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I don't know if it would work, but we are always saying you are what you eat. What if we ground up cereal and fed it to our crickets? Would they eat it? If they eat dog food they should be able to. Does anyone forsee any side effects of doing this?

>>I don't know if it would work, but we are always saying you are what you eat. What if we ground up cereal and fed it to our crickets? Would they eat it? If they eat dog food they should be able to. Does anyone forsee any side effects of doing this?

Yes, crickets would eat ground cereal, but why go through all the hassle? I feed mine a mix of chicken lay mash and powdered milk.
A better place to post this sort of question would be in the 'feeder' forum, btw.
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

That is very true, we are what we eat. You can feed you crickets cereal, and there are not side effects besides giving your cham a healthy little bug. Be sure you also give them fruit and veggis, they also like fish food. Okay, they like everything...but the crickets i get from LLL reptile don't seem to like broccoli. I would say that cheerios, special k and other grain cereals would be fine. i'm not sure about lucky charms, the marshmellows might be considered junk food...lol.

Kaitlyn

Don't feed crickets or roaches brocolli.

You don't want a hyper cham
I also feed my crickets greens, powdered milk, spirulina, bee pollen, carrots, oranges, small amounts of fish, cabbage and small amounts of fish flakes (goldfish because it's lower in protein)
The gutload I prefer to buy is the one at www.cricketfood.com it has lots of the same dried ingredients.

Also I am dusting my crickets a few times a week with Nutribac a probiotic I am experimenting with. Actually I have a male panther that has not eaten on his own for months and after two weeks with this product he has started feeding himself again.
The only problem is I also started adding Prozyme a natural plant enzyme that is supposed to aid with nutrient absorption.
Now I don't know which it was or if it was the combo
Both have websites if you are interested in either.

www.nutribac.com and www.prozyme.com

You are absolutely right to want to feed your crickets with the most nutritional food possible. What goes into the crickets goes into the lizard you feed it to, right? Here is my two cents on the subject.

I use wheat bran as a substrate for my crickets, for several reasons. I get it dirt cheap from a feed store right across the street, plus it keeps the crickets clean and dry (the feces fall right through the bran to the bottom of the container, making clean-up a cinch). Moreover, the crickets eat some of the bran.

I also get sample packages of high quality dog and cat food from the same feed store I get the bran from. I especially like Wellness, as it is oven-baked and made of all-natural organic high quality ingredients (i.e. whole meats, as opposed to "meal" and "by-products", and whole vegetables). The best part is that I get the stuff for free, since they are samples. I routinely make a "protein mix" with the Wellness dog and cat foods, some high quality rabbit pellets (which I buy at the same feed store I get the Wellness samples from), and some low fat powdered milk.

Finally, I feed this "protein mix" to my crickets and my hissing roaches as a supplement to veggies and fruit (greens, apples, carrots, etc.), which also act as a water source. If I need to leave for a few days, I put a chunk of potato in there as a water source. I've found this to be much less messy than trying to put a water sponge or anything similar.

Keep in mind that the additional protein is actually just a supplement. Insects should be fed a diet comprised *mostly* of fresh vegetables and fruit, not a dry feed. Insects that are caught in the wild by wild lizards are gut-loaded with grasses, leaves, flowers, etc. They are meant to be "juicy," not loaded with carbs and fats.

Just my opinion on the subject. I have tried several of the more common suggestions (chick watering systems and such) and have found this to work really well for me.

Julie