Insect food?

[Mariekey29]

Anyone have any suggestions on a good dry food, without cat or dog food, to feed dubias & crickets? Not looking for a gutload, just a dry food to feed a colony until I'm ready to gutload the ones I plan to feed my cham. I'd like to feed both the crickets and dubias the same thing if possible. Thanks in advance!

 

[JGuinan007]

I'm confused gut load IS a good dry or wet food I always feed my feeders cricket crack and fresh or almost fresh okay some times not fresh atall greens

 

[Mariekey29]

I use a homemade wet gutload. What I've been doing is gutloading the insects I plan to feed the next day in a small cricket keeper the night before. I want to start breeding crickets and dubias to save a bit of money on feeders cuz my little guy has quite and appetite right now. I was planning to get a dry food (been looking at LLLReptiles dubia food) to keep in my breeder bins as an "everyday food" and continuing to gutload as I have been. Does that make sense?

 

[JGuinan007]

To me not really. I would just feed your breeders any of these either wet or dried: mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion leaves, collard greens, escarole lettuce, papaya, watercress and alfalfa. Also I would talk to Nick Barta he seems to be the feeder/Gut load God here.

 

[oneillchameleons]

I go a little crazy with gutloading but here is my recipe (which varies depending on what is available at the store.

DRY:
Sesame seeds
Blanched almonds
Sunflower seeds
Dried cranberries
Alfalfa
Bee pollen
Crested gecko diet
Spirulina
A very small amount of dry organic cat food ( I find this keeps cannibalism down with crickets)

Blended together and put in the freezer as I need it.

WET:
Kale
collard greens
Mustard greens
Romaine
Apple
Carrot
Strawberries
Sweet potato
Winter squashes (butternut,spaghetti)
Oranges


There is lots of other stuff that is a great gutload, and you'll find a lot of good recipes here. The key is variety.

 

[Mariekey29]

I go a little crazy with gutloading but here is my recipe (which varies depending on what is available at the store.

DRY:
Sesame seeds
Blanched almonds
Sunflower seeds
Dried cranberries
Alfalfa
Bee pollen
Crested gecko diet
Spirulina
A very small amount of dry organic cat food ( I find this keeps cannibalism down with crickets)

Blended together and put in the freezer as I need it.

WET:
Kale
collard greens
Mustard greens
Romaine
Apple
Carrot
Strawberries
Sweet potato
Winter squashes (butternut,spaghetti)
Oranges


There is lots of other stuff that is a great gutload, and you'll find a lot of good recipes here. The key is variety.

You're wet list is almost exactly what I'm using now. I just blend everything with a bit of water to bring it together and then freeze in an ice cube tray. Keep them in a bag in the freezer and use as needed. Haven't tried making a dry food. The cat food won't harm my cham if I feed it to my insects? I've read everywhere to stay away from it.

 

[oneillchameleons]

You're wet list is almost exactly what I'm using now. I just blend everything with a bit of water to bring it together and then freeze in an ice cube tray. Keep them in a bag in the freezer and use as needed. Haven't tried making a dry food. The cat food won't harm my cham if I feed it to my insects? I've read everywhere to stay away from it.

I put in a tiny amount of cat food. If I'm making say, an entire blender full (about a half gallon) the cat food only makes up about 1 tablespoon of it. Not enough to have adverse effects, just enough to supply protein and keep cannibalism down. I think the problem lies in feeding a staple of cat food to our insects, leading to gout and kidney problems in our reptiles.

 

[nick barta]

To me not really. I would just feed your breeders any of these either wet or dried: mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion leaves, collard greens, escarole lettuce, papaya, watercress and alfalfa. Also I would talk to Nick Barta he seems to be the feeder/Gut load God here.

Not a god, but I have run into this request before! You surely can create your own inexpensive gut load verses $15-$17 per pound for Cricket Crack and Bug Buffet. That being said, those 2 gut loads are the best that you can buy, but not all keepers with large colonies want to develop breeders on the good gut load, just the feeders going into the cage. So...

One of my regular local customers requested a inexpensive gut load, so I purchased fine-ground alfalfa and a non-medicated poultry food. I do a bit of grinding on the poultry food as it is in little bits about the size of Grape Nuts cereal. This puts some fine powder of the poultry food, for the nymphs to easily eat, but also allows them to dig in the chunks, which I like for my 6 roach colonies. The added benefit is that when you miss a day of feeding, dinner is still available.

I have not put this on my ads in the classifieds yet, but if you want to order some, it is 1/3 the cost of CC & BB at $5.00 per pound.
Email me at [email protected], and I will send you some.

CHEERS!

Nick

 

[JGuinan007]

Nick Barta I'm sorry I meant no offense.

 

[nick barta]

None taken!

CHEERS!

Nick

 

[JaxyGirl]

Not a god, but I have run into this request before! You surely can create your own inexpensive gut load verses $15-$17 per pound for Cricket Crack and Bug Buffet. That being said, those 2 gut loads are the best that you can buy, but not all keepers with large colonies want to develop breeders on the good gut load, just the feeders going into the cage. So...

One of my regular local customers requested a inexpensive gut load, so I purchased fine-ground alfalfa and a non-medicated poultry food. I do a bit of grinding on the poultry food as it is in little bits about the size of Grape Nuts cereal. This puts some fine powder of the poultry food, for the nymphs to easily eat, but also allows them to dig in the chunks, which I like for my 6 roach colonies. The added benefit is that when you miss a day of feeding, dinner is still available.

I have not put this on my ads in the classifieds yet, but if you want to order some, it is 1/3 the cost of CC & BB at $5.00 per pound.
Email me at [email protected], and I will send you some.

CHEERS!

Nick

I just started using a non medicated, low protein poultry food also. I got a 5 pound bag for only $6.99. I use it everyday as my primary food along with kale and other veggies. I now have very little die off and my crickets and roaches love it! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one feeding chicken feed to my insects Lol!