I heard that soybeans aren't good ingredients (block calcium and other minerals), fish food contains preservatives and coloring; anything else that I should avoid when gutloading roaches and crix? I am currently using powdered puppy chow, various grains and cereals, and seeds as gutload. Leafy green vegetables, oranges and carrots for moisture.
I got some of Fluker's stuff and my crickets wont touch it.... Is it true that fish foods shouldn't be part of a crix diet ? I feed my crickets fish foods as part of their regular diet at this time.
Fish food contains chemicals that are used as color enhancers for fish. No one is really sure what effect that will have on herps, and no one really wants to be the one to find out. So until someone does a study and shows that it is safe to use, I wouldn't. There's really no need to either, if you're providing a good diet. Flukers stuff is crap. You got some pretty smart crickets there
I was told once to use premium dry dog food. The crickets seem to like it and the lizards seem to like the crickets.
having worked in a field where we fussed about dog foods all the time , I would recommend that you carefully check the ingredients as there are additives in these foods too .Dog food for example can have ingredients that help fight arthritis / joint pain. Food dyes like the red dyes that cancer Drs, say are very dangerous, lots of sugar and "animal digest" which is manure (yes,really). I understand that cat foods have ingredients that help protect against hair balls and certain other things. Probably not good things to put inside your Leo. I can't believe I didn't think about those things when I was feeding my crix...who feed my Tree Frogs and Leo.
I think you have to check the ingredients with any food you give your reptile. I check for Dyes, sugar (or Glucose) and i believe the Arthitis/joint additives are marked for senior dogs only. I have found that if you spend a little more on the premium stuff and stick with either puppy or full grown brands each contain very little additives but an abundance of crucial vitamins ( Calcium, phosphorous, vitamin E,B,B12 and some actually have some C? Do dogs catch colds?). But again, you just cannot assume that all dog food would be good as gutload, a little bit of reading can really avoid problems
I'm trying to figure this out myself also. I've been told to avoid corn based foods since some lizards can't digest it. I'm not sure if puppy food contains too much fat or not (shrugs).
By the time you examine all the ingredients of every dog food and every package of oatmeal and every package of cereal and collect a ton of different things that really aren't all that great for gutload anyway you could have ordered and recieved really really great gutload from www.cricketfood.com . That stuff can't be topped, it's the best on the market, nothing is better and it's very reasonably priced!!
I hear alot of people are happy with that product. I've seen the break-down of protien, fats, etc. but I would like to see a list of actual ingredients. Does anyone have this information. I may be more willing to buy the product if the recipe wasn't shrouded in mystery.
Send a quick e-mail asking what is used in the products to sales@cricketfood.com , I'm sure you will get an answer. I have some bedding and cricket food and the ingredients are listed (too much to type out here)....all good, natural stuff....nothing in there at all that I would question or be worried about.
I use the Sandfire cricket diet for my crickets http://www.t-rexproducts.com/Dynamic/default.htm they say you don't need supplements but I "shake'n'bake" as well
I just bought some mealworm bedding from cricketfood today. Buying all the stuff posted on sites would run so much more. Hope I get it sometime next week due to New Years.
I just got a gecko for my little sister. She uses flukers cricket feed and they seem to eat it along with the greens, carrots, and oranges she feeds them as well. Why is flukers so bad?
Fluker's has a long history of putting profit and marketability far above the health and safety of your animals. Most of their products are crap and are a waste of money. Eublepharis, be careful with what dogfood you choose. As people pointed out earlier in this thread, dog food often contains chemicals that probably aren't good for your herps. It's better to go with natural ingredients (oats, wheat bran, etc) if you're going to try to make your own gutloads.
I was warned against supplements that use Vitamin A instead of beta carotene. But every dog food I have checked includes Vitamin A. Could this be a problem?
