Oatmeal?

[howiejai]

Hello,
I was wonder if I can gutload the crickets with oatmeal as well? And what about dry dog food?

Thanks

 

[Chase]

Hello,
I was wonder if I can gutload the crickets with oatmeal as well? And what about dry dog food?

Thanks

You are what you eat" is a good thing to remember here. The better you feed the crickets, the more nutricious the dinner your herps will get. This is called "gut-loading". With that in mind I feed my crickets ground up (in a nut chopper) dry cat food and dog food a lot of the time. They also get leftover iguana salad (chopped veggies and greens). You can also feed them fish flakes, oatmeal, other meals, etc. Anything nutritious that you have laying around. The ground up leftovers in the bottom of (non-sugary) cereals works too. Crickets will eat just about anything, just make sure it is nutritious. I have had GREAT success with Cricketfood.com's Cricket Gut-load product. It has all natural ingredients and the crickets really love it. For liquid I give my crickets slices of orange or some "cricket water". Oranges are better than water because they are packed with Vitamin C and the crickets can't drown in it. Don't put a dish of water in there because you will have lots of drowned crickets. They hop in and can't hop out. Some people put a dish of water with a sponge in it so the crickets can't drown. I tried it once and the crickets ate the sponge.

 

[kinyonga]

Here's a gutload that has been well recommended...
http://www.adcham.com/html/husbandry/gutload.html

Cat food has preformed vitamin A in it which can build up in your chameleon's system.
If I remember correctly so do fish flakes. Dog food has also not been recommended.
Oatmeal...not sure what to say about that....but I do remember one zoo person telling me not to use it.

I don't like to use commercial products because its hard for me to balance nutrients then.

I gutload crickets and any other insects that will eat it naturally with a wide variety of greens (dandelion, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrot, sweet potato, squash, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.).

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I would say no on the catfood, dogfood and fishfood.
Unless, of course, you're feeding cats, dogs and fish.

-Brad

 

[Chase]

I would say no on the catfood, dogfood and fishfood.
Unless, of course, you're feeding cats, dogs and fish.

-Brad

LOL, Brad, What a sense of humor you have.

 

[dodolah]

i think high proteins for chameleons are bad since they are insectivores (not carnivores like your cats or dogs).
so definitely no on dog food, cat food, or fish flakes

 

[howiejai]

I see...so I guess it's a no to oatmeal as well...

 

[Chase]

I see...so I guess it's a no to oatmeal as well...

Oatmeal is fine.

 

[Aquaseafoam]

What about wheat germ? that looks nutritious.. anything wrong with using it?

 

[LunaC]

Oatmeal and wheat germ are fine as long as the crix are also getting more dark greens and vegies. I agree, lose the dog and cat food.
Personally, I use Cricket Food's premium gutload, along with fresh dark greens and other fresh or FT fruits and vegies.
Someone already said "you are what you eat" .. yep, good rule of thumb for your feeders and ultimately your chams too.

 

[stevereecy]

Hello,
I was wonder if I can gutload the crickets with oatmeal as well? And what about dry dog food?

Thanks

Didn't see this mentioned, but I heard that dogfood is high in phosphorus. So are crickets. Both offset (neutralize) calcium. I will rarely use it just to bring in some variety...but I'm talking like once every few weeks or so. Mostly because we have a dog.

 

[lele]

here is another helpful and very comprehensive site. Nutrient Content I use it for reference for gutload as well as when I had a veiled cham. it is geared for Bearded Dragons but can be used for general gutloading. it gives Ca ratio as well as a few other notes. Mainly veggies but also some other foods. Color coded for easy reference.