Vita-bugs? Anyone tried these?

[Lathis]

Yes, I still dust, too.

 

[bobcochran]

What the heck? why is he going through all the trouble and then spoiling his results with the worms? The improvement could just be from those as they are very nutritious... To make things a fair trial he needs to feed his other groups the worms.

Their nutrient tables show the only thing lacking in vita bugs is calcium, Phoenix worms are loaded with calcium (among other things). Between vita bugs and Phoenix worms there is SUPPOSED to be no need to dust or gut load any feeders.
Just the other day we were discussing the relationship between edema in quads and commercially raised crickets as feeders. Most cricket breeders don't raise their crickets to be reptile feeders, they're raised to be fish bait, they will use whatever makes the crickets grow the fastest: chick feed, dry cat food, monkey chow. That's what's stored up in the crickets bodies and you feed to your chams. Gut loading helps, but it's like taking a vitamin pill after eating hot dogs all day- ok maybe a little better than that- you get the point. A lot of reptiles get along fairly well with crickets as the main diet, especially when a variety of other feeders are supplemented in the diet. But more sensitive species like quads can't tolerate a main diet of commercial crickets, I suspect it has to do with all the retained vitamins and other additives that are fed to the crickets for fast growth. I might try vita bugs for the quads if I can find them around here.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I'm going to try some.

I've had such a problem feeding commercial crickets and edema in the quads. There is no doubt in my mind that some crickets will immediately cause edemas. I don't know if it is the supplier's feed or what the pet shop feeds them once they get them, but it doesn't matter how long I hold them (sometimes more than 2 weeks) feeding really nutritious foods like fresh grass and cricket crack. They can still instantly cause most of my quads to develop an edema a day or so after I switch to certain lots of crickets.

Whatever is going into the crickets that seem to bother the quads doesn't clear the crickets' system even after weeks of good food. I'm afraid that the Timberline Vitabugs will have lots of synthetic vitamins that bother the quads.

My veileds have no problems with anything I feed them.

 

[Uvagohoos]

I think they actually are better if they aren't going to be gutloaded but if you are going to gutload them they are the same thing to be honest