The crickets are stored in a ventilated cottage cheese or big yogurt container. The powder from the rat food is just a light dusting around the bottom edges of the container but I was using it to keep the container a bit cleaner and drier and change it often because when I put the fruit and veggies in with the crickets, they used to get to moist and stinky and were dying off. It doesn't seem like they are consuming very much of it but the fruit and veggies disappear quickly. Same with the egg crate bits--they get soggy and stinky, but the dusty stuff absorbs it and between batches of crickets I clean the container and change the dust. So I do gutload with the good stuff and figured if the crickets ate a bit of it too it wouldn't be too bad? Please let me know what you think. Right now, until I find out if it is good or bad, I have removed it from the cricket and worm containers and the crickets are getting stinky already!
I didn't use my brain and really research all the contents. Mazuri produces excellent high-quality feed and since it said also for reptiles, that was good enuf for me (at the time) since I was just using it to keep the ammonia stink away and keep the crickets from getting so damp from the goodies I give them for the gutloading. It is a Mazuri exotic animal feed for critters and since it said reptiles, I thought it was safe.
Here is all the pertinent info from the bag:
Mazuri® Description
A diet designed for feeding rats and mice which are maintained in breeding colonies and intended for use as food for other species (such as reptiles).
Features
Contains yucca shidigera - shown to reduce aerosol ammonia in animal facilities.
Guaranteed Analysis
Crude protein not less than ....................... 16.0%
Crude fat not less than ................................ 6.0%
Crude fiber not more than ........................... 6.0%
Ingredients
Ground corn, dehulled soybean meal, ground oats, porcine animal fat preserved with BHA, cane molasses, wheat middlings, dehydrated alfalfa meal, ground wheat, ground soybean hulls, calcium carbonate, fish meal, salt, brewers dried yeast, dicalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, dried beet pulp, wheat germ, corn gluten meal, soybean oil, menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite (vitamin K), pyridoxine hydrochloride, DL-methionine, choline chloride, dried yucca shidigera extract, cholecalciferol (vitamin D3), thiamin mononitrate, folic acid, biotin, dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), calcium pantothenate, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, vitamin A acetate, manganous oxide, zinc oxide, ferrous carbonate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate.
Please help me out! Should I stop using this?
