questions about: turkey mince for lizards, and leaving crickets in enclosures.

[james.carroll]

hey guys,

i've had a search and couldn't find a solid answer to this;

people talk about feeding their lizards turkey mince, i've tried to find it and am struggling to do so, people have suggested that "turkey mince" = turkey cat food, is this true, are the things like preservatives and crap in cat food that make it bad for lizards?

also - i know everyone says its not good to leave crickets alive in the enclosure with your lizards. why exactly is this the case (other than the possibility of them laying eggs). the reason i ask is that my enclosure is pretty involved (plants, things burried in the sand, lots of hiding places) and i've found there is almost nothing i can do to stop some crickets hiding away in the some crevace that i can't possibly reach... is this a problem.

cheers give in advance for the feedback

 

[giglamesh]

i think the reasoning behind not leaving crickets is they can eay lizard eyes

 

[driftoz]

someone i spoke to said she uses kangaroo meat for her dragons gets a 20kg bag or something and freezes half which lasts her 2 weeks each half and never feeds live crickets, i may try the kangaroo meat if i ever get my dragons but i may also feed live crickets once in a while but only in a seperate feeding tub so they cannot hide in the encloause as they can nibble on the dragons toes and such while there asleep.

 

[cris]

What sort of lizard is it? Many lizards will fail to catch crickets effectively if they can hide, others will kill them all very quickly.

i think the reasoning behind not leaving crickets is they can eay lizard eyes

and everything else. I dont breed crickets as food and dont understand why they are popular. I would think that if you provided other food and moisture for the crickets they would be unlikely to start eating a live lizard.

IMO there is no point having little gaps where insects can hide if you arnt keeping a lizard that will hunt them effectively. Making the enclosure more simple or feeding in another enclosure would be an easy solution.

I also avoid feeding plain meat as food for reptiles, if meat is used as food i would suggest mixing with some sort of supplement like wombaroo.

 

[ScalyMung]

you can buy turkey mince from a pet butchers where they sell roo, beef, chicken, bones, cooked & raw meat ect.. and for crickets in your enclosure just place a piece of carrot or apple in there & the crickets will eat that and they will get eaten over time so dont worry too much also with turkey mince its really cheap and you can buy a handful if want to try it out first which cost under 1 dollar
Cheers Deano

 

[james.carroll]

Hey guys,

thanks for the advice. to answer a few questions, they are ackies (which is why there are so many hidey areas), its not that the lizards can't catch them in the hidey spots, its that i can't get my hand into certain places.

cris - when you say supplement like wombaroo, is like like just the same sorta thing as the cricket dust powder or something else?

 

[jbowers]

What insects do you feed as a staple?

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Turkey mince from a pet food supplier, just like chicken mince from the same place. will be full of the worst bits of the bird - lots of skin, fat etc. It's only saving grace is that it's likely to have ground bone in it as well, which may be of benefit to the lizard.

Probably the best turkey mince would be from drumsticks or wings, which I have seen in Woolworths - very cheap too. You can remove the skin, mince or finely chop the meat, and freeze in feed sized lots. You could easily add some calcium supplement if you wanted to.

Jamie.

 

[jbowers]

Sorry, just to be clear my post was directed to cris, wondering what he feeds instead of crickets.

 

[wokka]

I dont keep lizards so my comment is not from experience but rather from logic. Turkey mince would be no different to any other poultry mince. In feeding reptiles you are normally looking for whole food items because they contain guts and skin and bone rather than just meat. I think Bandsaw dust ( from the butchers band saw) would be a good food source as it contains bone, meat fat skin. We use it for our chooks and its free.

 

[Magpie]

The main reason people feed turkey mince is because they are American.
Whilst turkeys enjoy a brief period of being popular as a whole roast bird there, most of the year people just want breast meat and maybe the legs, leaving the rest of the bird to be minced, thus making the mince cheaper than chicken or other meat.
Likewise crickets are popular because they are easy to keep and breed, no other reason. Many people use wood roaches as an alternative.
Buy yourself a hand mincer from a kitchen shop - around $15. Then you can mince whatever you like. Chicken frames are very cheap at times. Get rid of the gaps for the crickets to hide or don't put them in the enclosure.
Wombaroo insectivore mix is a powder that is added to mince and water to make up for the lack of the nutrients in mince that insectivores require. Stinky stuff!

 

[Elapidae1]

I dont keep lizards so my comment is not from experience but rather from logic. Turkey mince would be no different to any other poultry mince. In feeding reptiles you are normally looking for whole food items because they contain guts and skin and bone rather than just meat. I think Bandsaw dust ( from the butchers band saw) would be a good food source as it contains bone, meat fat skin. We use it for our chooks and its free.

Good fishing burley to

 

[Chris1]

aside from the crickets eating the lizards, if theyre in the cage and get hungry they wont hesitate to eat the lizards poo, which is a terrible choice of gutload,..(potential for major parasite overloads etc,...)

 

[n00bie]

Put the crickets in the freezer before you feed them to your lizard. They die of hypothermia in about 5 minutes. Don't let them freeze - dunno if cricket ice blocks are a good idea!
Dead crickets can't bite/damage your lizard, they can't escape and they can't breed.

 

[cris]

I mainly use roaches, they are much easier to breed and have better nutritional value. I also catch various insects, spiders and other invertebrates.

Wombaroo isnt exactly the same as vitamin or mineral powders, although it does contain vitamins and minerals its used in larger amounts and can even be used as food by itself. Adding the multivitamin and calcium powder is an alternative.

 

[the jungle guy]

aside from the crickets eating the lizards, if theyre in the cage and get hungry they wont hesitate to eat the lizards poo, which is a terrible choice of gutload,..(potential for major parasite overloads etc,...)

agreed with,

roaches have a higher nutritional content althought are pro escapees stick in the freezer for 5mins they will die and they wont escape

also with mince not all will eat it only buy descent diet mince if possible as it has a higher fat content for a lizards diet and shouldnt be feed as often to the lizards more of a treat really,

dont feed cat food, some say its ok for blue tongues but would you eat it? has alot of preservatives not a good idea to fed that

Wombaroo is ok its mainly crushed up insects but as said its used in much larger doses compared to other vitamin sources personally i wouldnt use this i would use other products