Dry gut load ideas

[Chameleons Northwest]

Got this PM from Sandrachameleon and thought I should pass it along. She did already mention some of this in her earlier posts. I will cut back on the parsley, but I still want to use some parsley. We order between 15,000 and 30,000 crickets a week and I like to keep the smell down to a minimum. We do also use wet gutloads as well as the dry.

From Sandrachameleon:

"meant as helpful, not critical:

I noticed you recommended high amounts of grains and parsley as gutload items. You may want to reconsider, as grains typically have a much higher phosphorous content than they do calicum. And Parsley is very high in oxalic acid (which binds with calcium, making it less bio available). "

 

[Ozzie2011]

Thanks for the replies The nice lady that I bought these from told me all I need to know so I am all set and fixing to go see if Ozzie likes his new meal LOL!

 

[sandrachameleon]

Silkworms will eat silkworm chow. Its a man made alternative to their natural diet. You can buy it in bulk from mulberry farms and mix it up yourself. Or they eat Mulberry leaves. Thats your only options for silks. So if you or a friend has a mulberry tree your set. Make sure of course no pesticides or spraying have been done to the tree and wash any leaves and dry them before feeding them to the bugs. If you do feed th leaves, then they will not eat the chow later on. You can start them on the chaow and switch to the leaves just not the other way around.

in addition to mulberry leaves, Silkworms will happily eat dandelion leaves, grape vine leaves, and sweet red bell pepper (organic is best).
I have had no trouble switching between mulberry leaves, mulberry chow, dandelion leaves etc. Indeed this is my preferred way to raise silkworms, using mulberry leaves and/or chow (depending on time of year) for about 50% of their diet and dandelion etc for the other half.

 

[fluxlizard]

I haven't tried it with veileds, but I have fed mulberry leaves directly to my bearded dragons before, and they ate them...

 

[camaleonverde]

crickets food

Sorry to ask; somebody try peanut butter???/ roaches love it, but never try in crickets do you?
same how about honey mix with cereals????????