Clarification on what food works for AFTS.

[Treefolk]

I've been reading a bit about AFT's and have kept leos for the last 7 years. I've heard that the AFT's are a little bit more "friendly", if you will, then leos. However, I've heard that they only like crickets, that they will eat meal works and anywhere in-between. So it begs the question, can you feed AFT's entirely on mealworms? If not roaches? I don't like crickets (had some kill a leo when I first started out and have had repugnance for them since).

 

[Enigmatic_Reptiles]

I feed all of my AFT roaches without issue. A majority will also take mealworms when offered. I have personally not experienced the whole issues with getting babies to feed and have noticed quite the opposite with all my babies feeding amazing on dubia.

 

[Treefolk]

I feed all of my AFT roaches without issue. A majority will also take mealworms when offered. I have personally not experienced the whole issues with getting babies to feed and have noticed quite the opposite with all my babies feeding amazing on dubia.

Thank you

What size roaches do you feed to your babies and then adults?

 

[geckobabies]

I have no experience with roaches but I can and have maintained my Fat Tails entirely on mealworms for several seasons. I would say the feeding response as hatchlings is harder to get going on mealworms than with crickets (and I am assuming roaches) but it can be done. I now offer my adult Fat Tails crickets several times a week to vary their diet and have noticed that they have recovered a bit quicker from egg laying than previous years. Again, I am assuming the same would be true with offering the roaches.

The key with a mealworm only diet is to offer a high quality gut load as well as proper calcium/vitamin supplementation. You must also monitor their weight carefully to make sure they stay at a healthy weight. Of course this can be said with other feeders as well.

 

[KTyne]

My AFT will only eat Crickets even though he was apparently eating Kingworms and others at the Breeders. They definitely can be super picky but if you really work on it even a Cricket picky AFT can be eventually switched to Mealworms or another type of feeder.

 

[milha]

AFTs can be very picky about food. I have all kinds of experiences with AFTs....

My advice is to get babies or young adults instead of adults animals from a breeder. In my experience seems easier to convert young animals. I was able to convert a cricket eater young animal to only dubias but was unable to convert the adult ones from the same breeder. In another situation I got a baby (10g) that was only eating crickets and I was able to convert to dubias easily. All my dubia eaters were 10-25 grams when I got them and I was able to convert (some easier than others).

Right now I have three geckos that only eat crickets (all three were already adults when I got them) and one adult male AFT that loves superworms and will prefer superworms instead of crickets!!

I don't like crickets either... I still hope to convert my adult cricket eaters to dubias one day, still trying but so far NO success....

Best is to get a gecko already on dubias or worms.... and NEVER offer them crickets...

 

[KTyne]

I now have 2 AFTs that will only eat Crickets and one that LOVES Superworms and Mealworms, so it just depends on the Gecko.

 

[Olympus]

I haven't found my AFTs to be very picky eaters, but I do cup feed any worms or roach nymphs so any time I have to introduce something new to a gecko it goes into the cup and they are conditioned enough to try anything that is in there.

But my geckos have quite a bit of food variety - crickets, superworms (I never use mealworms), butterworms, hornworms, waxworms, various roaches (discoids, dusky cave roaches, surinam, and green banana roaches), etc. So they get a little bit of everything weekly, in different combinations, and everything that is gutloadable is gutloaded well.

I think perhaps geckos become picky when they only eat one thing for weeks or months (or years!) and then they don't know what to do with other food. Roaches are going to be a good staple, but I would add in other things for variety. A varied diet is always going to be better.