Periodical Assessment Of Gut Loading Programs In Cricket Culture

This study developed a gut-loading diet (GLD) to enhance the nutritive quality of the domestic house cricket (Acheta domestica) for insectivorous amphibians and reptiles, with the requisite that it also met cricket foraging and palatability needs.

This study suggests that this diet would be adequate food for feeder invertebrates if gut-loaded for a 24-48 hour period. If crickets are fed after this period, they may no longer provide adequate nutrients to the captive animal.

The Oregon Zoo recently experienced multiple cases in our herpetology and bird departments that necessitated an evaluation of gut loading protocols throughout the zoo.

In addition to the new diet formulation, a cricket gut-loading protocol was also developed. The diet was formulated to supplement a 1.67 cm, ~0.23 g cricket, having an estimated 12% gutloading capacity for insectivorous amphibians and reptiles.

What Gut-Loading Doesn't Change Much. Protein content, fat content, and the cricket's amino acid profile are determined by the cricket's body composition, which is the result of weeks of grow-out nutrition, not 24-48 hours of gut-loading.

Based on these results, cricket nymphs reach the maximum of calcium ingestion during gut-loading earlier than adult crickets. Compared to a powder diet, the gel diet also improved gut loading effectiveness and extended the duration of calcium fortification.