Gut Loading Crix

[Mohg]

Hi all. This is my first post. We have a female (?) juvenile bearded dragon (Mohg) that we acquired from a nice reptile shop a week ago. We're feeding her a staple of dusted crickets supplemented with hornworm and silkworm treats and I wanted to find out about the best way to gut-load her crickets.

My boyfriend picked up a container of the orange-colored gut-load and water cubes, but they're $10 per container and have food coloring in them. I'm wondering if it would be better if we put Mohg's leftover salad (currently Collards, Endive, Yellow Squash, and a bit of Zucchini and Carrot) in with the crickets instead of a commercial cricket diet.

Do the crickets require a more protein-rich diet than just beardie greens?

 

[LittleMerlin]

Some people buy the Fluker's calcium food for crickets as well as the gel stuff. I was doing that for the longest time, but to save on food, I decided home gutloads were better and healthier. I cut up small pieces of a baby carrot for their food/water source every few days, and give them some oatmeal for the dry foods. Some people give them greens like you give the beardie as well. Turnip Greens and Kale are great sources for daily foods for beardies from what I've been told. My guy loves both. Don't forget, you'll need an extra source of vitamins, I was using Rep-Cal (which you may do once a week, which is what I do), but I got a spray that has all the vitamin supplements that's good for them as well. You just spray it on the crickets and veggies (once a week, unless you aren't gut loading the crickets, then do that daily I think for babies and juvies), let it dry for about 15 to 30 seconds before putting them in the viv, and they should be just fine. Crickets need to be gut-loaded a good 24 hours before feeding. Store bought crickets say they're gut-loaded at purchase, but I like to give them fresh food when I bring them home too just to be in on the safe side.

Note: I'm not using the rep-cal and the spray thing, just the spray stuff for my beardie. I still use the Rep-Cal powder for my leopard gecko though. Again, if you aren't gut-loading the crickets, people at pet store told me to spray daily to make sure the "food" for the beardies get all the vitamins the beardies need. If that makes sense.

 

[Mohg]

So, the crickets should be fine without a protein-rich food source...

The crickets are being both gut-loaded and calcium-dusted daily. We do need to pick up a multi-vitamin for weekly supplementation, though. Anyone have any suggestions? A link to a product-page would be really helpful.

 

[Brett]

This is what i use it can be found at bigbox store and pretty much any reptile site out there.

 

[Julie]

where can i get silkworms in uk? not found anywhere yet.

 

[LittleMerlin]

I was using Rep-cal but for my beardie, now I am using Zilla's spray vitamins. It has everything they need all in one. You spray it on their crickets and veggies, let it dry for 15 secs. I usually wait a little longer to be on the safe side for it to be dry enough. 15-30 secs is good. Still use Rep-Cal for my leopard gecko.