feeder nutritional value?

[chamitch1]

cant seem to find a chart with all teh feeders nutriotional value. any help would be great. i know i seen teh chart somewhere just cant remember where thanks

[camille]

What reptile do you haveÉ

[DragnDrop]

Grubco chart (http://www.grubco.com/Nutritional_Information.cfm)
Nutritional Value of Various Insects Iowa State University (http://www.ent.iastate.edu/Misc/insectnutrition.html)

Non-insect food analysis:
USDA National Nutrient Database (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/)

[newticus]

Isn't that chart a little misleading? It shows that crickets have higher calcium than silk worms, but silkworms have lower phosphorus than crickets. And doesn't it work that the only calcium received is what is left over after counteracting the phosoprous??
i could be all wrong though

[DragnDrop]

If you are going by insect analysis charts, you have to consider who sponsored the analysis. Cricket farms are famous for trying to prove their bugs are better than mealworms (and superworms) and any other feeder. Most of the online charts and those in books lean heavily in favour of the product the sponsor is selling. Would it make sense to have a cricket farm as a sponsor and then prove a competing product is better, or just as good? The outcome of any insect nutritional value analysis is only a sample, can be affected by so many variables, and even outright fudged in many ways. There's no telling how the the insects and worms in any analysis were gutloaded, which has a major affect on outcome, so take the analysis results with a grain of salt.

[chamitch1]

yes of course with a grain of salt. i was just jsut wonderign how butterworms compare, because they cant be gutloaded. And my thought is if you want yoru crks and supers to have just as good nutrition as silkies just feed them mulberry leaf mash. aswell as your other gutload and in theory should be just as good if nto better then silkies.(not taking into account the softness)

thanks

[DragnDrop]

You're assuming the insects will eat the leaves and can process/digest them. Not every insect can or will eat silkworm chow and if it does, can it's digestive system handle it as well as silkies? Will it be able to extract the nutrients properly so it will be as nutritious as silkies on the same diet?
Butterworms may not 'eat' other foods in the true sense of the word, but they will chew their way through things. You can use this to your advantage. Give them something solid like yams, carrots, other veggies in chunks or slabs. They'll chew through it as if they're tunnelling through a trevo bush. While the veggies are inside them, you can consider them slightly gutloaded, a bit more nutritious than empty worms.

[chamitch1]

good idea about the butters.

my thoughts on teh silkie food is that they dont need to digest it. infact i would think its fair to assume its better undigested(in the case of omnivores especially). i dont think the digestion of the leaves would play such a big role with vitamins minerals, but likely how they use the aminos to make new protiens. its a good point and one to consider i will try and look into this a bit further.
mealies do eat it while wet and so do supers and of course the unpicky crickets hammer it too.