Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there any way to make your own cricket gutload? I am sick of corn based foods and over priced gutloads that aren't corn based. I definately dont want to use cat or dog food either. I am looking for low phosporous and high calcium. Any ideas are apppreciated. thanks, jen.

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"Brains for dinner, brains for lunch. Brains for breakfast, brains for brunch. Brains for every single meal; why can't we have some GUTS?"-Misfits

1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 columbian boa- Brooklyn
1.0 red blood python-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
0.1 partial stripe ghost corn- Raven
1.0 Sunglow motley corn-Ernie
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.1 russian tortoise- Manja
0.1.1 leos- Boji and Kodama
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.0.2 Red american toadlets with 0.0.7 legs total (er, i have one w/3....)
0.0.1 gray tree frog toadlet
0.0.6 land snails
0.0.2 millipedes of unknown species from TN
5.3 bettas
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
2.2 ratties Rizzo, Bounce, Bree, and Blitzkreig

We use flake fish food and slices of potato. we don't keep crickets around long though. I'm not sure how it would work over any period of time.

hmm...i used to do this long ago. I forgot about that. thanks for the suggestion!
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"Brains for dinner, brains for lunch. Brains for breakfast, brains for brunch. Brains for every single meal; why can't we have some GUTS?"-Misfits

1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 columbian boa- Brooklyn
1.0 red blood python-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
0.1 partial stripe ghost corn- Raven
1.0 Sunglow motley corn-Ernie
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.1 russian tortoise- Manja
0.1.1 leos- Boji and Kodama
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.0.2 Red american toadlets with 0.0.7 legs total (er, i have one w/3....)
0.0.1 gray tree frog toadlet
0.0.6 land snails
0.0.2 millipedes of unknown species from TN
5.3 bettas
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
2.2 ratties Rizzo, Bounce, Bree, and Blitzkreig

First let me start off by saying that there are tons of information on the amphibian forums posted by "EdK", all you have to do is a search for that screen name and you'll come across many discussions about gut loading.

I will reiterate some of the basics:
Gut loading (high calcium diet) is largely ineffective. Adult size crickets do not eat very much for them to assimilate any of the feed. High calcium diets are lethal to crickets and should not be fed to them more than 24 hours before feeding.

Dusting is much more effective in that you can use powders made specifically for reptiles and amphibians. Of course the animal has to eat the cricket within 30 minutes or so of being dusted, before the cricket grooms the dust off of itself. This is no less effective than gut loading, because the crickets very quickly excrete the food anyway.

You should feed crickets and assortment of fruits and vegetables, finely chopped. Stay away from broccoli, spinach, and rhubarb, since they have oxylic acid that will prevent calcium absorption. I can't stress it enough how overpriced and useless commercial cricket feed diets are. Save your money and put it towards some locally organic grown produce.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)