Before I quit on leopard geckos: My mother took a hatchling of mine with a badly deformed leg. She fed exclusively freshly moulted dubia roaches raised on low quality dog food and apples. The Leo lived to 16 years old before she developed a neurological condition. No UV was involved. The only supplement she was using-was a small bowl of in-expiration date Rep-Cal Calcium with Vitamin D.
I never gutloaded any of my feeders, but I did raise them on apples, carrots, and dog food. At one point I was raising crickets and I had 100's of thousands and the *smell*--dear god it was soooo bad and I dumped them all outside and switched to roaches exclusively...I had about 20 Northern Flickers (birds) in my yard for like a week...and my neighbor mentioned that the crickets outside were *extra-loud* that year...lol...
Fun fact: If you are raising Dubias and you want to give their breeding efforts a boost: give them a slice of orange every day...they are one of the only roaches that enjoys mild acidity citrus. Don't try this with crickets or other species of roaches as they are not adapted.![]()







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