Giving freeze dried crickets to cresties?

[The Lizard]

Hey all,

I wanted to put some more variety in my crestie's diet, I considered including some insects, but I was concerned about impaction since I use eco earth as a substrate. Next thing I know, my mom comes back from the pet store with some canned and freeze dried crickets. The canned crickets appeared rotten upon opening and, thus, I have discarded them. Are freeze dried crickets any good for cresties?

Thanks.

[Mechanical8Dragon]

if you want to feed insects, you need to gutload them (meaning feed them food beneficial to your geckos, such as fruits and veggies. The easy way is to just make some of your gecko's fruit food goop and put it in there). Freeze dried crickets won't offer anything for your animals, the canned stuff is just absolutely disgusting. When I first bought my gecko 2 years ago i bought one out of curiosity. I opened it up and instantly tossed it. Plus... chances are your gecko won't go for the dead anyways as movement usually brings out the feeding response. My geckos never went after crickets that didn't move when i did feed them.

Your better off getting live crickets and keeping them in a kritter keeper, feeding them beneficial foods, then feeding them to your gecko (dust them in Calcium with vitamin D3).

Also do not feed insects in the enclosure. You should remove your gecko into a separate container to feed.

Insects are not needed though, as crested gecko diets have the correct amount of protein already in the mix. Insects for these guys are really just meant for treats, as too many will cause obesity.

[The Lizard]

I was intending to only give one to two as treat every month. I'll probably just stick with using the Pangea insect mix every so often. Thanks.

[Mechanical8Dragon]

yeah anything but gutloaded insects (which takes at least a day) doesn't really offer much to your gecko other than the fat/protein/etc. the insect has as the base of the 'goodies' and if you get them from the pet store for example, they usually feed them things like chicken feed, and other things that aren't really that great to pass along to your gecko. I don't think I've ever seen a single fresh veggie/fruit in the cricket tank when i bought crickets back then @_@

P:

[Last_Creature]

The freeze dried bugs are gut loaded before they're frozen but after their frozen they lose a lot of their nutrition