"Owdicat<*><*><*>" wrote:
>
> >From what I understand, it can be dangerous to feed meal worms, unless you
> crush their heads before serving. It makes them easier to digest I heard
> too.
> I try not to leave the bugs in the cages alive, because they can borrow INTO
> & OUT OF the GECKO.... eek!
>
> & also, if you haven't heard.. crickets can borrow into & out of the animals
> too. I have to watch them with all my animals, frogs, gex.
> That way they can't
> borrow out of the animal once their in.
If you feed an insect of appropriate size to a healthy gecko (or frog), it's not
going to chew it's way out of the gecko. The geckos chew them up good. Once the
body has been chewed, mangled and otherwise mutilated and swallowed, the insect
doesn't have much desire left to chew it's way to freedom.
The old wive's tale about mealworms chewing their way out of the gecko have been
around for ages. The only way it could happen is feeding them to a near dead
animal that didn't have the strength to chew them properly, and died right after
the meal. Most likely it started with a worm finding a body and taking advantage
of a free meal by burrowing INTO the body.
Mealworms, zoophobas and crickets are a staple diet even in the wilds. As far as
I know, no one goes around chopping mealworm heads, crushing cricket mandibles
etc.
Just make sure the food item is the right size for the gecko.
> I feed my crix, baby spinach,oat meal, crackers...carrots, potatos, dark
> greens but no lettuce, thats bacuz I heard its not good for my Frogs, thats
> all, I'm not sure about the gex. & some prepared crix food,
Romaine lettuce is safe, there's some nutrients in it, but iceberg is really
only good for a water source. I'm not sure about the value of crackers as
gutload, seems to me there's not much in it, and possibly a smidge too much
salt? The easiest thing to do, if you're not into making up special recipes or
buying decent premade gutload, is to go hog wild at the bulk store, buy up all
kinds of grains, flour etc. If I run out of the mix I usually make, in a pinch
I'll use a mix of flour and ground grains: soyflour, cornmeal, amaranth flour,
brown rice flour, semolina, wheat germ, chick pea flour, milk powder and rolled
oats, wheat, rye and buckwheat. I can get just enough of each at the bulk store
to make a batch to tide me over until I get the time to make a batch of the
other recipe. Mix it up, serve in a dish on a bed of alfalfa, and use veggies
and fruit for moisture. This works for crickets as well as mealworms etc.
It probably works out cheaper than the commercial gutloads when you consider the
nutients (or lack of) in some of the brand name ones.
Hilde
--
~*~***~*~
Little rabbit Foofoo
Running through the forest
Finding the Zoophobas and
Pinching off their heads .........
(I just had to. sorry)
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