Can leopard geckos eat human food [Detailed Guide]

In this article I will be answering a frequently asked question by non-Leo owners can leopard geckos eat any human food? I think that most of the time people are referring to fruits and vegetables, not like cheeseburgers or something but just to be clear and get this out of the way the answer is no. You can absolutely not feed your gecko human foods.

So now that we know it’s a solid no let’s get into the reasoning why leopard geckos eat human food.

Why can’t leopard geckos eat human food?

If you want to keep it as simple as possible humans and many other animals have a body part that leopard geckos don’t that breaks down cellulose which is a part of fruits and vegetables.

This part that your gecko is lacking is called the C-Gum. Their bodies are equipped to only digest insects so they can only digest insects. That’s why they’re called insectivores.

Another issue as to why leopard geckos can’t consume vegetables is that they have a small digestive tract. This is usually smaller than a herbivore who has a longer digestive tract and it is acidic compared to a leopard gecko’s digestive tract which has more alkaline.

Maybe you’re like oh I wish I could feed them something that isn’t alive I hate bugs. Well, first of all, you were the one who bought a leopard gecko if you can’t hold bugs then I’m sorry but that’s your problem.

But unfortunately, all they eat is bugs don’t even try to feed them dead insects that aren’t nutritious and most Leos will refuse those anyways.

In the worst-case scenario, you can feed them Repashy gel. This is usually for sick geckos that can’t swallow well because it’s easier for them to eat and you can feed it through a syringe.

But I guess you can technically feed that to a healthy gecko but it’s not as good for them compared to what they’re supposed to be eating which is bugs because they eat that in the wild.

But if you’ve seen leopard geckos channel she used Repashy gel to have a birthday cake for one of her geckos and it did fail, none of them were interested at all but if they wanted to have it they would be able to safely digest Repashy, it’s just a lot better than feeding your gecko fruits.

Another thing that makes it very obvious that they’re only supposed to be eating insects is their skull.

Leopard gecko skulls are designed for consuming insects and insects only. Humans are omnivores which means we can eat anything well, not anything but anything you know what I mean.

We can eat meat starches and vegetables because humans are made like that. It would go the same for a herbivore like a panda, you’ve never seen a panda eat meat, I hope not because their body was made in a way that they can only digest vegetables so it’d be very unhealthy for them to eat meat.

And it’s just the opposite for leopard geckos. Leopard geckos have smaller jaws that are perfectly shaped for consuming insects, not fruits and vegetables.

While I was researching for extra info to put in this article I saw a couple of articles saying that leopard geckos can eat fruits. So for this, it depends on how you look at it.

In this whole article, I’ve been saying no you definitely can’t feed leopard geckos fruits but technically they can. I’m still sticking with my statement to not feed them human foods but they can eat fruits. So that probably didn’t make any sense so let me explain.

Let’s say a five-year-old was feeding their dog and they decide to try some dog food because they’re a kid and they eat everything. There’s a reason their parents tell them not to eat dog food anymore.

The reason is first of all it’s made for dogs and that’s just disgusting, second, it can’t safely pass through the digestive system so the child system will try to get rid of it and since it can’t go through there’s a chance that they’ll regurgitate it because the system isn’t designed to break down dog food.

The five-year-old ingested the dog food but cannot digest the dog food. There’s a difference, right now if you wanted you could eat a marker and somehow swallow it that’s ingesting but your body can’t break down or digest the marker so it’s very unsafe, don’t eat markers by the way.

If you can put food in your gecko’s tank with the bugs so that they don’t go over and bother your lizard?

Now, this would be okay but it isn’t unlikely that your gecko will be trying to catch a bug and misses, but it gets a piece of lettuce or carrot or whatever food you’re feeding your insects.

If they don’t realize that they’re not supposed to be eating the lettuce then they’re going to swallow it and not spit it out and that’s bad for their system. So do not put fruit in your gecko’s tank with the bugs it may just end up in the wrong mouth.

If you leave your bugs in long enough to the point that they get bored and start biting your lizard then that’s the problem and the solution isn’t to put food in it’s to take the bugs out and try to feed those bugs to your gecko next time.

Okay well, I think this is a sort of short article but I hope that you like this. Please do not feed your geckos lettuce (human food) only feed them insects. I hope that that message came through in this article, pretty sure it did but you know just in case.