Feeding the food...

[BamaGirl]

Hey everyone. I'm new here, and I'm also relatively new to leo keeping. We have had our leo for about a month and a half now, and things are going really well.

Anywhoo...onto my question:
We feed her mainly mealworms, and I am in the process of starting a colony. In light of the recent problems with mealworms, I have decided that I would like to make my own bedding/gutload for the colony. I figure that way I can completely control what goes into our little baby girl. I was originally planning on ordering gutload from cricketfood.com as I've heard great things about their products, but he seems to have gone belly up. So I was wondering if anyone knew of a recipe similar to the gutload sold on that website. Any help would be greatly appreciated!:main_yes:

 

[BamaGirl]

No input? Anyone?

The reason I'm looking to make my own, is that I think that the mealworm shortage had to have been at least partially caused by something in the grain the mealworms were being fed (i.e. pesticides or a hormone). It's just a theory, but for the shortage to be so widespread, it had to be something along those lines. I figure someone else out there must be making their own gutload, so any advice would be awesome.

 

[brad.a.c]

I use plain, uncooked oatmeal. It's works great too.

 

[MagicalGecko]

We've been using straight bran and it was doing well. However, we switched to chicken mash which you can buy at the feed store for about 15 bucks for a 50 pound bag.

 

[BamaGirl]

I was under the assumption that there was supposed to be a lot more components in the insect's food, so that the leo gets the maximum benefit from eating the insect. Is that not necessarily true?

Has anyone tried this before?
http://www.drgecko.com/insectdiet.htm

 

[Bling_my_leo]

I have never tried that before. I use uncooked, blended oatmeal for my mealworm colony. They are doing just great. I have about 7 beetles, 2 pupae and about 18 mealworms.

 

[HepCatMoe]

i use mostly plain uncooked oatmeal. i also throw in some koi food every now and then as it is high in protein. for water i switch between apples, oranges, and carrots.

ive had my colony going for over a year now. i think im probably on generation 3.

 

[pkruiner]

i think for the colony youll want to use something simple like what people are saying to keep everything alive but when you pluck the feeder worms, gutload them with a more complex mix if necessary. could be wrong.

 

[traffic]

I was under the assumption that there was supposed to be a lot more components in the insect's food, so that the leo gets the maximum benefit from eating the insect. Is that not necessarily true?

Has anyone tried this before?
http://www.drgecko.com/insectdiet.htm

I did and do use it for mealie and supers. I am no longer feeding mealies so it is only for my supers now. It works just fine. I had only used bran before so I could not compare it to much. The one issue is that a few of the ingredients on the list are pretty expensive so I just used vionate in place of. If you search the internet you will be able to find the spirulina, bee pollen and the sea kelp cheaper than in a "Health food stores" like "Whole foods". You will need a coffee grinder or food processor to grind it all up.

Heres the deal. The only way it is more cost efective than lets say "Pro Geckos Gutload" mixed with wheat bran is if you make it in a very large batch and I mean like a trash bag full. It works and isn't very expensive if you make alot of it. The major benefit I found is that you know exactly what your feeders and animals are being fed.

I hope this helps.

 

[brad.a.c]

I also put potatos in there with them to eat also. It seems to be working really well.

 

[BamaGirl]

i think for the colony youll want to use something simple like what people are saying to keep everything alive but when you pluck the feeder worms, gutload them with a more complex mix if necessary. could be wrong.

That's what I have been doing with a simple gutload from the last guy I got mealies from, but it just seems to be full of filler more than anything else.

When I was researching this last week, I found alot of useful info on cricketfood.com that made me think a little differently. I would quote it from the site, but it's down now. Basically it just said that if you feed basic, mediocre stuff to the worm throughout it's life, and then just gutload it with good stuff the night before you feed it to your pet, it isn't necessarily a healthy insect. Whereas, if you feed it a more healthy, complex gutload every day it is a healthier insect through and through, not just its stomach contents. Plus, I would think with a better gutload/bedding the mealworm colony would thrive more. I'm probably just making this too complicated, but that's just kinda how I am.:main_robin:

 

[BamaGirl]

I did and do use it for mealie and supers. I am no longer feeding mealies so it is only for my supers now. It works just fine. I had only used bran before so I could not compare it to much. The one issue is that a few of the ingredients on the list are pretty expensive so I just used vionate in place of. If you search the internet you will be able to find the spirulina, bee pollen and the sea kelp cheaper than in a "Health food stores" like "Whole foods". You will need a coffee grinder or food processor to grind it all up.

Heres the deal. The only way it is more cost efective than lets say "Pro Geckos Gutload" mixed with wheat bran is if you make it in a very large batch and I mean like a trash bag full. It works and isn't very expensive if you make alot of it. The major benefit I found is that you know exactly what your feeders and animals are being fed.

I hope this helps.

What is in the "Pro Geckos Gutload"? I looked on the site but couldn't find anything that listed the ingredients. Is it basically the same thing as what you are making? If so I might just get that and mix it, like you said, just to make it go farther.

Nevermind, just found the link that talks about what's in it. That sounds like great stuff, thanks for the info!