Calcium

[avalynnj12]

Hello! I have not yet bought any calcium to dust my crickets with. I feed the crickets flukers orange cubes but i’m not sure that this product has enough (or any at all) calcium. What calcium do you recommend I buy? Also, should I switch my cricket food? I’ve read some reviews saying it’s not the best food for crickets and I wanna make sure i’m providing my beardie w/ the best crickets I can.

 

[Shinryu]

Hello! I have not yet bought any calcium to dust my crickets with. I feed the crickets flukers orange cubes but i’m not sure that this product has enough (or any at all) calcium. What calcium do you recommend I buy? Also, should I switch my cricket food? I’ve read some reviews saying it’s not the best food for crickets and I wanna make sure i’m providing my beardie w/ the best crickets I can.

I think you may be referring to gut loading crickets. If that's the case, I found a post where a very experienced member of our community discusses how he gut loads his crickets to make them more nutritious for his beardie.

Gut Loading Help | Feeding

I have always wondered about gut loading my question is for example if I gut load my crickets with sweet potato the crickets eat and whatever nutrients the potato has the crickets absorb BUT does your beardie taste the sweet potato too or does the beardie only taste crickets i have used squash...

www.beardeddragon.org

For dusting the crickets before offering to your beardie, I would recommend Repashy Calcium Plus -- it's an all in one calcium and vitamin supplement.

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

You're right, the orange cubes really aren't the best food items for the crickets. Plus, they turn your dragons poo weird colors when the crickets have ate the cubes. Best to stick to carrots and potatoes for crickets (or what other cricket breeding guides say).

You don't necessarily need to feed the crickets high calcium diets. This can actually be bad for the cricket. Dusting the crickets with a calcium powder prior to feeding them to your dragon is sufficient.

-Brandon

 

[avalynnj12]

I think you may be referring to gut loading crickets. If that's the case, I found a post where a very experienced member of our community discusses how he gut loads his crickets to make them more nutritious for his beardie.

Gut Loading Help | Feeding

I have always wondered about gut loading my question is for example if I gut load my crickets with sweet potato the crickets eat and whatever nutrients the potato has the crickets absorb BUT does your beardie taste the sweet potato too or does the beardie only taste crickets i have used squash...

www.beardeddragon.org

For dusting the crickets before offering to your beardie, I would recommend Repashy Calcium Plus -- it's an all in one calcium and vitamin supplement.

I ended up buying the supplement you recommended off amazon but have not yet had the chance to use it. So does this also contain the D3 they need? Or do I need to buy that separate? Is it safe for me to dust all the crickets I feed him with this powder or do I need to limit the amount? and should i wait to dust the crickets until i am ready to feed them to my dragon, or is it okay for them to all be dusted at the same time & fed over multiple days after dusting?

 

[avalynnj12]

Hi there,

You're right, the orange cubes really aren't the best food items for the crickets. Plus, they turn your dragons poo weird colors when the crickets have ate the cubes. Best to stick to carrots and potatoes for crickets (or what other cricket breeding guides say).

You don't necessarily need to feed the crickets high calcium diets. This can actually be bad for the cricket. Dusting the crickets with a calcium powder prior to feeding them to your dragon is sufficient.

-Brandon

Thanks for your help! So would you recommend dusting during every cricket feeding? Or should I limit it? Right now, he is young so I give him crickets twice a day (usually he will eat around 15-30. sometimes even more… i’ve started to limit it to however many he can eat in 10 minutes.) & collard greens with carrots (occasionally i add blueberries) once a day. should i change any of this?

 

[Claudiusx]

Dusting with calcium 5x a week is sufficient. So if you are doing multiple feedings per day, only 1 of the feedings in a day would be dusted. Remember, 5x a week, not 5 days a week.

-Brandon