Gut loading insects.

[Jace]

Now that I am buying crickets en masse, I would like to have a detail list of what other members are using to gut load their feeder insects. I know there is a lot of commercial gut loads out there-are any good? What about "doing it yourself" methods? Would a combination of the two be the best option? I am getting my crickets at the 2 week stage and making sure all are fed before they get to the "annoying" stage (chirping day and night!!).

This is what my crickets are drinking/eating (fresh food is changed every day or every other day depending on type and they are fed two to three of those listed at each time):

-blue cricket jelly (for water)
-apples, carrots, lettuce, celery, tomatoes, cucumber, kiwi, pears, peaches, plums, strawberries, and bananas.
-cat food, dog food and cricket blocks.
-the fresh food is sprinkled with calcium and mineral supplements everyday.

Thanks for any imput!

[Iceni]

Adding something with a higher Iron content for there feed might be beneficial, Sprouts, cabbage and kale fill this bill.

Crickets are a little bit thick and will eat the easiest thing they can eat. In your case this would probably mean they ate more fruit than Veg.

We feed ours only cabbage/kale, carrots and potato. To further add to this the cabbage and kale we feed is home grown when in season. Cabbages are superb plants, they will over winter a frost, and you can take the leaves off the outside of the plant for animal feed well before there ready to harvest with no affect on the plant.

The reason for home growing is simple. We can monitor what chemicals are on that mainstay food. Meaning the crickets have less chemicals in them when they get to the animals. It's a sad fact that most veg/fruit will have been sprayed dusted with some very potent fungicides, and Insecticides at some point. And in a lot of cases this will appear in the animals that feed on these products in larger quantities as these chemicals are designed to stay in an animals system and overload it.


An alternative may be to harvest dandelions from the local wastelands. They will be clean of pest killers, just make sure there have been no weed killing operations going on! Also make sure that your pet is not going to have an problems with them as they do have minor toxins in the plant.



As for lettuce we were told to avoid it. It has very high water to nutrient content. To the point where it's not a lot of use to most animals. All it does is fill your crickets up and make them hollow. (think of a panda eating bamboo they need to eat masses every day because of it's poor nutrient content, so although they eat a lot they don't get what they need from it).


Carrot is very important because of the keratin content. It's a protein that helps you make strong finger nails, or in the case with a lot of animals scales, horns, or fur. It also helps the insect develop the correct thickness of chitin.


Hope this has been of help

[Tom Highum]

Do you think its ok that i only use the commercial gut load?

[John]

It's probably adequate.

[Tom Highum]

adequate! John i love your vocabulary most others would have said fine or good.

[Jace]

Thanks Iceni. I will drop lettuce from the menu and add kale. I, unfortunately, do not have the time or the space to do home grown veggies, but I always make sure I scrub any fruit and veggies that I put into any of my homes for my pets. Even my cockroaches get only the freshest, especially with my female being pregnant. Another quick question I have is: if the food is being coated with calcium and minerals, do I still have to coat the insects themselves??

[Tom Highum]

I think it would be wise to still sometime.

[Iceni]

Depends on your style of husbandry.

There are a few option with dusting and gut loading. I percive them in the following manner it may not be totally true but it's how i see things working in the tank.

Gut load the insects. Pro's been you can guarantee the vitamins will get into the pet. Cons, some chemicals break down and get absorbed by the insects as compounds that cannot be broken down by your pets. Meaning although there getting said mineral it may not be usable by the pet.


Dusting the insects. Pros. all the minerals you add are usable and will be absorbed if the pet needs them. Con's Frogs live in damp environments and dusting can be removed if your pets don't eat fast enough.


Personally i will use a dust once or twice a month. I'm a firm believer that the insects we feed should be fed on good quality food and there nutritional values will give your pets everything they need. The dust is just an addition to the outsides of the crickets to add essential elements that the crickets might be lacking in.


I belive in the wild frogs would get a varied diet but it would be seasonal. A lot of what they eat will be the same thing eating the same diet for long periods. Frogs in general pick the nearest target rather than the most nutritional one! And as such they would almost certainly eat the most abundant insect life en-mass, with the odd variation based on chance more than anything.

[SludgeMunkey]

I generally go for the gut load and skip the dusting.

While I have been unable to find any amphibian related information on the subject, there is a bit of data on the link between dusted crickets and respiratory problems with various reptiles (especially juvenile chameleons).

Since my cricket eaters all hunt for their free roaming live foods in their enclosures, I feel a good portion of the dust is lost before consumption anyway.

[Paul Rust]

I know this is an old thread but here you go. Buy the cheapest dry cat food you can buy, a box of powdered milk, and herptivite or other frog vitamin supplement.

1. Put some cat food in a blender, doesn't matter how much, say half full. and blend it until it is a little smaller than beach sand.

2. Put in powdered milk, 10 parts by volume.

3. Put in the herptivite, 1 part by volume,

Mix it all together and keep it in an air tight container. I put some in a petri dish and it lasts about 2 weeks before it starts to mold and needs cleaned.

This mixture gives your frogs everything they need without messy dusting, it is really cheap, and it's quick and easy to make.

I have 4,000 crickets at any given time and the mortality rate is very low and the crickets are dark and fat when I feed them to my frogs.

[Jace]

Great recipe! Maybe not one for the picnic table.... I wish I had read this before I bought another jar of gutload, but I will write this down and use if for next time. Crickets and I don't always get along, so the more I can save and then feed to the frogs, the happier I will be. If they weren't such a staple, I would never deal with them again!!

[Paul Rust]

I hate crickets too so the less I have to spend in time or money with them the better. Also, cut the bottom out of a milk jug and leave the cap on it. You can shake the crickets into it and pour them right into the tank. No mess, no fuss.

[Jace]

Milk jug...I don't think I would have ever thought of that, but it makes perfect sense! Anything that makes dealing with these insects easier I am all over it! I try and get them and have them eaten before they start making all that noise-the chirping drives me nuts. I can feel a twitch coming on as I type! Sigh, the things we do for our frogs and reptiles....good thing they are more than worth it!