calcium
- Thread starter leopardg
- Start date
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
There is no comparison.
Please read:
Gutloading the Feeders versus Feeding the Feeders 24/7
The term gutloading causes some confusion. Feed your feeders a nutritious regular diet all the time to build strong feeder bodies. Then only feed a special GUTLOAD product to the crickets, for example, 1-2 days prior to feeding the crickets to your geckos. T-REX Calcium Plus Cricket Food is a good gutload food. Top off the crickets by lightly dusting with a multivitamin containing D3/vitamin A acetate and phosphorus-free calcium with D3 no more than 2x weekly.
Click here: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...-feeding-issues/68574-cricket-guidelines.html
There are 3 leo caresheets on GU. Have you found the one linked right in my signature below? Please answer the questions we ask.
Keep your questions right here.
Last edited:
cricket4u
New member
A vague question and a not so easy to answer one as well. Maybe this will help a tiny bit at least.:biggrin:
Gut-loading diets for crickets (adults and nymphs) should be supplemented to contain the following nutrients, respectively: Ca (51 and 32 g/kg), vitamin A (8,310 and 5,270 µg retinol/kg), vitamin D (300 and 190 µg cholecalciferol/kg), vitamin E (140 and 140 mg RRR-α-tocopherol/kg), thiamin (31 and 21 mg/kg), and pyridoxine (20 and 10 mg/kg).
Studies have shown that "gut loading" crickets with a diet containing at least eight percent calcium fed for at least 48 hours prior to being used as a food item for reptiles and amphibians would produce a meal that had a Ca
ratio of 1:1 or higher (Allen and Oftedal, 1989). Crickets that received dietary supplementation of calcium of 8% or greater also had three times the calcium content of those that were dusted with calcium supplement - but not gut loaded prior to being used as prey items (Trusk and Crissey, 1987).Each reptile species may have its own unique dietary requirements for calcium. Leopard geckos that were fed crickets gut loaded for greater than 48 hours with diets con*taining at least 8% calcium were found to have significantly greater body weights as well as higher bone ash and bone cal*cium than leopard geckos fed crickets maintained on diets of less than 2% calcium (Allen, et al, 1986). Radiographs and histopathology also evidenced better bone integrity in leopard geckos fed higher calcium containing crickets (Allen, 1989). No significant differences in bone ash were attributed to dietary vitamin D3 (Allen, et al, 1986). Also, it has been sug*gested that the insect prey items be offered slices of orange and apple or other food items as a water source. In order to prevent prey items from gut loading these food items in pref*erence to the high calcium diet provided, it is probably more appropriate to provide a water soaked sponge as a water source (Allen and Oftedal, 1989).