The main everyday diet for a common house gecko is small live insects, and crickets plus tiny roaches are the practical staples. This slender, nocturnal gecko spends its wild nights around lights and walls snapping up moths, flies, beetles, and spiders, so the captive staple should be a rotating cast of small prey rather than one insect forever. Fruit flies, small black soldier fly larvae, and tiny moths round out the week, all sized to a head that is narrower than most keepers first assume.
Staple Prey, Sized Honestly
Judge prey against the space between the gecko's eyes and stay at or under it: an oversized cricket is not a challenge, it is a stressor that may bite back. Pinhead and small crickets, roach nymphs, and larvae in the smallest grades are the sizes to buy, and gut-loading them beforehand is how a staple insect becomes a nutritious one. Because each item carries so little, the everyday routine is about several small items offered most evenings rather than a weekly feast. A shallow feeding dish with smooth sides can hold larvae and stunned prey where a shy gecko can find them without loose insects vanishing into every corner.
The Evening Routine This Gecko Expects
House geckos hunt after dark, so release or present food in the early evening as the enclosure dims and the gecko emerges onto the glass and branches. A settled adult does well fed most evenings with a rest night or two across the week, while juveniles should be offered food daily as they grow. Count what you put in and check what remains in the morning, since uneaten crickets roaming a humid enclosure will harass a sleeping gecko. Misting in the evening serves double duty, giving the gecko droplets to drink from leaves and glass right when it becomes active enough to hunt.
Dusting the Staple So It Stays a Staple
Insect-only diets are mineral-poor without help, so dusting prey appropriately belongs in the everyday routine for this gecko, not in a sometimes column. A light, even coating on most feedings, done by shaking prey in a bag or cup with powder just before release, is the standard approach. Keep the routine written down, because the failure mode with tiny geckos is not dramatic refusal but slow, quiet shortfall that shows up months later as a weak grip, poor sheds, or a thinning tail. A gecko that clings confidently, sheds cleanly, and chirps or rustles around the enclosure at night is telling you the staple is doing its job.
When the Nightly Hunter Goes Quiet
Glass Versus Branches at Feeding Time
A house gecko divides its hunting between the glass, where it waits for insects drawn to light and warmth, and the branches, where larvae and stunned prey can be placed within tongue reach. Vary the presentation between those two zones across the week and the gecko patrols its whole enclosure instead of camping in one corner, which keeps a small lizard active and makes missing meals easier to spot. A common house gecko that stops emerging at dusk, loses the plumpness at its tail base, or is found weak on the enclosure floor needs prompt attention from a reptile veterinarian, after a quick check that night temperatures have not crashed. Bring the feeding log, including prey sizes and dusting frequency, because with micro-geckos the history is most of the diagnosis. Keeping that log faithfully in KinsLe Care Teams means a substitute keeper feeds the same small staples on the same evenings.