The Value of Gutloading

Those feeders you buy are only as good as the food they ingest before being fed to your animals. To make sure they are the best they can be, you need to "gut load" them for 24-48 hours prior to feeding them to your reptiles. Research shows that it is very effective in meeting the nutritional needs of most reptiles, along with appropriate UVB exposure for sun loving reptiles such as most of the lizard species. Whether rodents or insects are the feeders, they should be properly gut loaded to maximize the nutritional intake.

Both rodents and insects can be fed home prepared feeds of rich greens, vegetables, powdered milk and grains or you can use a commercially made feed. Not all feeds are created equal, many are empty nutritionally and simply are fillers for the feeders, make sure the commercial gutloads or feeds you use are nutritionally rich.

Some commercially made gutloads are designed exclusively for insect feeders that are fed to reptiles, like the products from Cricketfood.com, and take the guess work out of what to feed them that works the best. There are also specially designed beddings that insects, such as superworms and mealworms, live in that last for months and meets their nutritional needs. Most feeder insects are high in phosphorous and low in calcium, so additional dusting with phosphorous free calcium is advised periodically, along with a good gutloading prior to feeding.

Article by Cheri Smith
Copyright Cheri Smith, The Reptile Rooms ©2005
All images Copyright The Reptile Rooms ©2005 Unless otherwise noted.