gutloading crickets: necessary?

[ShadowBlade]

Necessary? No. Benefical? Probably. A good idea? Yes.

-Sean

 

[Higgi]

That's what I meant. I buy crickets from the store and feed them this "grainy" stuff called gutload along with some green leafy stuff. They eat this for a few days because it is supposedly balanced and good for the cricket which makes the cricket good for the predatory animal. I realize that there's nothing "good" about having a cricket with a stomach full of "grain" or "poo" being fed to the T right away.

I can't imagine eating a cow that has just eaten "good" grains and eating his stomach so that I can have a stomach full of cow stomach full of grains... although if we changed this to sheep, it would be the same as eating "haggis". LOL.

And what's wrong with haggis...:}

 

[Higgi]

Sorry - couldn't resist.

Seriously though, I did a lot of research into gutloading food items (mostly crickets) when I recently purchased a young Veiled Chameleon.
And what I came up with was this - crickets are themselves somewhat lacking in nutritional value, so if you feed them material that is beneficial to the animal that is consuming them then your pet - whatever it may be - will get the benefit of this. This is true of any pet that consumes the entire food item not just eating what it likes (I remember my last mantis was slightly fussy too...
And if nothing else it is an easy way of providing moisture.

I also realise that the metabolisms of inverts and reptiles will be quite different but the same ideas will apply to a certain extent.

Think my 2p's run out now :razz:

 

[G. pulchra]

It's a small investment to make in order to keep your T's as healthy as possible.

 

[Arachnomore]

Your 2 cents is about a month overdue?

 

[Higgi]

I know, but I've only just joined the forum.

 

[Leetplayer]

Well, I feel that feeding gravid cricket is better then feeding gutload

 

[robc]

Necessary, no, a good idea, yes. Remember, the more healthy the food is that you feed to your T's, the more healthy your T's will be.
You really can feed crickets anything. Oatmeal, fish food, cat or dog food, bran, cornmeal, trout chow, rabbit chow, chicken scratch, pelleted bird diet, any kind of fruit of vegetable. Or you can buy prepared cricket diet.

Perfect advice.....Crickets are of no nutriional value when not gut...loaded or fed.......my crickets & roaches are fed ....high quality fish food...lettuce....carrots......oats and ...orange cubes. My T's are healthy as can be.

 

[Frédérick]

There's one thing that I'm surprised of on these boards is that there's really a great lot of people that buy commercial stuff like water crystals and feeder food, when they can just pay a big 0$ or near that if they just used what they already have! sure, there's a drowning hazard with a water bowl, just provide enough rocks in it, and as for commercial feeder food, well I'm much more trusty about my own mix of oat, cat food, fish flakes, veggies, whatever, than anything else.

 

[monkey]

excuse my stupidity, but if gutloading crickets is essential and non-gutloaded crickets have no nutritional value, how is it my B. Smithi was growing quite happily on ordinary crickets? I know the petstore where I get them from has a regular turnover of them.
I've also been feeding medium sized locusts since its been able to take them, and it still seems fine to me.
Should I be doing something different?

 

[Venom]

This may have been said here before, but if you plan on buying more crickets than you will use in one feeding, then providing the crickets with food and water keeps them from dying off as quickly, thereby saving you from buying more of them.

I buy 3 - 5 dozen crix at once, then give them dog food, and a custom, no-drip water dispenser. They live MUCH longer this way, and I don't have to buy crix as often. And of course, the T gets the nutrition from the dog food as well as the crix, so that has to help as well.