{"id":891,"date":"2020-09-17T22:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T22:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keepingbugs.com\/?p=891"},"modified":"2021-04-29T10:11:31","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T10:11:31","slug":"enhancing-nutritional-composition-feeder-insects-dusting-gut-loading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keepingbugs.com\/enhancing-nutritional-composition-feeder-insects-dusting-gut-loading\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhancing the nutritional composition of feeder insects with dusting and gut-loading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Everyone knows you are what you eat! But did you know, or realized, that the nutritional value of feeder insects depends a lot on what you feed them? Dusting and gut-loading of feeder insects is a very popular topic in reptile husbandry. But it is not much talked about when feeding bugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, you want to provide the best food for your bugs. However, it is essential to know what good quality food is, which food you should choose and how you may enhance the food. And that is particularly the case with feeder insects. If you do not keep good care for your feeder insects, they make low-quality food. But even then, you could still make crickets, cockroaches and locusts better in quality. Let’s discuss what dusting and gut-loading are and why you may (or may not) do it to enhance your nutrition of feeder insects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n First of all, do you know what dusting and gut-loading are? Both are methods to enhance the nutritional composition and improve the total quality of live feeder insects as a food source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dusting<\/em><\/strong> is the use of rich nutrient powder product and dusts it over your feeder insects. It is a complete nutrient resource that is available at many pet stores. There is a variety of different products and even more brands that can be used, but most are focused on adding calcium. Dusting is typically done just before you are going to feed live insects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gut-loading<\/em><\/strong>, on the other hand, is the process where feeder insects are raised and fed high nutritious food to boost the nutritional composition. When you feed insects certain nutrients, they pass those nutrients to the animal for which the prey is intended. Gut-loading can be done through the whole life of feeder insects at least as long the food does not kill the insects but is often done just before feeding them. Gut-loading is accomplished by providing particular fruits, vegetables, cereals or complete manufactured insect diets. Of the last category, there are many commercial products available specifically for gut-loading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But why should you need to enhance the feeder insects? Are they not nutritious by themselves? Well, the answer is yes and no. Feeder insects contain nutrients by themselves by the food it had before. However, when you don’t feed your live insects and doesn’t feed them proper quality food, they also lack the good nutrients for the animal you are going to feed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With that said, some feeder insects have some nutritional characteristics that make them less or more suitable but can be enhanced by dusting them with nutrients or providing them food with nutrients that are valuable for the animal that feeds on the insects. Have a look at the table below for a nutritional comparison of different feeder insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat are dusting and gut-loading?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why dusting and gut-loading may be necessary?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n