Leaf-Tailed Gecko Feeding: As Much as It Eats in a Night, and the Insects Come Out by Morning

A leaf-tailed gecko spends the day being a piece of bark and the night being a predator, and its feeding routine follows that split exactly. Here is what to offer, how much, when it goes in, when it comes out, and how to read a Uroplatus that stops taking food.

Feeding Schedule by Age

The portion is the night. Insects go in as the enclosure goes dark, when the gecko is waking and starting to hunt, and the gecko eats what it wants of them. What is still loose by morning comes out: live insects wandering an enclosure disturb a resting gecko, and a cricket left with a freshly shed or unwell animal will chew on it.

What Leaf-Tailed Geckos Eat

Strictly insects, and a wide range of them. Dubia, discoid and red runner roaches, crickets, grasshoppers, hornworms, silkworms, mealworm and superworm beetles, and captive-bred snails all work, and variety across that list is the closest thing an insectivore gets to a balanced diet.

Size the feeder to the species. The genus runs from the giant leaf-tail, which takes an adult dubia without effort, to the satanic and lined leaf-tails, which need feeders a fraction of that size. The same rule as for any gecko holds: nothing wider than the animal's head, and for the small species that means small crickets and roach nymphs rather than adults. The gargoyle gecko feeding guide covers the sizing rule for the arboreal geckos that also take a fruit diet; a Uroplatus takes none and lives on the insect list alone.

Gut-load first. Feeders are fed well for two or three days before they go in, so the nutrition the gecko gets is the nutrition the insect ate. The gut-loading guide covers what to feed them and why a cricket from the shop tub is mostly shell.

Dust lightly, every other feeding. A light coat of calcium powder on the insects at every other feeding is the supplement schedule, and feeding after the evening misting keeps the powder from washing off. Occasionally skipping a dusting is fine; skipping it as a habit is not. Metabolic bone disease in reptiles comes from a low calcium-to-phosphorus ratio or missing vitamin D3 in the diet, and from a lack of UVB, and a Uroplatus kept without either is the case. The UVB lighting guide covers the low-output bulb this shade-dwelling genus does well under.

Foods to Avoid

Wild-caught insects from anywhere that may have been sprayed, and fireflies, which are toxic. Anything wider than the head. Fruit and the powdered fruit diets sold for crested and gargoyle geckos, which a Uroplatus does not eat. Waxworms as a staple, which are fat and little else. And any insect left in the enclosure past morning.

Why Leaf-Tailed Geckos Stop Eating

It is too warm. This is a montane, shade-dwelling genus that lives at 75 to 79°F and stops eating well before it shows other signs of heat stress. A room that runs warm in summer is the first check, and the setup guide's warning that a basking source can be dangerous for this species is the reason.

It is dry. A Uroplatus that is not being misted stops eating before anything else changes, and low humidity is the biggest single threat to the species. The mist resumes and so does the appetite.

It is in shed. A day or two off food, and a gecko that eats its own shed, which is normal.

It is being watched. These are shy, nocturnal ambush hunters. A gecko that is disturbed at dusk, or whose enclosure sits in a bright, busy room, may not hunt. Feed at lights-out and leave.

It is wild-caught. A wild-caught leaf-tail arrives dehydrated, stressed and often carrying parasites, and a refusal in a new import is as likely to be the parasites as the settling in. The reptile quarantine guide covers the fecal screen that sorts them.

It is gravid. A female carrying eggs slows down for a few days before she lays.

When to Worry

A few nights off food in a cool, misted enclosure is nothing. A refusal that runs past a week, or one with sunken eyes, a kinked tail, trembling limbs or visible weight loss along the spine, is the point to see a reptile vet, and the reptile emergency plan guide sorts those signs by urgency. Weigh the gecko monthly on a gram scale, since a Uroplatus hides weight loss under its own camouflage.

Insects in at dusk, out at dawn, dusted with calcium every other time, and the mist twice a day. A leaf-tailed gecko fed that way is a lizard that spends its days invisible and its nights hunting, which is the whole point of keeping one.

Sources & Further Reading