Reptile & Amphibian Forums

np
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new pix on the way

I just use lettuce.

Austin

1.1.1

I use fluker’s cricket feed, know it’s not homemade, but it’s the best advice I can offer. It’s not very expensive, and can be found at most pet stores. It contains a lot of good vitamins and minerals that are hard to reproduce in a homemade mix. For moisture I use carrot, apple, or potato. Looking forward to seeing your new pictures of Freddy.

I feed all my bugs the same thing so I make a big batch every month.

1 large box gerber mixed grain baby food
1 box Millers ground bran
1 cup ground fish flakes, mouse blocks or reptomin
1 jar powdered phelsuma diet
1 jar cheapest calcium supplement at the petstore that week

I add the ground fish flakes, etc. last so I can mix some honey into a small batch for the waxworms first.

I don't care too much about the quality of the calcium supplement I use in my mix because it's for the insects benefit. I dust with Sandfire Super Foods supplements for all my insect eating herps.

Right before breeding season kicks into high I also will add a bag of Topline brand roach and cricket diet just because it smells and looks really nutritious.

For added protein, my lobster and orange head roaches also get to eat any refused mouse, dead fish or other deceased organisms..no bodies go to waste around here...I also get some nice clean skeletons to use in class out of the deal.

I also freeze a lot of finely chopped fresh fruit over the summer so that there's a wide variety of fruits for water all year long at in-season prices.

Randy
DeadFish Herpetological

Lettuce alone is not an adequate gutload. Lettuce has very little nutrition & while it will provide a fine source of moisture in combination w/ a good gutload mixture, it will not provide enough nutrition to your leos through your crix.
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

I think it's better not to get the crickets full from a moisture source that carries little nutritional value when there are better options out there.
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chickabowwow

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

While I certainly agree no kind of lettuce makes a sufficient gutload, and I also agree that iceberg lettuce should not be used at all as it is almost devoid of nutrition, the dark green portion of leaf lettuces such as red leaf, green leaf and romaine- while being low in calories- are full of vitamins and minerals, with the added benefit of being low in oxalates, which are high in many other leafy greens, and I use them for crix along with other greens, carrots, yams and fruits (and grains).

You can check out the nutritional content of red leaf lettuce at the link below. You can use the USDA site to check the nutritional content of almost any food designed for human consumption- good to know for yourself and family as well as for the geckos!Compare red leaf to head lettuce and it just might make you stop buying that head lettuce for yourself and your family, when the leaf lettuces are so much more nutritious :

www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/list_nut.pl
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Geez, I've been to that site too, so now I feel stupid for not bookmarking the search database.

Have you been to www.diet-data.com/?

I've considered using red and green leaf lettuce, but I've heard that romaine lettuce is actually high in oxalates. I stick mostly with collard greens, kale, dandelion greens, carrots, alfalfa, and various Chinese vegetables like the ones described here. My mom was the one who got me started on using them for my gutload.
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chickabowwow

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

romain are all the "good" lettucues just as star said... not alot of calories but loads or vitamins and stuff... that is part of our bug feeding here
kale, carrots, yellow squash, mustard or collard greenes, sometimes we throw in apple peach or pair.... (we use a food processor on this stuff LOL.. this mixture gets fed to the beardies too hehe) then potatoes and oranges are used for moisture and i use a dry bedding/gutload... whole oats, wheat germ im trying a new baby cerial this week.. good stuff in it) and i also use chick mash or chick started too
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-robin struck
Geckoheads And Geeks

np
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new pix on the way

I used mustard greens once when gutloading crix & they all died w/in a day, so I've never used them again. Do mealies react differently to it?
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena