# What should I gut load my crickets with?



## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

I've had a look on livefood.com and at the moment its a toss up between these: Livefood UK Ltd. 
And these: http://www.livefoods.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=225{2}24

Has anybody used these? What do people think is best? I'll be feeding these crickets to leo geckos. 
Thanks


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

Does nobody know? It's really important that I find some good food to feed them so my leos are healthy so I'd really appreciate some advice


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## Bat-es (Jun 7, 2008)

Personally I just use fresh fruit and fish food.

The fish food is high in protein, and I rotate the fruit through carrots, orange, bannana, cabbage etc. to get a good range of vitamins - don't know if it makes a difference though!


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

I think the second link that I gave to you is just fish food, do you use fruit as a source of water? Cos I can get this jelly stuff which is a good source of water without them drowning from livefood.com.


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## makeitandskateit (Jun 15, 2008)

Cricket food made to gut load crickets doesn't keep the crickets alive for very long, it more made for the reptile's nutrition and if fed to all your crickets then they seem to die pretty quick!!! I would just stick to veggie left-overs!!!


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

Can they live off just vegetables?


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## MrMike (Jun 28, 2008)

I feed fish food and some fruit. They seem to survive a while with that.


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

How long is a while? Only, I was planning to buy half of a bulk bag.


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## luke123 (Apr 13, 2008)

personally what i do is; get the locusts, put them in a bigger tub, about 1.5ft long, buy a mixed bag of salad, put a handful in, and this keeps them for approx 2 weeks about 50 locusts, dont know how long they can live because my beardies eaten them by then!


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

luke123 said:


> personally what i do is; get the locusts, put them in a bigger tub, about 1.5ft long, buy a mixed bag of salad, put a handful in, and this keeps them for approx 2 weeks about 50 locusts, dont know how long they can live because my beardies eaten them by then!


Thanks a lot, thing is: locusts are like caviar for lizards, thy're well expensive compared to everything else lol. I suppose I'll just have to use trial and error to work out the best combination, the salad idea sounds good though. 

Does the salad offer them enough water?


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## luke123 (Apr 13, 2008)

lettuce is made of water


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

Thanks :no1:


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## luke123 (Apr 13, 2008)

some people do put down wet kitchen roll for them to drink from too


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

luke123 said:


> some people do put down wet kitchen roll for them to drink from too


I was originally planning to buy some of those crystal things that you add water to which makes jelly and provides them with water. I've not the slightest idea of what to use yet lol. I hate making decisions.


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## luke123 (Apr 13, 2008)

the cheapest IMO, the crystals arent that good tbh, and the crickets can get stuck in the jelly, and another option is half a potato for water and food at the same time!


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## Bat-es (Jun 7, 2008)

Yeah crickets are pretty hardy anyway - mine stay alive for a month (possibly longer - they're all eaten by then) and I don't spend extra money on specific foods and water crystals.

Just shove some fruit and vege in with them and they'll be fine! Just take out and mouldy stuff so the container doesn't start to pong!


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## neonlaurie (Jul 13, 2008)

we give our crickets water through a sponge in a dish..

though they've decided recently they've wanted to eat bits of the sponge :S

maybe i should look for another alternative? have been thinking of investing in the jelly stuff!

ive been giving my crickets the best dark greens that they love and is full of vits i buy 1000 crickets at a time and they last me 3 weeks but usually coz my babies have eatenthem all!


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

Ya know things like green giant sweetcorn in tins? How about that?


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

Or green beans ?


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## makeitandskateit (Jun 15, 2008)

neonlaurie said:


> we give our crickets water through a sponge in a dish..
> 
> though they've decided recently they've wanted to eat bits of the sponge :S
> 
> ...


 
I fill a waxworm tub full of wet paper towel/wet spagnum moss/wet sponge and they drink it out of the tiny holes on the top and bottom!!! That way they can't eat anything from the inside and they can't chew the planstic tub 'cos it's to hard!!!


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

makeitandskateit said:


> I fill a waxworm tub full of wet paper towel/wet spagnum moss/wet sponge and they drink it out of the tiny holes on the top and bottom!!! That way they can't eat anything from the inside and they can't chew the planstic tub 'cos it's to hard!!!


Good idea


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## mynameisjon1988 (Mar 18, 2007)

Im currently breeding crickets and I feed them a mix of bran oats stuff like that i also stick a pinch of calcum vitamin powder (the stuff you dust them with before feeding) 
For a water source I just stick a couple of bits of lettece in.


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## GECKO62 (Jun 12, 2008)

You can buy bug grub that you feed crickets and they need water so spider and cricket water is the best ,but you can feed most things to crickets they eat it . :lol2:


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

Thanks a lot  Everyone is telling me different things thought lol, seems there is no difinitive answer to what you should feed to the food.


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## luke123 (Apr 13, 2008)

its whatever you want TBH, all are good what people have suggested...


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

I'll just go to Tesco and get something then lol


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## MrEd (Jul 12, 2008)

Babygecko said:


> I'll just go to Tesco and get something then lol


crixs eat loads. even a little pot of them will do a potato! I just buy cheap reduced rubbish from tesco really, i eat some they eat some everyones a winner....


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## neonlaurie (Jul 13, 2008)

makeitandskateit said:


> I fill a waxworm tub full of wet paper towel/wet spagnum moss/wet sponge and they drink it out of the tiny holes on the top and bottom!!! That way they can't eat anything from the inside and they can't chew the planstic tub 'cos it's to hard!!!


good idea gonna do that when i get home!!

thanks!


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

if their anything like the locusts i buy for my mantid( a diet of locusts, he is lucky lol, although it's £1.99 from my pet store and there's like 20 in the box, for a mantid that does last a few weeks, usually they die before he's had em all) then i'd give them iceberg lettuce or something like that for their water needs then also put it cabbage, sliced apples, some carrot maybe. any kind of salad really.

I think crickets are generally more hardy then locusts anyway so if locusts are ok on for a few weeks until they seem to die( why is that i mean there eating and everything?) then i'm sure crickets would be fine.


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## bmth girl (Apr 18, 2008)

My crickets live in a large tub with loads of egg boxes and toilet rolls all I feed them on is cabbage , salad, carrots and dandelion leaves 99% of them all survive on that for weeks...


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## GECKO62 (Jun 12, 2008)

Babygecko said:


> Thanks a lot  Everyone is telling me different things thought lol, seems there is no difinitive answer to what you should feed to the food.


 
You can feed them what you want as long as they have some kind of water or moister to drink ,my have some orange and some potatoe and fishfood at moment :lol2h and a bit of bread too.


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## Babygecko (Jun 30, 2008)

Lol, well thanks everybody for your reccomondations. Something vegetablly or fruity sounds promising so I think I'll give something along the lines of that a try. Cheers everyone :cheers:


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## rebeccadale (Jul 23, 2008)

Breeding Live Foods - EPA/QPWS

Heres a website you might find useful. It tells you how to breed various things including crickets, mealworms, roaches ect.


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## arvey (Jan 3, 2008)

Ok calm down (im not from Liverpool though did study there [miss Smithdown road]) All you need to do is feed the crickets either a commercial cricket food eg Bug Grub or some fresh salad. Buy only organic salad to avoid pesticides. Research in Chameleons shows that at least 70% of an insectivorous reptiles nutrition comes from an insects gut contents so feed those insects either salad or a commercial food (I use salad)
goodluck


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## KBeckett123 (Jun 8, 2010)

i feed pro rep bug gel and grub to my crickets.
but i always put an extra bit of fresh fruit or vegetables in aswell.
btw they love banana!


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## Ophexis (Feb 19, 2010)

KBeckett123 said:


> i feed pro rep bug gel and grub to my crickets.
> but i always put an extra bit of fresh fruit or vegetables in aswell.
> btw they love banana!


I do as well, they tend to all congregate around the Bug Gel when I first put them in their faunarium to rehydrate themselves and then over the course of the week graduate to the Bug Grub and any fresh stuff I chuck in there, like carrots, grapes, potato, etc.
I am sad and also clean them out at the same time as the lizard! It really helps with the smell :blush:


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## KBeckett123 (Jun 8, 2010)

Ophexis said:


> I do as well, they tend to all congregate around the Bug Gel when I first put them in their faunarium to rehydrate themselves and then over the course of the week graduate to the Bug Grub and any fresh stuff I chuck in there, like carrots, grapes, potato, etc.
> I am sad and also clean them out at the same time as the lizard! It really helps with the smell :blush:


OMG they love the bug gel lmao
i have the kricket keeper, as i only have one leopard gecko, i keep the egg box they come in with aswell, so i can put the fresh food on that so it doesn't contaminate the bug grub underneath the egg box, also i guess it gives them somewhere to hide lmao
& when i tried to shake them into kricket keeper they literally went everywhere! that was a fun experience.


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## jaf2212 (May 10, 2008)

I give all my live food the aqua crystals and fresh veg, i also use a mix off home made dry food which is high in protien and calcium which i feed. I find this keeps them alive for a few weeks, maybe longer but i wouldn't know as i'm going through 3000 crix a week at the moment so they don't last that long


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