Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was feeding my roach colonies cricket food from a very well know food maker.. but since finding out that it was contaminated with insects from their factory which resulted in me losing $100 worth of crickets I wanna make my own food now...

So How would I go about it...

So far I have mixed in
cheerios
wheat germ
gerber baby food
put in food processor and grind to powdery food... anything else or tell me your recipes

Thanks for your time
PAtrickR

This recipe comes from the website http://www.gexfiles.com/
I believe it was developed by a group of Cham breeders.

NUTRIONALLY COMPLETE DRY CRICKET DIET

1 bag: Dry milk (D, calcium, iron)
1 cup: Sunflower seeds (E)
1 box: Rice baby cereal (iron, calcium, phosphorus, B1, B2, niacin)
1/3 cup: Spirulina (B1, B5, B6, B12, E, beta-carotene, iron, chlorophyll, amino acids)
3/4cup: Raw bee pollen (B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, folic acid, C, D, E, K, minerals)
1 cup: Wheat germ (E)
1 cup: Alfalfa leaf tablets (A, B6, E, K, enzymes)
1/2 cup: Dried sea kelp (iodine)
1 Dried egg yolk
1/2 cup: Dried high protein kitty chow or monkey chow

Entire mixture should be ground up to a powder in a food processor, individually and remixed or all together at the same time.

*Greens powder can replace the spirlina, bee pollen, alflafa leaf lablets and sea kelp. Greens is a fantastic product for YOU! (for more info go to www.greensplus.com or www.greenspluscanada.com) Add 1 1/2 cups of Greens to the diet in replacement.

Most ingredients in above recipe can be purchased at a health food/bulk food store. Ask the worker for help if you are unsure of some of the health products in this recipe. If you do not think you will use entire diet within 3 months, divide recipe in half.

Storing Cricket Diet:
Freeze what you will not use within a week, last for up to 3 months.

Refrigerate what you will use within the week. Change food daily in cricket feed bin because of the few perishable product content.

FRESH FOODS TO USE AS THE WATER/NUTRIENT SOURCE
These are pretty much as important as the protein source and will fill the insects with even more nutrients your reptiles need.

Prickly pears (Vit C)
Citrus fruits (Vit C)
Mustard greens (Vit C, beta-carotene)
Carrots (beta-carotene)
Squashes (Vit C, beta-carotene)
Other fruits and veggies but avoid spinach and broccoli which are calcium binders.

Place fresh foods in disposable cups in cricket bins and alternate food types from carrots to greens to squashes etc to vary the vitamins the reptiles are absorbing from the insects.

This works for mealworms and waxworms as well as crickets. Just put the worms in a feeding container with the dry food mixed with wheat germ the night before you are going to feed them so they gut-load themselves.

Bugs should be constantly constantly gut-loaded for the best health of your reptile.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html