gutloading crickets

[thesarahwalker]

I use fresh fruits and veggies to gutload my crickets, but I started looking in to other ways to gutload and one included repashy bug burger. I was wondering if anyone has personal experience with that or would recommend other options.

 

[Andee]

People usually gutload with a wet object, like fruits and veggies, and then they have a dry gutload. I make my own. There are tons out there like Cricket Crack, Bug Buffet, Repashy.... there's probably more I just can't think of them. XD

 

[Blang]

I use bugburger!

 

[thesarahwalker]

OK, and when you use it, do they still need some fruit and veggies or is that all they need?

 

[Andee]

Definitely still need the fruits and veggies, most crickets/roaches prefer bug burger as a dry powder, and so they get all their moisture from the fruits and veggies. Plus adding variation into the diet of any creature will make it healthier, a healthier feeder makes a healthier cham. It's all a nice little circle. However I live under the impression if your raising your own feeders or have your feeders for an extended period of time, just feed them what you would "gutload" with on a regular basis. Every day I feed my roaches my roach gutload that I make and fresh fruits and vegetables. It makes them healthy no matter which roach I feed and I personally feel like there will be more built up vitamins in their system from constantly feeding on a high quality diet. Whether you feel the same or not is up to you. But think about it like cattle, cows who feed on mainly naturally growing grass and have good lives, such as free range, are much happier and therefore taste better and have much better nutrients in their meat. Now we just need to completely stop putting hormones and antibiotics in the meat XD. However that's a different topic all together.

 

[The_Cham_Kid4]

Do any of you guys blend up fruits and veggies and freeze it in an ice tray? i dont have a cham yet but i thought it would be a good idea to get a good cricket colony going. But, they don't seem to like to eat it. its just apples, kale, oranges and a couple of other greens.

 

[Andee]

I have heard of people doing it. I have never done it myself so I can't tell you how successful it is. From what I understand most people have good luck with it. I have close to 1000 roaches in my colony so I just pop a whole orange or two in, always cut open, then I put strawberry tops in when we've cut up strawberries. They get mustard and collards on occasion. Spring mix when it's starting to go a little too south for my tortoise. Whole apples, and whole bananas. They get a whole orange once a day and then usually a handful of some other veggies or fruit, and then their dry mix. It usually ends up lasting 12-24 hours and then I replace it the next day. Nothing but orange peels are left over.

 

[cyberlocc]

Do any of you guys blend up fruits and veggies and freeze it in an ice tray? i dont have a cham yet but i thought it would be a good idea to get a good cricket colony going. But, they don't seem to like to eat it. its just apples, kale, oranges and a couple of other greens.

Yep I do that, I mix a whole bunch of veggies from sandras blog into a blender throw in a little calcium a dash of MV (small dash over a large picther) then freeze and thaw. After I thaw it, is splash in some Spirulina and Bee pollen for more vitamins and thicken it a little (very watery after thawing). My roaches and supers and crickets love it, the supers especially they chow through a whole lot of the stuff.

There is health risks with using the water crystals (cham can eat a dehydrated crystal and that is No Buenos). So I make sure they have fresh gutload every day. If there is alot left from the day before I just spray it with some water to freshen it up again and mix it around a little bit, 3 days max doing that though.

 

[thesarahwalker]

Great information! Went out and bought dry cricket gutload from a reptile shop so hopefully they eat it, but definently great that you can do that. When i had sugar gliders I had to blend the veggies with fruits and freeze them because they were way too picky and only eat the good stuff so awesome to know you can do that for crickets too!

 

[Andee]

What's the name of your cricket gutload that you bought? Not all of them are very good for gut loads.

 

[thesarahwalker]

It's the one the guy who owns the reptile store sells and feeds his, he makes his own. I asked a couple people about it who I know go there and said it was good.

 

[Andee]

Does it have any of the ingredients on it? Do you know if it's plant based? A lot of people use dog food as a base which is a big red flag.

 

[cyberlocc]

Does it have any of the ingredients on it? Do you know if it's plant based? A lot of people use dog food as a base which is a big red flag.

Dog food is good for the roaches bad for the cham. Its okay to feed them dog food, just dont feed the cham any that have had dog food in the last 48 hours or so.

 

[gotwqqd]

IF cost or convenience is an issue with feeding the feeders....use a two bin system.
get a second bin that can be divided in half, where you basically put about a days worth of feeders on each side with gut load food.
side a, side b
give food for two days feed cham side A, refill
next day side B, refill
repeat

 

[cyberlocc]

IF cost or convenience is an issue with feeding the feeders....use a two bin system.
get a second bin that can be divided in half, where you basically put about a days worth of feeders on each side with gut load food.
side a, side b
give food for two days feed cham side A, refill
next day side B, refill
repeat

I use his idea with 4 though. 2 large bins and 2 cricket keeper type things. Bin A, Gets roach chow that is high in protein (dog food is used for this, usually or cat fish ect.). They get oranges and gutload mix as well , this is for adults that are to breed, and some nymphs to help breeding and grow up to breed. Tub 2, is for nymphs they get gutload and a little bit of dry food (theirs is lower protein though) plus adult fras.

The cricket keepers get only gutload, I take out a weeks worth of nymphs and have them in 1 while I feed from the other. That way I can have them with no fras and no dry good for 3 days before feeding them.

I have only been breeding for a few weeks, however when a colony gets very large you will likely need more tubs depending on the tube sizes.

If you dont plan to breed roaches only feed them off. Get a dry load that doesn't have all the protein, as it is good for breeding roaches but bad for the chameleon.

 

[Andee]

Dog food is not good for roaches, not sure about crickets. It tends shorten roaches life spans and gives them liver/kidney disease. Dubia and I think other most tropical roaches are naturally frugavious(sp?) In other words they eat fruit and veggies more than protein. Protein causes them to breed more, but its not good for theme in the long run, female roaches can live for almost 2 years when taken good care of.

 

[cyberlocc]

Dog food is not good for roaches, not sure about crickets. It tends shorten roaches life spans and gives them liver/kidney disease. Dubia and I think other most tropical roaches are naturally frugavious(sp?) In other words they eat fruit and veggies more than protein. Protein causes them to breed more, but its not good for theme in the long run, female roaches can live for almost 2 years when taken good care of.

It is good for them, they need it. They do not need large amounts, they need averaging amounts. By averaging, I mean around 20-30% in there diet. 5% is too little and 60% is too much. (it may I know it has alot)

Cat food has too much, dog food has in the ranges of 20-30%, also most people do not give only dog food. But dog food mixed with other things, to provide protein.

Not giving Animal protein to a roach is just as bad as giving too much. Kidney and liver failure can be caused by too much protein, however I dont even think straight cat food has enough to do that.

Here is a great article about it, https://dubiaroachdepot.com/guidance/dubia-roaches-dietary-protein.

So as that says, roaches need animal protein from meats ect to survive. This is accomplished with cat food dog food fish food chicken food ect. In the wild they eat decomposing dead animals to fill this need. So while yes they do eat primarily fruit. That is due to there other diet which is dead animals to store into there protein stores. They need protein.

However feeding roaches that are fed a proper protein diet to cham is also bad as the uric acid they make can cause liver kidney issues and Gout ect, in chameleons who need low protein.

That said that study does show that roaches not fed protein live longer. However we do not want a longer life, we want them to breed more. Which roaches with no protein do not do. even if you could get them to breed more and live longer to what means? They only breed for about 75% of there life. After about 1.5 years breeding is over for that roach, what point is there to keep feeding it?

There is a big difference between keeping as a pet and keeping as food.

 

[cyberlocc]

A note however, my post above was in favor of mixing dog food in. You could however even feed straight dog food (wouldnt with cat or fish or chicken) Grown dogs have the same protein level needs as the roaches of around 25%.

And to the red flag statement, I have never seen a dry roach gutload that did not have protein in it. The people that sell us the roaches want them to breed, for them to breed they need protein.

However best course would likely be like got said, 1 tub for breeding that gets protein and the other for feeding that doesn't ever.

 

[Andee]

Plenty of plants and grains give high levels of protein llike alfalfa at 17.9% if I remember correctly and one of my complete protein additives in my chow has 48% which is quinoa. There are tons of ways to get high protein levels without giving animal meat, including nuts and seeds.

 

[cyberlocc]

Plenty of plants and grains give high levels of protein llike alfalfa at 17.9% if I remember correctly and one of my complete protein additives in my chow has 48% which is quinoa. There are tons of ways to get high protein levels without giving animal meat, including nuts and seeds.

This is true and I agree, however they eat animal meat in the wild. So what harm does dog food bring? Cat food and Fish food in high amounts is too much protein I agree. However what is the disadvantage to Dog food?

It does also have preformed Vit A and Vit D. Bad for your cham (as you need to know how much they get) good for the roach.

To be clear I am not saying or condoning feeding dog food to a roach then feeding it to the cham. I am saying you can have some dog food in the mix for the breeder bin. The breeders will never be fed to the cham, and having the protein and vitamins to be healthy breed quickly and have healthy babies IMO is a good thing.