Properly gutloading your feeders

[Ihaggerty1313]

I've been getting a lot of questions as of late concerning Dubia diet. I wanted to start a more recent informative thread that people can check in on and see what people are feeding their feeders. So please, if you read this let us know what you are using as feeders and what you are gutloading them w/ as I think this thread can be a good resource for many of our fellow BD.org members.

The 2nd part of this post is to remind people that you ARE NOT gutloading your feeder insects for THEIR health rather you are feeding them foods, minerals, and nutrients that you want to get into your ANIMAL for it's health. This aspect of raising feeders seems to get many people a little confused. Speaking on behalf of roaches they will eat ANYTHING that you can think of. Yes they tend to like sweeter foods but they will eat whatever you offer them. Remember that every animal has different dietary needs and therefore their feeder insects should be gutloaded to meet those requirements.

 

[Claudiusx]

DubiasI gutload with apples, oranges, left over salad that my beardies don't eat, and I make them a "roach chow" that consists of ground up cat food, and an unsweetened cereal.

Superworms I gutload with slices of potato and that is mainly it.

Those are the only feeders I really keep. And btw, great idea for a thread.

-Brandon

 

[Alon93]

My roaches and my crickets get a mix of fruits such as oranges and apples with a dry food that I make myself (high quality cat food+pure calcium+bran).

My superworms and mealworms live on a bran substrate and they get apples or potatoes for moisture and if my corn snake refused a mouse then it goes to the superworms.

 

[BlueDevil]

Excellent thread Ian!

 

[Sapphire]

I've been feeding my crickets kale and collards, as well as some mandarin oranges and apples. There's green cricket poop all over the place....

I recently got my first order of dubia roaches and I've tried feeding them apples, oranges, honeydew, fish food, fluker's cricket diet..... They don't seem to be interested in any of it. I don't know what's wrong with them. :?

 

[romanfj]

Dubias = Citrus fruit (orange, grapefruit, pineapple) + apple + carrot + high protein kitten or dog food. Also love mango.
Red runner = same as above + they like cooked meat scraps
Lobsters = Same as above + potatoes + cooked meat scraps
Hissers = Same as dubia + limes
Orange heads = Some citrus fruit + high protein kitten or dog food. Apples and carrots are wasted on mine. The also love meat, ccoked or raw (feeder fish my garter snake won't eat, dead pinkies).
Dwarf cave = High protein kitten or dog food. They seem to ignore all fruits and veggies I've tried.

Frank

 

[Claudiusx]

You actually have that many types of roaches? :shock:

-Brandon

 

[romanfj]

Sure do. It ensures I always have my choice of sizes available, since my beardies are all different ages.

Frank

 

[techdave]

I feed mine naval oranges, squash, carrots and some green cube stuff I got from the pet store that they go nuts over. And some chicken feed,monkey food(until it's gone) and kitty food.

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

I recently got my first order of dubia roaches and I've tried feeding them apples, oranges, honeydew, fish food, fluker's cricket diet..... They don't seem to be interested in any of it. I don't know what's wrong with them. :?

If you don't have thousands of them you probably won't notice them eating too much as they won't leave a dent but believe me... They are! Put a few thousand together and they'll eat a grapefruit and a pound of chow in 2 hours. It gets ridiculous LOL!