Gut loading is essential for feeder insects. It allows your pets to have a balanced meal with some added vitamins and minerals. If you buy the insects from a pet shop, the seller might sell them after gut-loading. You need to learn about gut loading if you are learning how to breed Dubia Roaches. But, a lot of novice dubia roaches breeders get confused about gut-loading and its procedure. Read this article to the need to know more-
Gut loading- The gut-loading is a process where you feed up nutrient-rich foods to the feeder insects in abundance. In general, dubia roaches can survive with simple foods like oatmeal, food scraps like an apple core, etc. But, these insects may not be proper provider nutrients to your reptile pet. Hence, you need to provide your pet a little bit of extra nutrition for their healthy life. In gut-loading, the insects eat the nutrient-rich food, and the reptiles get nutrients eating the gut-loaded insects. Hence, you cannot stop gut-loading the dubia roaches before you feed them to your pet.
Why is gut-loading better than dusting?
Many pet owners prefer dusting the insects with vitamin and mineral powders before they feed these insects to their pets. It is fast and does not require a lot of time. But, dusting is not effective like gut-loading and it inky works if you provide your pet some supplements.
On the other hand, if you gut-load the insects, you can feed the insects a lot of nutrition, and they get a higher nutritional value. Besides that, gut-loading means the insects need to digest the food. Their digestive tract breaks down the food. As a result, your pet gets minerals and vitamins quickly.
Furthermore, dusting is possible if the insects are dead. But, your pet is a predator by nature and prefers to hunt down its food, you can only provide them live feed. Any for living dubia roaches, gut-loading is competent than a dusting.
Importance of gut-loading for dubia roaches
Dibia roaches are a staple diet for almost every reptile pet. Hence, gut-loading them comes with loads of benefits. The main advantage is that gut-loading allows your pet to get a healthy dose of food besides the insect itself. Your pet may suffer from health syndromes and diseases if they do not get enough nutrition. Gut-loading, the feeder insects, decreases the chance of malnutrition and related diseases.
Additionally, dubia roaches may not contain every mineral or vitamin for your pet. Gut-loading allows you to provide the missing items to the pets through food effortlessly.
Dubia roaches do not have a proper amount of calcium. It is because their exoskeleton is also devoid of calcium. Hence, gut-loading the insects with calcium-rich food can help you bridge the nutritional gap for your reptile pet.
How to gut load the dubia roaches?
The procedure is pretty simple. In general, experts recommend to gut-load the dubia for 24 hours. But they have a unique digestive system and can easily digest the gut-loaded food items. Please remember that you need to insects ton digest their food to ensure effective gut-loading.
Select the feeder insects you want to provide to your pet and keep them in a small separate container with proper ventilation. Add the gut-loading food in the box and allow the insects to consume it properly. Additionally, make sure they get enough time to digest the food.
Some points you need to know-
- Fruits and vegetables like broccoli, carrots, bananas, squash, apples, sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, or grains like rice, oats, and wheat are the best choices for gut loading the dubia roaches.
- Citrus foods like oranges are not a great choice. It is because reptiles have an allergic tendency to this particular food.
- Meats and dairy are also not suitable for gut loading because dubia roaches cannot consume protein-rich animal foods.
- You need to avoid rotten foods.
Gut-loading is an effective method that allows your pet to get balanced nutritional meals beside the dubia roaches. It is better to use the foods that are safe for both your pet and the dubia roaches to ensure the gut-loading is successful.