I don't doubt what you say as far as making the crickets thrive and grow, but is all the protein and excessive amounts of vitamins, minerals and maybe even hormones put there for turkeys really what you want your geckos to get second hand? When I first started keeping geckos and chameleons years ago I also used Layena chicken mash. My animals had more of what I now know are problems related to over supplementation and calcium imbalance. Poultry food does not have the correct balance of calcium and phosphorus, and way too much of the other stuff. I prefer to feed my crickets fresh veggies, fruit and either the commercial diet designed by Dr. Susan Donoghue or a similar recipe I posted last week.
I backed off too much on supplementation a couple years ago (a good thing for the chameleons, but not good for the geckos), and ended up with exactly the opposite problem (no egg laying). Since correcting that, I am getting lots of eggs again. BTW... when I was using Layena, my breeding program was successful in that I got lots of babies, but my breeders just didn't seem to last more than a couple years. I now have some adult breeder geckos that are 5+ years old and still going strong.
Jon Isaksson wrote:
Hi,
Some 8 years ago, my and a couple of friends got together and started to breed crickets commercially.
So during those 3 years when we did this we tried loads of different feeds, with different success.
The best feed, without a doubt (in terms of growth and price), was the Turkey start (dont know the English name) but basically what you feed young Turkey chicks.
We saw a noticable difference in growth rate with this feed.
I moved to England from Sweden a few years back, so dont do any commercial cricket breeding anymore though my friends have continued but I still use it for my own little breeding colony of crickets.
Cheers Jon
--------------------------- Jon Isaksson Manchester UK
Gexers,
I used to use Layena (chick starter) for the crickets until I was told that is too high in something (can't remember what). Basically, crickets may not have the same nutritional requirements as rabbits and hampsters. I would purchase some good cricket food like Dr. Susan Donoghue's or Alan Repashy's and see how close these food items come to it. Basically crickets will eat just about anything, however, whether or not that is really suitable for them nutritionally is the question you need to answer.
Julie B.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
as an odd thought. I have a ton of hampster litter. would that work? right now I just have some paper towels that I change every other day. Icky work.
Liz
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