Most of us in the hobby for a while know about gutloading feeder insects prior to offering them to the lizards. But how many of us actually do it and how important is it really?
I got a story for you new lizard keepers. A co-worker of mine and his son have taken to keeping lizards. They have leopard geckos,water dragons and a few other species. I was at the house once and they have very nice, quite large enclosures with all the necessities. The animals are not overcrowded and everything appears to be in order.
Since I am the resident "Lizard Guy" at work my friend comes to me with questions from time to time. It seems he's been having a problem. Its seems that his lizards are slowly sliding downhill. They do fine for a while then they start to lose their color, get listless and get skinny. One has even died and the others, while alive and still feeding, do not look good. Hes gone to great pains to make sure their conditions are dead on and hes not sure what the problem is.
After asking a few questions the only thing I could come up with is there is something wrong with their food. I asked what hes feeding them and he of course said crickets. We got a little deeper and I realized he was feeding store bought crickets, not gutloaded, not dusted with vitamins/calcium and no variety at all. Im not a vet from my years of experience I quessed that could be his problem.
As a test I asked him to set up a ten gallon tank to place his crickets in when he got them home from the store. Egg cartons stacked up on one side, use paper towels as a substrate. For water use slices of oranges, potatoes or squash. Then feed them either quality fish food flakes or a commercial cricket food. They can also be offered mustard greens, whatever, just feed them a high quality diet and give them 48 hours to feed before offering them to the animals. Then, every other feeding dust the crickets lightly with a vitamin/mineral supplement and calcium.
Its been a little under a month and hes already seeing an improvement in the animals. They are starting to fill out and seem to be more vibrant and active. He feels bad since he certainly didnt mean to harm the lizards, he just didnt realize you had to feed the food. It was a simple mistake easily corrected. Now I told him to start offering some mealworms, super worms, pinkie mice ( if they will take them) from time to time and offer the dragons some greens and sweet fruits. Crickets will still form the base of the diet but try to get some other bugs in there as well at least occaisonally.
Its easy to fall into the trap. People are busy. Most adults have a lot more to think about then lizard food. So you go to the store, but a bag of bugs and dump them in the tank. Quick and easy. But in the long haul it usually doesnt work. Sure, some lizards will survive on non-loaded prey. But they could be doing much better.
For you newcomers to the hobby, a cricket is an empty shell. Most pet shops do not feed them so by the time you get them they are dehydrated and starved. Lizards get some moisture and nutrients from whatever is in the insects stomache. Gutloading is an important part of the hobby that is sometimes overlooked by the well meaning novice. Your lizards will greatly benefit from gutloading.
And if that isnt enough for you here's a final push: You will save some money. Maybe not a lot, but what the heck money is money. I buy my crickets in lots of 500. I have a tank set up to keep them in and feed them. I very rarely lose crickets. In other words, if you feed them they live. Recently I picked up 100 crickets from a pet shop as I got low and needed to supplement until my box of 500 came in. I didnt lose one. Not one dead cricket. If I didnt feed them anything they would have been dropping off like crazy.
Of course to experienced keepers this is old news. Just wanted to send a shout out to the newbies. You will have healthier, happier, more colorful and more active lizards if you feed the food. Give it a try.
Thanks,
