Maintenance Diet/ Gut load Methods and Research Thread!

[Digs]

Its been a long time since I've posted here but I've been thinking of the idea of using UVB lighting on the feeder insects to increase vitamin D3. I don't really want to go out and buy a bunch of new fixtures for each and every feeder tub. I believe the best route is to provide a UV source to the feeders that are picked out for gut loading. For now I'll be using a Reptisun 10.0 mini compact uvb bulb.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-29232-w

 

[Hilde]

In the experiment, the UV source was right in the housing containers, upright, where the insects could get close to it, 3 inches in some cases. That wouldn't be easy to replicate in a home setting. You also have to make sure that your lamps are insect proof, so they don't get inside where the wiring is, and cause a short circuit, or just plain get lost inside the fixture.

Another problem is that you don't know how much UV they absorb and end up converting to D3. You'd be guessing, unless you have the proper measuring equipment.

Why not go with the regular proven dusting and gutloading? At least that way you have a better idea of what vitamins and minerals the geckos are getting.

 

[Digs]

In the experiment, the UV source was right in the housing containers, upright, where the insects could get close to it, 3 inches in some cases. That wouldn't be easy to replicate in a home setting. You also have to make sure that your lamps are insect proof, so they don't get inside where the wiring is, and cause a short circuit, or just plain get lost inside the fixture.

Another problem is that you don't know how much UV they absorb and end up converting to D3. You'd be guessing, unless you have the proper measuring equipment.

Why not go with the regular proven dusting and gutloading? At least that way you have a better idea of what vitamins and minerals the geckos are getting.

This is only 1 of the studies I’ve found on the subject so I’ll have to do more research on how exactly I want to set this up. I didn’t know that insects of feeding size could get into the fixture I’ll look into that.

I’m starting to adopt the “ following nature’s example” logic. There’s immitating the sun the best we can by combining basking bulbs With UVB and there’s providing natural hydration through immitating microclimates with high humidity. I want to obtain the same goal with insectivore nutrition. We can’t provide the same variety of safe feeder insects to captive reptiles and we don’t have the same variety of fresh food to provide the colossal amount of nutrients wild insects are gut loaded with so, we have to increase nutrients in the feeders we already have with unnatural and unhealthy food ( for the feeders). Imitating the nutrients that wild insects would be delivering to reptiles as much as possible is the goal that scientist Behind proven gut loads seek to achieve.

 

[Digs]

I have found a gut loading diet called Züküdla Cricket Max2. It took me a while to figure out that it was formulated in this study and showed to effectively alter the calcium to phosphorus ratio in feed crickets over 1:1 ( around 1.7:1 I believe?) It also meets the minimum vitamin A,D, and E requirements for reptiles.

https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/xmlu...lDsFJgLCI8a0uW_ySdDkxcC-Tpg_IHUiPSQx6ZwSRiE-E

The owner has sent me a sample but I don’t know when it will arrive.

 

[Digs]

I have also removed UVB lighting from my feeders. All was going well until I was reminded that UV destroys vitamins in food lol. So I'll just have to rely on the diet for increasing vitamin D levels.