? If the crested gecko eats those insects within 24 hours, some nutrients in the vegetables will get passed along to your pet. Effectively, you are loading up the insects’ digestive system (or gut) to make a better meal for the lizard.

Gut-loading recipes are simple. Combine a leafy green vegetable with a piece of carrot, orange, or apple. Throw in a few whole grains, like oats or barley, and voila! You’ve made a healthy dinner for your insects, which improves them for your crested gecko.

Premade gut load is also available for sale and maximizes the range of nutritional potential in feeding. The process works the same but saves you from needing fresh ingredients.

Step 2. Coat with High-Quality Calcium Supplement

Remember the importance of Ca and P for crested geckos? And how much more P is present in most feeder insects than Ca? Here is the solution.

Just before serving the insects, dust them in calcium powder. Typically, dropping an insect into a bowl with powder on the bottom and shaking it around is enough to coat them with a thin layer. That will supplement their calcium intake.

Step 3. Offer The Insects

Once the bugs are loaded up and covered in powder, they are ready to be given to your pet.

Ideally, you release the insects into the enclosure with the crested gecko. Collect any uneaten insects after 15 minutes.

Not all crested geckos take to hunting live insects right away. Younger cresties facing a live cricket for the first time may be confused or intimidated. In this case, killing a live feeder and hand-feeding it (with long tongs) may help.

Once you’ve successfully fed them a few bugs this way, try releasing a few feeders in a box with the gecko. Once they’ve mastered this, move up to letting the insects out in their tank for them to hunt.

Step 4. Make Notes

Record how many insects they ate. Keeping records helps us notice patterns in their eating habits (like, if they’ve stopped eating) and how many bugs to feed them.

Additional Information

Where should I get my feeder insects?

Like many things, buying from a reliable seller makes a difference.

Luckily, many helpful retailers can provide your crested gecko with healthy options. Many of us have limited options at our local pet store, both in a diversity of species and quality. Online you can find access to more types of feeders and some of the highest-quality live food you can find for crested geckos.

Some keepers catch insects in the wild and feed them to their pets, but the general guidance is to avoid this.

Wild-caught bugs may carry parasites or pesticides, which can make a crested gecko ill. The relatively low cost of feeder insects from reputable dealers makes this an unnecessarily risky option for many keepers.

Can I serve dead or dried insects instead?

Most crested geckos prefer to eat live insects. Bugs killed just before feeding work fine. Anything “prepared” a while back doesn’t seem to tempt most cresties. They ignore it like it isn’t food.

If your pet likes dehydrated bugs, don’t overfeed them.

The freeze-drying process removes the water from the insect, which helps it last longer but leaves the animal eating it with less moisture.

How many insects should I give at a time?

You’ll want to feed your crested gecko as many insects as it will eat in 15 minutes.

For some hatchlings, that might be just one or two. Juveniles who are growing and have lots of energy might devour eight or nine in a short time. Older adults might continue to eat as they did when they were younger, or they might ignore their live dinner and happily eat their prepared diet.

Track how many insects your pet ate this week, and offer one more or less as needed until you find the ideal number for your pet.

As noted above, the ‘right’ number of insects to feed them will likely change over time.

What is the best way to store live feeder insects?

It is cost-effective to buy more feeder insects at once, but you have to take care of them, too. Keeping insects to feed your animals can feel like it takes as much effort as the animal itself does!

Keep Dubia roaches in a plastic tub with a ventilated lid at room temperature. They need an egg carton to climb and hide in, food, and water. Dubia roaches don’t chirp or smell, increasing their popularity as feeder insects.
Crickets are housed similarly to dubia roaches. They can’t climb smooth surfaces, so they don’t need a lid on taller containers. They like temperatures between 65 and 85 and away from direct sunlight.
Hornworms need to be kept cool, between 55 and 60 degrees, to keep them from changing into moths. They can typically stay in the cup they come in.
Store black soldier fly larvae in conditions similar to hornworms. Depending on the brand and packaging, you might need to add food while storing them.
Silkworms live in a plastic container with a lid, preferably kept slightly warmer than at room temperature. They only eat mulberry leaves or a specially-made diet, but once they reach the right size, they can survive without food for a week.

How long do live insects last?

Each type of insect has a different lifespan.

When properly kept, dubia roaches can live for months. They keep growing, so they might eventually get too large for your crestie.
Banded crickets live for 8-10 weeks and reach adulthood at around five weeks. Most store-bought or shipped crickets live for about 2-3 weeks once purchased.
Hornworms grow up quickly and complete their egg-to-adult cycle in around 30 days. You can extend the timeline by a few weeks with refrigeration.
Black soldier fly larvae can stay pre-pupae for months when stored at 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit. At warmer temperatures, they turn into flies within a week or two.
Silkworms grow from eggs to be ready to spin a cocoon in a month. They are large enough to be fed to a crestie during the last two weeks of that cycle.

Should I feed my crested gecko insects from my yard?

No. While some people catch wild insects and feed them to their pets, we generally want to avoid this.

Bugs found in the wild may have parasites or pesticides. Crested geckos who eat them might get ill. Healthy and safe feeder insects are available from high-quality sellers, making this risk unnecessary.

Conclusion

Crested geckos can eat a variety of insects but not every feeder insect on the market is a good fit for them.

Dubia roaches and crickets are the best feeder insects for crested geckos when dusted with calcium powder. Other species, like hornworms and silkworms, work as well.

Live feeders are excellent for stimulating the hunting instinct in your pet. Offering your pet a variety of foods, including some insects, can improve their quality of life and health.