Feeding and Nutrition :: crickets

[kmichael55]

question about crickets- i'm out of apples, can I use a piece of red plum to feed my crickets? it's very watery, i'm just unsure about if there's anything in it that would be bad for the turts

[scripta_elegans]

Plum is fine, it just molds faster, which is why it isn't used regularly with crickets.

[reptilegrrl]

Neither apple nor plum are good gut loaders: leafy greens are better.

But really, crickets are not a good food. They are pretty low in nutrition. I never feed crickets to my turtles.

[scripta_elegans]

I agree plums and apples would not be a good staple. I assumed that the plums were supplemental. Everything that I have read about gut loading crickets says to use a wide variety of vegetables and some fruit, in addition to staple greens, in order to ensure the highest possible nutrition in crickets. Since they aren't the best nutrition wise, gutloading them is even more important. I feed them to my collared and gecko 2-3 times a week, and switch off between crickets and Phoenix and butter worms. The RES do seem to like the Phoenix worms, which is what I have been giving them instead of crickets, as they are supposedly higher in calcium, and have a much better calcium/phospherous ratio.

[DavidY]

The good thing about crickets is the ability to gutload them with whatever is best for the animal you're feeding them to, since they'll eat just about anything and it will remain in their system for up to 12 hours. The other good thing is they hold calcium and vitamin dust really well (except in water). So while they're not all that nutritious by themselves, the make a great delivery system for nutrients for our scaley pets. For aquatic turtles though, not so much.

[kmichael55]

I just thought I'd try them out, I bought 4 little tiny ones, 2 for each turtle (they're way less than 1/2 the size of the turtles heads) I put ground up cuttle bone all over the plum (it was the only thing I had), I probably won't give them any in the future though since they obviously aren't the greatest food. thanks everyone!