Which vitamins and supplements do leopard geckos need?

If you’ve been researching what to feed leopard geckos, you’ll have likely seen that they need additional vitamins to supplement their diet.

Malnourished and vitamin-deficient leopard geckos in captivity can suffer from a plethora of health problems, including the very scary MBD (metabolic bone disease) so it’s important that their diet is as healthy as possible.

Before even considering vitamin supplements, most feeder insects will need gutloading. This is a very important and efficient way of making sure your leopard gecko receives natural vitamins, moisture and nutrients through their diet.

Please don’t assume that dusting the insects with vitamin powder alone will be sufficient; because it’s so important that their feeder insects are healthy too.

For a more detailed discussion about WHY vitamins are so important, please read my post on UV lighting as this explains the need for artificial supplements.

Which vitamin supplements/ how often?

To supplement their diet, leopard geckos need calcium powder and vitamin D3 and I have linked to the ones I use below. The calcium powder I use comes on its own, but the D3 is also mixed with calcium.

My leopard geckos eat about 3-4 times per week, so I tend to dust with calcium on most of these feeds, and then use the calcium + D3 powder on 1-2 of these feeds.

To dust: you can either sprinkle a bit of powder on the insects while they’re in a feeding dish; just enough to give them a thin covering, or you can put the insects in a bag, spritz with water and add the powder and shake. This makes the powder stick to the insect better and I tend to use this method when I am feeding the geckos some locusts.

I also leave a small pot of calcium in their vivariums for them to lick at if they need to.

To be honest, I never see them eating from this pot – my geckos tend to dig in theirs and leave little footprints all over the glass 🙂 but I do know other owners whose geckos do lick at their calcium, so it’s well worth doing. You don’t need to put loads in, and it’s good to change the powder around once per week.

I hope this post has been helpful, and I really must stress that vitamin powder alone is no substitute for a good diet. I have written several posts in my Feeding category, so please check them out too if you’re still unsure.