Cricket gutload: Using dog kibble?

[lele]

I was looking into trying WER and emailed when I did not see it on their site. They said due to some customer problems (did not elaborate) they were no longer selling it. Maybe to standing or select customers but for the rest of us, I guess not. I do not know what the problems could have been, but here is the reply I got (gee, I need to clean out my mail, this was from before c'mas!)

"Unfortunately due to a lot of people trying to scam us out of more than what they paid for and a few other outside issues we have decided to stop selling the
gutload. Sorry.

Jason"

lele

 

[melindaregner]

Finally!

Dog food is for dogs, fish food is for fish, cat food is for cats, etc. etc.

I would suspect (among other things) that the dog food is high in animal protiens - which chams are not normally use to processing. Do yourself a big fat favor and get some gutload from cricketfood.com - I dont think WER is taking on new customers ... you snooze you lose I guess .

-roo

Finally.. I don't want to say something. I just agreed with this one.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Powdered egg yolk - animal sources of fat and protein are not good for chameleons (a little wont hurt, a lot very well could). Also, you must watch the preformed vitamin A and D content of what you gutload with.

Oatmeal - wrong calcium to phosphorous ratio - not a good item to gutload with.

Powdered milk - see comment about egg yolk

Some calcium powder - probably should not gutload with this, can kill off crickets when ingested, dust with it instead

Most brands of dog food include corn (useless), and meat-like products (not usually good for chameleons) and signficant levels of preformed vitamin A (too much is toxic for chameleons). Most cat food has even more animal source product.

Information on good gutloading: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

 

[chameleonoobie]

I use a mix of dry flakes that includes Gerber mixed grains baby cereal. This is also the favorite thing of my discoid roaches above almost everything else I have tried, both dry or wetted a little bit. I am cutting and pasting the nutritional info from the Gerber website below so you can have a look at what is in this stuff, I would imagine there is nothing bad in, it but it’s for baby people, not bugs.

Ingredients
WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, RICE FLOUR, WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR, TRI- AND DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SOYBEAN OIL, SOY LECITHIN, MIXED TOCOPHEROLS (TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS), ELECTROLYTIC IRON, ZINC SULFATE, ALPHA TOCOPHERYL ACETATE (VITAMIN E), NIACINAMIDE (A B VITAMIN), PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID (A B VITAMIN), VITAMIN B12 (CYANOCOBALAMIN)

 

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

Here's a quick idea: Why not use dog/cat/fish/hedgehog/duck/alien food as the main food for the colony of feeders, then use a small container and fill it with a week's worth of feeders and feed them the good gutload? That way no one has to worry about finding a good cheap gutload in large amounts?

 

[drcrossfire]

Powdered egg yolk - animal sources of fat and protein are not good for chameleons (a little wont hurt, a lot very well could). Also, you must watch the preformed vitamin A and D content of what you gutload with.

Oatmeal - wrong calcium to phosphorous ratio - not a good item to gutload with.

Powdered milk - see comment about egg yolk

Some calcium powder - probably should not gutload with this, can kill off crickets when ingested, dust with it instead

Most brands of dog food include corn (useless), and meat-like products (not usually good for chameleons) and signficant levels of preformed vitamin A (too much is toxic for chameleons). Most cat food has even more animal source product.

Information on good gutloading: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

Yay--- finally some real information on this thread-- LOL

I notice that you say "high quality dog food"- which I would have to assume means something like Canidae, where they use a "meat meal" as a first product instead of corn or wheat (which is bad for dogs). Though these are good for dogs, and potentially a decent grower for your roach colonies, the high protein and possibility of vit A/D makes it a bad idea. If you do your research and prove us all wrong, more power to you. But its safer, easier, and will benifit you in the long run if you take an afternoon to make your own dry gutload blend.

SandraCham offers some great suggestions in her blogs for what to use~ if you are looking for a wet gutload mix, try looking up "bug Booster"-- its a frozen blend I make... or make up your own and share it~!!!


We all like to throw in our two cents

 

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

I think high quality dog food is meant to mean a good brand that doesn't use fillers, such as Nature's Recipe.