gutload??

[THECHAMMAN]

hi im new to chams and i want to know what gutload is diff than food. my food says it has lots of vits an minerals in it. i also put vitamin dust on the crickets. plzz help with any other food topics and plzz post sites.

 

[THECHAMMAN]

also any quick tips on lighting. i no about the uv and all but a specification on the bulbs would be nice

 

[jannb]

Hello! I get my gutload for crickers and worms here: www.cricketfood.com

This is where I buy my lights:http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/reptile-supplies/uvb-fluorescent-lights-mercury-vapor-bulbs/

Be sure to get the 5.0 UVB

 

[ChameleonsTree]

My personal choice is cricket total bites...it also acts as their water.

 

[wendysjungle]

I'm also a cricketfood.com gutload fan, and use Flukers Calcium Fortified Cricket Quencher gel as their water source (available at pretty much any pet store). I also dust with calcium (alternating with D3 and without D3) each week, and dust with a mutivitamin twice a month, and a drop of pre-formed vitamin A twice a month.

For lights on my cage, I have a Reptisun 5.0 and a plant grow light for the fluorescents (both tubes, not compacts), and for heat use a regular 100w incandescent bulb and an Exo Terra 150w basking lamp. I had a red bulb originally, but members here advised I get rid of it and use white instead, so I swapped it. All the lights are on a timer and shut off at night, chams don't need any nightime heat source unless temps go below 60 degrees.

Hope this helps!

 

[THECHAMMAN]

thank you all for all of your help and i have already bought new lights and i think i have the right stuff for cricket food. also i will b gettin the calicium pwdr in a day or 2,but do i rlly need it bec the food i hav says it is fortified w/ Ca?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

-Brad

 

[Tygerr]

Simply put, feeding your insects is whatever you do to keep them alive, possibly until they're old enough to breed. So the food you give your insects can really be anything that they will eat that will be nutritious to them.

But gutloading your insects is the process of filling their stomachs with nutrients that they will pass directly on to your chameleon when it eats the insects. So gutloading needs to take place directly before you feed the insect to the chameleon (usually anywhere from 48-12 hours before you feed off the insect). Think of it as the insect's 'last supper'...
Whatever is undigested in the insect's stomach when it is eaten will be absorbed by your chameleon. That's why there are such specific gutload recipes. The nutrients in the gutload aren't necessarily required to keep the insect alive, but they do hold nutritional value to your cham.

You can't get a cham to eat alfalfa or brewer's yeast (etc.) directly, but if that ingredient is inside the insect's stomach when the chameleon eats it, you are able to pass those nutrients on to the cham.

You could easily keep your crickets/roaches/etc alive for many weeks by feeding them only cheap 'foods', provided you feed them quality gutload in the last 12-24 hours before you feed them to your cham.

But the gutload is only good for your cham whilst it is undigested inside the insect. As soon as the insect has absorbed nutrients from the gutload and excreted the rest as waste, it cannot be considered a 'gutloaded' insect any more. So if you leave uneaten crickets roaming around your cham's cage for more than a day, they will lose the nutritional value they had when they were gutloaded. That's why it's important to take uneaten ones out of the enclosure and back to their bin for more gutloading.

Read through the following sites for more information regarding gutloading:
- Chameleons! Online E-Zine: Gutloading Basics
- Gut loading feeder insects
- Gut-loading feeder insects
- Successful Keeping of Veiled Chameleons: Feeders
- The Chameleon's Dish: Your Nutrition Plan