Are there any UNSAFE fruits/veggies that shouldn't be used to gut load crickets for FBT feeding?

[John]

Honestly, I'm not sure what would be toxic to amphibians if it were used in the gutloading of insects. You know, Repashy also makes a product called "bug burger" which is a great gutloading product for insects.

[Dog Shrink]

Avoid spinach, it has a chemical in it that prevents the absorbtion of calcium in your herp.

[Sublime]

While non-organic fruit contain pesticides, a good rinse should get most of it off. However, some pesticides used on crop farms will seep into the fruit or vegetables. It is not clear to me if it is unsafe for some of this exposure digested by the feeder insects is safe to feed them non-organic fruit. I've seen people's colonies thrive off of normal fruit without harming the reptiles or amphibians. I feed mine normal fruit or vegetables with a good rinse, everything seems fine. Only in moderation once a week. If you want to go a step further you can skin your fruit or vegetables and brush them off with a vegetable brush, but the pesticides that do get into the fruit or vegetables there's no way of getting rid of that unless you buy organic. It's not very clear what kind of fruits or vegetables not to give feeder insects, all should do fine. Most commonly used are: carrots, oranges, apples, lettuce. As far as the Repashy commercial gut loading, that seems fine to me. Don't know too much about their product, I just make my own high protein homemade chow for my feeder insects.

To avoid the drowning and provide your crickets with a source of water, the most commonly used product are water gel crystals found in any plant nursery. Non-toxic dried polymer crystals that expand to 400x their size into little 'gel' looking type cubes. The crickets drink from this, doesn't dry out like paper towel and cotton balls (Plus as you mentioned, the crickets will probably ingest some of that cotton), inexpensive (Lasts forever...), easy maintenance clean up, no drowning. Harmless to your herps. 6 tsp. of dried water gel crystals with water will make a gallon jug of water gel. Hope this helps...