Gut-Load

[Repti]

How and with what can I gut load
-silk worm
-meal worm
-super worm
-crix

Repti

[Tim and Julie B]

Silk worms will only eat mulberry leaves.

Mealies, supers and crix can all be given the same gutload-
1.bran
2.commercial dry feed (I like Flukers)
3.corn meal
4.dry oatmeal
5.high quality flaked fish food
6.dog and cat food (others suggest it, I don't)
7.a variety of leafy greens (romaine lettuce, beet greens, etc.)
8.apple and carrot slices
9.cucumber chunks
10. water source-jelly form or a shallow dish with wet cotton balls

Hope this helps you, there are many variations and you really can't go too wrong here:D

Julie B.

[sapphire_moon]

so if I gut load meal worms could I use them as staple food for a leo? (With proper variety)

[Tim and Julie B]

Yup, it all comes down to the gut-load. Mealies last a lot longer than crix, just remember that due to the calcium to phosphorus ratio on mealies ( 1:9) you need to feed them high calcium foods. I am thinking that adding boiled eggs shells crushed very fine into the gut load you may be able to provide even more calcium for the mealies. Be sure to dust your mealies with calcium D3. And yes, be sure to keep the diet varied.

[eyespy]

Boiled eggshells are not going to significantly help with the phosphorus imbalance because eggshells contain a fair bit of phosphorus themselves. It's best to use calcium sources that are totally phosphorus-free for gutloading feeders. Mealworms have a nutritional need for phosphorus and that is what their bodies will absorb, they will just excrete most of the calcium as to them it's non-nutritive.

[Alicewave]

I use wheatgerm and fishfood plus carrots for moisture to breed my mealies. I have found this combo to be nutritionally complete and least likely to harbor mold. I tried oats and it molded very quickly, same with potato. I prefer carrots to potato for moisture also because they have more vitamins and at some point it was mentioned that Vit A deficiency could be a cause of eye deformities in baby leos.

[Colonel SB]

I use high protien fish food and a mix of veggies to gut load my crickets.

[Tim and Julie B]

Eyespy:
For calcium, would cuttle-bone suffice? Any other suggestions would fbe appreciated.:D

Alicewave:
I really prefer carrot over potato myself. But I thought too much Vit A was the cause of eye deformity:confused: Can anyone clear that up?:D (Too much info, not enough accuracy!)

[Siretsap]

Any vitamins or proteins you give to much of to your reptile can be dangerous. But then again, it would have to be a big excess. I have seen problems in iguianas having liver mal-functions due to some overdoze of vitamins and calcium. As for the carrot causing the eye doformity. Never heard of that, it might be an old story from us having to eat carrots to have a very good vision...

[Tim and Julie B]

Actually, I was asking if Vit A was a cause or solution to eye deformity, not carrots:D

[eyespy]

In human beings, either too much or too little vitamin A causes retinal problems and dry eye syndrome. Don't know about leos, though. ;)

Cuttlebone has the same thing as eggshells, it's also dicalcium phosphate as are most organic sources of calcium excluding ground oyster shell.

[Tim and Julie B]

So what's best then?

[Colonel SB]

I belive it's a mixed diet...That way it makes up for any one veggies defficiancy.

[Alicewave]

In humans Vitamin A helps improve night vision. Not sure about Leos. I'd like to say my leos became better hunters when I started using carrot but that was about the same time I cut way down on the flash photography of them so who knows. I doubt carrot has enough Vit A to be harmful.

[sapphire_moon]

I was thinking of having mealies as a staple food, with crickets, butterworms, wax, super worms and crickets to vary it.....If I dust the mealies with calcium, or put them in a dish with calcium in the bottom, and dust the mealies, would that help with the phosphurus-calcium ratio???

[eyespy]

The best calcium is commercially prepared phosphorus-free supplements such as Minerall or Repcal when you are dealing with trying to right a big phosphorus imbalance. Nonfat powdered milk is okay in small doses because so much of the phosphorus content is lost in processing.

Dusting and gutloading mealies does help to bring the balance back into order, but it's tough to know for sure that your leo is actually going to get it. Dust falls off, and gutload can be pooped out before the cricket eats it. For leos, who are good at self-regulating calcium intake, a small dish of calcium offered at least once or twice a week has shown to give the best results.

As long as the dish is steep enough that the mealies can't shake the dust into the air so it scatters in the cage, a "dusted dish" should be okay.

[eyespy]

Carrots don't actually have very much vitamin A at all, it's mostly carotenoid pigments such as beta-carotene that your leo's liver can transform into vitamin A.

Herps are much more likely to get vitamin A or D overdoses from eating rodent livers than from eating carrots as they are truly getting the vitamins in fat-soluble-only mode so they cannot excrete the excess. With carrots, if they don't need more vitamin A, they just don't string the building blocks together anymore.