Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering, when mealies or supers are about the molt, they tend to stop eating and moving for at least one or two days, then if I offer these freshly molted white worms to my leos, wouldn't that be less nutritionous? ie. no gutload?
But I remember reading somewhere that its good to choose the soft white ones for feeding?

Oh, this pic is unrelated, just want to show it. This one is called Marly, he used to weight 94g, but dropped to 76g last month; he got treated for parasites, hope he'll gain back his weight again.

its not less nutrious, they're just sheddng their skin. Its actually less chitin (hard exoskeleton) for them and therefore should be easier to digest.

I try to feed them freshly molted mealworms and crix when i can as well.

A long time ago, I e-mailed one of my biology professors about gutloading, and here is part of his reply:

"What you are asking about comes under the physiological topic of assimilation. Without knowing something about cricket digestive physiology, I cannot tell you much about assimilation rates. Some insects that feed on liguids (nectar, blood) assimilate the nutrients very quickly, in a matter of minutes. If the food requires lots of processing, like wood in a termite gut, it probably takes a long time, but I doubt if even that takes a full day. As a rough guess, I think the crickets probably have incorporated the nutrients from a meal in a couple hours. You know, most insects can go for days without eating (they have very low metabolic rates), and it is standard to starve them for a day or two before feeding experiments. Don't feed your crickets for 24 or 48 hours (but do give them water). Transfer them to a clean container, then check to see how long it takes them to start defecating after you feed them again. The presence of frass (droppings) means that the first part of the meal at least has been assimilated. It might not matter, since the lizard gets it whether it is part of the bug or not. I guess then the question is whether the lizard's gut is efficient enough to break down the bug's gut and get at the contents; maybe not, geckos being carnivores with simple digestive tracts. As far as how long do the nutrients stay in the cricket once they have eaten, that depends on a lot of things. Some of the nutrients go into fuel for muscles and get used as muscles are used. Limiting their activity will help, keep them cool and avoid disturbing them. Also, where they are in the molt cycle matters: if they are getting ready to molt, some of that food goes into making a new exoskeleton. Freshly molted, gut-loaded bugs are probably the most nutritious. For adults, gender matters, and whether or not they have mated or laid eggs matters. (Food or food energy goes into reproductive activities.)"
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5.8 leopard geckos

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