# DIY homebrew gutloads



## maddyfish (Sep 16, 2006)

ANy ideas for DIY gutload feed for crickets? I've got some crickets now for my Gecko I'm getting friday. Right now they're eating oatmeal, carrot pieces, and formula 2 fish food flakes.


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

I raised them for a short time and fed them raw potatoes. They did just fine on that.


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## Bawb2u (May 27, 2004)

maddyfish said:


> ANy ideas for DIY gutload feed for crickets? I've got some crickets now for my Gecko I'm getting friday. Right now they're eating oatmeal, carrot pieces, and formula 2 fish food flakes.


I wouldn't bother with the oatmeal, it's just a filler with no protein. The fish flakes, as long as they are above 42% protein are the absolute best thing for gut loading. The carrots are a good choice too for healthy moisture with beta carotene.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Dependings on what type of mixture you're going for... You might want to look into some of the DIY gelatin fish food recipes that are on the internet. Then simply modify it accordingly to include the necessary levels of nutrients necessary for your animal. They can be kept, forzen, and simply thawed and put in with the crickets when necessary. A cricket is basically only nutritious as what you feed it, so I would recommend something more than potatos or what have you...


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## dark FrOsT (Sep 23, 2006)

orange's are amazing, just cut one or two up and set them in with the crickets. i found by feeding them oranges they live twice as long, thats good if your buying them by the hundreds to thousands.


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## maddyfish (Sep 16, 2006)

Got an orange today. Getting the Gecko Friday.


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## eddyhead (Nov 6, 2007)

maddyfish said:


> Got an orange today. Getting the Gecko Friday.


Yeah i also do the Orange, What kind of Gecko Yout getting?


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## dark FrOsT (Sep 23, 2006)

oranges are awesome ... i even got the reptile zoo i volunteer at to start doing it cause it came up in conversations and ever since they have been using them to feed crickets. been over a year now


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

dry milk (like 80% of mixture)
wheat germ
algea (dried)
fish flakes

i am also just talking about dry gut load
moisure should always also be given in potatoes, apples, oranges...

Cricket gut load
1 part multigrain cereal 
1 part rolled oats 
1 part chicken laying mash (no hormones) 
powdered milk 
fish flake 
wheat bran sometimes 
brewers yeast (a little bit) 
whatever else youâ€™ve got laying around that looks good or the feed store has on sale that looks good

1 large box dry milk (8 quart size)
1 box rice baby cereal 
8 oz. raw unsalted sunflower seeds 
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup of chaff from loose alfalfa or 3/4 cup alfalfa powder
1 1/2 cup fresh bee pollen
1/4 cup powdered spirulina or Klamath Lake algae http://www.algae-world.com
1/2 cup crushed fine quality monkey chow (not Purina)
1/4 cup dried sea kelp
*1/4 cup dried egg yolk (or add freshly cooked egg yolk to wet mix (see right)
1/2 cup mixed unsalted nuts
1/4 cup coconut
1/16 cup brewer's yeast
1/8 cup dried dandelion flowers (optional)

you could probably cut it into quarters or even eights since one eight will be about 1-2 quart jars (large canning jar)


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## maddyfish (Sep 16, 2006)

He's a yellow (patternless?) leopard gecko. He's about 8" long and an aggressive eater.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

sean-820 said:


> dry milk (like 80% of mixture)
> wheat germ
> algea (dried)
> fish flakes
> ...


What's with the dried milk in everything? I've never seen that before. Or noticed it on any ingredient labels.


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## Bawb2u (May 27, 2004)

Mettle said:


> dry milk (like 80% of mixture)
> wheat germ
> algea (dried)
> fish flakes
> ...


What's with the dried milk in everything? I've never seen that before. Or noticed it on any ingredient labels.
[/quote]

That whole thing just seems like insane overkill. In the 40+ years I've been keeping reptiles, I've never bothered going through that much trouble to feed crickets and none of my herps have ever had any nutritional problems. Hell, I've bred crickets and several different species of roaches on not much more than good quality fish flakes and carrots.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Fish flakes are great. So are pellets.


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