Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Rickeezee]

Hi
what is the best vitamin / mineral supplement; a) to gut load crickets with, b) to dust the crickets with. I've heard that synthetic vits/minerals can cause various problems in reptiles over the long term, especially synthetic vitamin A. Any advice appreciated.
cheers Rick

[Scott W]

doubt if there is A BEST, what perhaps is BEST to do is use a variety of supplements, Nutrabol, Nekton etc. Take a pinch of each and then dust the insects in a bag. Discard remaining dust in bag (that's why you should only use a pinch).

What ever you use, try to store it in an airtight container, perhaps even putting it in the fridge. Never buy big bulk tubs unless you will use them in a month or 2 max as the quality deteriorates quickly once exposed to oxygen.
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Please DO NOT pm orders for reptiles, send email instead scott@captivebred.co.uk

[Rickeezee]

Just received this via email from T-Rex might be of some interest.
Rick

Hi Rick,



You e-mailed T-Rex with the following enquiry: "Are the vitamins and minerals in calcium plus food for crickets synthetic or naturaly derived please?"


The vitamins are manufactured human nutrition quality and the minerals are also of human nutrition quality but naturally derived.

I have copied an abstract from an interesting scientific paper below that confirms that our product does what it says on the packaging, unlike some of our competitors! See copied below.

Best regards,

Jon Coote, Director of Research & Development, T-Rex Products Inc.


Evaluation of four dry commercial gut loading products for improving the calcium content of crickets, Acheta domesticus

Mark D. Fines, Shari U. Dunham & Christabel A. Kwabi

Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery, Volume 15, No. 1, 2005 – pages 7 to 12



Abstract:

Crickets, Acheta domesticus, are commonly fed special diets to alter their nutrient content (especially with regard to calcium) to make them a more complete diet for insectivorous reptiles and amphibian. Calcium-fortified diets are used by zoos to increase a crickets’ calcium content and a variety of products are available in pet stores for the hobbyist. In this experiment we compare the moisture, calcium and phosphorus content of small cricket nymphs and adult crickets offered an experimental dry calcium-fortified gut loading diet with those fed four commercial dry diets. An unfortified dry diet served as a negative control. Crickets fed the experimental calcium-fortified dry diet and one of the commercial products (T-Rex® Calcium Plus Food™ for Crickets) contained sufficient calcium to meet the estimated requirements of insectivorous reptiles and significantly more calcium than those fed the other treatments. Crickets fed the other three commercial products contained no more calcium than those fed an unfortified diet and would likely be considered calcium deficient when used as a food for insectivorous reptiles. Cricket nymphs contained significantly more moisture (as is basis) and phosphorus (dry weight basis) than adult crickets but neither were affected by diet. Despite marketing claims on three of the four products suggesting their use as a calcium source for gut loading crickets, only one of the commercial diets tested (T-Rex® Calcium Plus Food™ for Crickets) was effective in increasing the calcium content of crickets.



KEY WORDS: crickets, Acheta domesticus, calcium, gut loading
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