Feeding Crickets

Feeding Crickets
By Devin Price

When feeding crickets to your reptiles or other pets there are a few things you nee to do to ensure the best nutritional value. Remember you are what you eat. There is a huge advantage to keeping the crickets at home or breeding your own allowing you to "gut load" them before you feed them to your pet. Simply put, gut loading is feeling your feeder insects healthy food before you offer them to your reptiles. The large commercial breeders that supply most pet stores feed their crickets the cheapest food they can find. While these foods will keep the crickets alive they do little if anything for your pet reptiles.

There are products available on the market that are especially made to gut load crickets. For the most part these products are good quality and get the job done. Keep in mind that these products are not cheap though. I have been gut loading my crickets without theses products for years. I provide a small dish full of dry dog or cat food. I sprinkle a bit of reptile vitamins and calcium on this. I also give me crickets vegetables like mustard, and collard greens, kale, squash and peels from fruits like papaya, apples, and pears. You can also offer fish flakes (their favorite).

The key is to provide your pet reptiles the best most balanced diet possible. The bigger wider the variety of foods you feed your crickets you will accomplish this task without a lot of work. Remember you don't have to break the bank to gut load your crickets. Simply feed them your leftover scraps from the fruit and vegetables that your family eat.

I will provide some links on my site to products that I have used over the years with much success. As well as where you can find inexpensive crickets.

Learn more about raising and breeding crickets

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