Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi.

I was wondering if gut loading crickets with a commercial cricket food containing calcium and vitamin D3 will provide toads with enough of these two essential nutrients?

Thanks.

jayhawk

I hope so because that's what I do. I try to vary their food with other insects, like wax worms, meal worms & blood worms as well though crickets are their staple. Keep in mind that the calcium stays in the crickets system a very short time. Less than a day (I think) so the ones that aren't eaten quickly lose their nutritional value.
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(¯`·.¸¸.·´Kane`·.¸¸.·´¯)

Proper gutloading of calcium is difficult to accomplish as there are problems overall with the process. To gutload a high calcium diet, the calcium rich diet needs to be the only food offered (as the crickets will eat anything else if possible) for a minimum of 48 hours at which time the crickets need to be fed to the animals or the crickets can begin to die from the high levels of calcium in the gutloading diet. Additionally the crickets will rapidly excrete the calcium from their digestive tract within a few hours of being placed in the cage. So you should not feed more than the animals can consume in that period of time.
Additionally it is difficult to achieve a positive calcium to phosphorus ratio in any cricket other than pinheads.

There is an article on gutloading in the newest edition of Reptiles magazine that discusses the problems with calcium gutloading. The editors made a couple of mistakes in the article when they listed some of the fruits and veggies for gutloading diets and are supposed to run a correction in the Sept. issue.

Ed

Thanks, Ed.

So, I am I to assume that dusting is preferable to gut loading? How often should the feeder insects be dusted?

Thanks again.

jayhawk

Both have thier drawbacks but in general dusting is easier to be consistant as a method of adminstering vitamins and calcium as the you don't have to worry about multiple groups of insects being fed the high calcium diet for 48 hours.

I would still recommend feeding the insects a good diet for at least 48 (and preferably 72 hours) before feeding out the crickets as this will allow them to regain lost nutrients.
After that you want to choose a supplement that has a ratio of 10 to 1 to 0.1 of vitamin A to D3 to E. You also want to choose a vitamin-mineral mixture that has either a born on date or an expiration date. Ideally you probably should replace the vitamin-mineral mixture every six months or so once the container's seal is broken as the minerals will catalyze oxidation of the fat soluble vitamins. The vitamin-mineral mixture should also be stored in a dry, cool dark location.

That said the maximum frequency of dusting will depend on the number of feedings a week. If you only feed two times a week or less then all food items should be dusted with the supplement. If you feed three times a week or more then every other feeding should be dusted with the vitamin-mineral supplement. If you are so inclined you can alternate a straight calcium carbonate dusting with the vitamin-mineral dusting on the three times a week or more schedule.

An additional point is that the insects will groom the powder off of their bodies within several hours so you need to feed the animals as close to their normal activity period as possible. (Lights out for nocturnal animals for example)

All of the vitamin and mineral needs of the various amphibians have not been worked out to date as some Bufonids seem to require a higher vitamin A supplement in their to diet to prevent hypovitaminosis A. There are anecdotal reports of some amphibians developing signs of vitamin A toxicity of some supplemets when offered more than twice a week but these are often not confirmed through necropsy or diagnosis by a vet.

Hope this helps,

Ed

Hi Ed,

As always, you've provided me (as well as many others) with excellent information. Your sharing of knowledge is a great asset to the forum and is very much appreciated.

Thanks again.

jayhawk