Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Allen Repashy, who runs/owns the Sandfire Dragon Ranch, recently produced "Superfoods" in conjunction with T-Rex - the most famous being his "Crested Gecko Diet" - which, by the way, is dynamite.

He also produced a dust for crickets called "Cricket Balancer" (I think that's what it's called). It works like Minerol - except that it's a complete nutritional "dust" - sort of like a gutload for prey items that sticks to the outside instead of in the gut.

I picked up a small bottle of the stuff to feed 3 juvi that I recently picked up. So for, I have been greatly impressed by the results. These Juvi's are growing at a nice rate, have a wonderful color and vibrancy. I am going to be dusting the prey items (I use mealies) for all my hatchlings this year and see how it goes. It looks like a pretty good product.

I was wondering if anyone else had experience with this product?
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Monte Meyer
Powergeckos
Email

No Fru-Fru morphs in the herp room

Where could I pick some of this up? I have been looking (although not that hard seeing as I couldn't remember the name!) . I heard about it from someone on one of these forums (seeing as I read most of the forums it's hard to keep track where I heard this-and-this from). Thanks Monte!
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3.4.0 Leopard Geckos
2.1.0 Chihuahuas
2.1.0 Rottweiler Mix
1.0.0 Siamese Cat
1.0.0 Dwarf Hamsters

Josh
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I’ve used the T-Rex ICB (Insect Cricket Balancer) for Leos with good results. I like to add a dash of plain calcium to the batch when dusting crix or mealies.
One thing of interest that I’ve found is that the crix seem to enjoy eating the ICB dust. Try this experiment: put a small cap full of ICB in your cricket enclosure and watch how fast they eat it up. Now I’m not suggesting that people gutload their crix with this stuff, that’s not what it is intended for.
Just some observations I’ve made. Has anyone had a bad experience with this product?

P.s. Josh, I buy mine from my local petco, the bottle with a pink cap is specifically for leopard geckos, I’m sure it can be found online too.

n/p
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3.4.0 Leopard Geckos
2.1.0 Chihuahuas
2.1.0 Rottweiler Mix
1.0.0 Siamese Cat
1.0.0 Dwarf Hamsters

Josh
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Monte,
I use all of Allen's diets on my leos, Rhacs, and beardies. They are all made with the same ingredients as the crested diet, just in different ratios. You are correct about it being a "gutload" that you dust on the prey rather than feed to it. If you think about it the outside of the prey has a much greater surface area than it's gut, so why waste money on expensive ingredients to feed them. I just use a basic feed for my feeders, and use the "Superfoods" to do the rest. As a side note, I use the t-rex gutload formula instead of the leo formula. Allen recomended this to me. I put about an 1/8" layer at the bottom my feeding dishes and that's it, that's the only supps. my leos get. I change it out once a week, as vitamins loose potency with exposure to heat and air.
good luck
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

The point of gutloading isn't to just fill the stomachs of the feeders but to let their bodies absorb the nutrients from the diet. So comparing the size of their gut to the surface area of their exoskeleton doesn't seem like a fair way to measure the potential of their nutritional value.

There's evidence that says gutloading feeders the old-fashioned way raises their nutritional value much more than simply sprinkling supplementation does. Here's a quote from some literature my vet gave me:

"Studies have shown that gut loading crickets with a diet containing at least eight percent calcium fed for at least 48 hours prior to being used as a food item for reptiles and amphibians would produce a meal that had a Ca ratio of 1:1 or higher (Allen and Oftedal, 1989). Crickets that received dieterary supplementation of calcium of 8% or greater also had three times the calcium content of those that were dusted with calcium supplement but not gut loaded prior to being used as prey items (Trusk and Crissey, 1987).

"Each reptile species may have its own unique dietary requirements for calcium. Leopard geckos that were fed crickets gut loaded for greater than 48 hours with diets containing at least 8% calcium were found to have significantly greater body weights as well as higher bone ash and bone calcium than leopard geckos fed crickets maintained on diets of less than 2% calcium (Allen, et al, 1986). Radiographs and histopathology also evidenced better bone integrity in leopard geckos fed higher calcium containing crickets (Allen, 1989).

Source: Teresa Bradley, DVM, David Neives. Bulletin of the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians. Volume 9, No. 3, 1999, p 37.
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chickabowwow

3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)

First of let me say that I'm not asking anyone to change their routine. I am just stating what I now do after many conversations with the person that developed the diets. He has done lots of research and real world testing of the products and formulas for years before releasing them for retail sales. Calcium is a mineral, and as such does not "change when ingested, this is not the case with vitamins. When your feeder eats vitamins some of them "change" due to enzymatic reactions. I know enough about nutrition to still feel that dusting is more effective than gutloading as a means to delivery nutrients to lizards. I won't turn this into a drawn out debate siting this research or that research, I know what has worked for my colony of over 70 leos. If you want to know more about gutloading vs. dusting, there are old threads on the Rhac forum or you can email Allen Repashy at Sandfire. LAstly, the T-rex leo formula is much more than just a vitamin and mineral supp., It contains high quality protien, Carbs, and good sources of fat. It is a complete food actually that has been formulated to compensate for the sort-comings of gutloading.
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

I've read more about the T-Rex Sandfire Superfood line, but I'm still very skeptical about the dusting being superior to gutloading. Many of the ingredients listed are plant products. It doesn't make sense to skip a step in the food chain and feed those products directly to the geckos when the insects are physiologically better-suited for the job.

Either way, I decided to buy the rhac formula to keep on hand since it seems like it would be useful for syringe-feeding (versus a bug slurry).
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chickabowwow

3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)