I wanted to break this up slightly being a borderline novel, heh. Also...I'm having difficulty where to find the emoticons and ability to bold/italize, etc...

Anyway: Gutloading.

The problem with most commercial gutloads on the market is they contain fillers. I'd assume the vast majority of you, being research and forum junkies like myself, understand that there are brands of dog and cat food than are better than others. Naturally, the brands that contain no filler product or other BS in the first few ingrediants are better than those that do. The same can be said for gutloads.

Most of the pet store products sold (Flukers, etc) contain junk. A lot of sources also sell gutloads loaded with calcium and other things in it that can affect some insect's ability to properly molt. The sad fact is, crickets and some other feeders are phosphorus cravers... while phosphorus is a necessary mineral in the body its frequently recommended to feed herps at least a 2:1 ratio of Ca:P in the diet because high levels of phosphorus can actually block calcium conversation. We often compensate for the insect's naturally high Phosphorus content with dusting supplements.

If you feed a quality gutload; one that contains quality ingrediants and a variety of plant matter as a moisture source (not junk lettuce that is 99.9% water, I'm talking about greens and good vegetables, fruits) you can drastically increase the nutritional potential of a feeder. Will it make them fattier? Maybe a litte, but its a lot better IMO than feeding a primarily chitanous exoskeleton and a minute amount of internal meat content.

The problem is most likely overfeeding, and feeding poor feeders. I feel variety is the best option for any herp, so providing as much variety as possible can help to alleivate problems... but the staple insects should be those that are the leanest. Silkworms for example, or roaches. Crickets are good too (particually younger ones). Mealworms and waxworms should be rare treats.

A lot of keepers have difficulty relating to herps only eating small amounts of food every couple of days - but this is how they work. I feel Corneal Lipidosis is one of those diseases that results more from overfeeding, and feeding of primarily fatty foods than anything else. Kick the pinkies out of the diet, watch the waxowrm consumption, and feed sparingly. Too many people powerfeed their herps nowadays, and while its hard to not want to spoil our loved ones, we have to remember what is best for them. While some people feed their Boas weekly, I feed adults every 2 weeks. Bearded dragons should be fed almost entirely a vegetarian diet upon entering adulthood, yet if I had a dollar for every person than feeds them pinkies and insects at a rate that a juvie would eat I'd be wealthy...and these animals die far too young. We need to remember that the metabolsm of an ectotherm is an amazing thing, and they have evolved to not eat constantly. If you can provide the proper environment, temperature etc and are feeding quality feeders at a reasonable rate, I think this disease is easily prevented.