{"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

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A group of super worms are eating a potato while in their habitat of oats.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What are dusting and gut-loading?<\/h2>\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

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There are high quality commercial gut-loading products available to boost the nutritional composition of feeder insects, like InsectFuel from Arcadia Earth Pro (Photo by Arcadia Reptile<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why dusting and gut-loading may be necessary?<\/h2>\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\n

Species <\/th>Moisture (%)<\/th>Protein (%)<\/th>Fat (%)<\/th>Ash (%)<\/th>Fibre (%)<\/th>Calcium (mg\/kg)<\/th>Phosphorus (mg\/kg)<\/th>Ca:P Ratio<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Locusts<\/td>62.1<\/td>22.6<\/td>7.7<\/td>2.1<\/td>N.D.<\/td>95<\/td>731<\/td>1:8<\/td><\/tr>
Dubia roaches<\/td>65.6<\/td>23.4<\/td>7.2<\/td>1.2<\/td>2.9<\/td>800<\/td>2600<\/td>1:3<\/td><\/tr>
Crickets<\/td>77.1<\/td>15.4<\/td>3.3<\/td>1.1<\/td>2.2<\/td>275<\/td>2520<\/td>1:9<\/td><\/tr>
Super worms<\/td>57.9<\/td>19.7<\/td>17.7<\/td>1.0<\/td>2.7<\/td>177<\/td>2370<\/td>1:13<\/td><\/tr>
Mealworms<\/td>61.9<\/td>18.7<\/td>13.4<\/td>0.9<\/td>2.5<\/td>169<\/td>2950<\/td>1:17<\/td><\/tr>
Waxworms<\/td>58.5<\/td>14.1<\/td>24.9<\/td>0.6<\/td>3.4<\/td>243<\/td>1950<\/td>1:8<\/td><\/tr>
Earthworms<\/td>83.6<\/td>10.5<\/td>1.6<\/td>0.6<\/td>0.1<\/td>444<\/td>1590<\/td>1:3.5<\/td><\/tr>
Fruitflies<\/td>69.1<\/td>21.0<\/td>5.9<\/td>3.1<\/td>2.2<\/td>526<\/td>4080<\/td>1:8<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Source: Finke, M.D., 2002, Complete Nutrient Composition of Commercially Raised Invertebrates Used as Food for Insectivores<\/a>, Zoo Biology 21:269-285 and dubiaroaches.com<\/a>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So as you can see, the nutrients of feeder insects, if not enhanced or boosted, can be quite different from each other. Also, the calcium-phosphorus ratio is one that particularly is interesting because many animals need a ratio of 1:1 up to 2:1 (which mean live insects often lack calcium). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, the nutritional composition of captive-bred insects is dependent on its diet. Most (commercial) feeder insects breeders feed their insects with products to increase reproduction productivity and growth, to get the most outcome to sell, but don’t have much focus on the nutritional composition of the food they breed. That is why boosting the nutritional composition is, in many cases, necessary to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the pitfalls of enhancing the nutritional composition?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, there are some pitfalls if you enhance feeder insects with a lack of knowledge about nutrition or about products available to do so. Therefore, let’s have a closer look at those pitfalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pitfalls of enhancing nutritional composition of feeder insects include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n