Geckos have become one of the most coveted reptile pets in America, the UK, Australia, Canada, and other countries. They are easy to take care of and are known to be low-maintenance pets. You don’t have to start with expensive geckos. Just look around your house and you are more likely to find the common house gecko. Yes! House geckos make great pet lizards and the best part is that they are used to living in your house. But what do house geckos eat?
Supposing you want to keep a pet house gecko, what will you be feeding him or her? Well, house geckos are insectivorous and will mainly eat bugs, crickets, small worms, roaches, and other feeder insects.
The common house gecko is more likely to adapt fast to live in captivity as opposed to other wild lizards. All you need to do is replicate their natural habitat and feed them plenty of insects.
So, without wasting much time, let’s jump right into the detailed overview of a house gecko’s diet.
Contents
What Do House Geckos Eat?
The appropriate diet for most house geckos’ pets includes insects, terrestrial vertebrates, and non-insect arthropods. They also love nectar and sugar-based products. Examples include live gut-loaded crickets, butterflies, moths, flies, spiders, cockroaches, termites, some types of bees, and wasps.
- Gut-Loaded Crickets,
- Mealworms
- Waxworms,
- Silkworms
- Dubia Nymphs
- Discoid Nymphs
- Red Head Roaches
- Young Grasshoppers
- Young Locusts
- Flightless Fruit Flies
- Isopods (Sowbugs, Potato Bugs, And Pill Bugs),
- Rice Beetles
- Bean Beetles
- Buffalo Beetles
House Gecko Diet Guide
House geckos occur in various species and they might have different diet requirements. To avoid all the confusion, I am going to focus on the Common House Gecko, Mediterranean House Gecko, and Tropical House Gecko as well.
Those are the most popular house geckos you’ll find in your home. They might be living in different climates, but they mostly eat the same type of food.
What Do Tropical House Geckos (Hemidactylus mabouia) Eat?
The Tropical House Gecko, also known as the Cosmopolitan House Gecko or Afro-American House Gecko is a species that’s native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is mostly found in South, North, and Central America and the Caribbean.
As you’d expect, you can find this species of house geckos in urban locations. They are mainly nocturnal and are considered to be avid hunters. It is hard to find these geckos feeding during the day as they prefer to hunt nocturnal crawling and flying insects.
From my experience with tropical house geckos, they prefer chilling near lighting fixtures in order to catch those insects that hang out near the light.
The Tropical House Gecko has a varied diet and it consists of moths, scorpions, spiders, cockroaches, grasshoppers, locusts, and pretty much any insect that is categorized in the Orthoptera species.
What Do Common House Geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus)Eat?
The Common house gecko is the most popular house gecko and it is native to Southeast Asia. Some people refer to it as the wall gecko, moon lizard, Asian house gecko, house lizard, or Pacific house gecko.
This species loves foraging for insects during the night and is inactive during the day. The common house gecko does well in warm, humid areas. Besides, they love climbing and you’ll mostly find them hanging around the walls or near porch lights.
Common house geckos do not have a complicated diet; they mainly rely on insects that love flying or crawling around lights. This includes small crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, moths, small beetles, butterflies, termites, and some spiders as well. In case you plan on keeping one as a pet, you should provide them with small-sized prey.
What Do Mediterranean House Geckos (Hemidactylus turcicus) Eat?
The Mediterranean house gecko has similar characteristics to the common gecko. The only difference is that the Mediterranean gecko has a translucent underbelly and bumpy skin.
This species originated from the areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and later spread to the United States. Today they have become an invasive species in Florida and Texas as well.
The great thing about Mediterranean house geckos is that they are hardy and can become awesome pets. As you’d expect, these house geckos are insectivorous. They can eat worms, roaches, crickets, small butterflies, termites, spiders, and various beetles.
When feeding them, you have to ensure that the prey is smaller than the gecko’s head. This way, your house gecko will have an easy time chewing and swallowing its prey.
Tips For Feeding Your House Gecko
Having a house gecko as a pet is awesome because it is quite easy to take care of and does not have a lot of requirements. All in all, you have to be careful with feeding. Below are a few tips you should know when feeding your house gecko:
- Always provide small-sized prey as it makes it easier for your gecko to chew, swallow and digest it as well. Large insects might cause impaction or even cause injuries to the house gecko.
- House Geckos love to hunt for insects and it’s advisable to give them live feeder insects. Most geckos will hesitate to eat freeze-dried insects.
- House geckos should be fed at night as it’s when they are most active. Make sure you have the lights on so that they can spot their prey easily.
- You have to gut load their insects before you feed them to your house gecko. This makes it possible for the insects to pass on other nutrients to the gecko.
- Make sure you provide water for the wall gecko to lick as it wishes. In most cases, we recommend that you spray their enclosures with some water.
- You should also dust the feeder insects with calcium and other minerals that you deem necessary
- Avoid handling your house geckos when feeding them. These guys can become too stressed and sometimes they might even scamper away as they are too fast.
Wrapping Up!
There is our detailed summary of what house geckos eat in captivity and in the wild as well. As you can see, the diet is pretty much the same across all the house gecko species. Make sure you apply the tips we’ve discussed above as they’ll come in handy when caring for your gecko.
