Why Should You Gut Load Your Feeders?

by Conrad Lucas July 20, 2025

Reptiles need a lot of things to stay healthy. Carnivores like leopard geckos need a variety of feeder insects to get the right mix of macro nutrients. Omnivores like bearded dragons also need a mix of fruits and vegetables, which makes up over half of their diet. On top of that, you should dust your feeder insects with calcium to support their health.

But there’s still one piece missing if you want to ensure your pet stays happy and healthy. Ideally, you should be gut loading your feeder insects to maximize their nutrition for your pet. In this article, we’ll talk about the how’s and why’s of gut loading, and how to do it, so your pet gets everything it needs.

Reptile Nutrition Needs

Reptiles mostly have the same nutritional needs, with a few distinctions. In general, reptiles need a steady supply of protein, fat, calcium, and vitamin D3. Having a proper heat lamp with UVB light helps them synthesize vitamin D3 in their skin, but they can also get D3 in their food. They also benefit from a mix of multivitamins, like vitamins A, C, E, B12, and beta carotene.

If you have a carnivore, like a leopard gecko, your main worry should be getting them a good mix of feeder insects. We normally recommend using one “lean protein” feeder like a dubia roach and another “snack” feeder with higher fat content, like a superworm.

If you have an omnivore, like a bearded dragon, you will probably want to do all of the above. But you will also need to feed them a steady supply of leafy greens and the occasional fruity treat.

This covers their normal nutritional needs. But to consistently get them their multivitamins, you will need to take a few extra steps.

What is Gut Loading?

When your reptile pet eats a feeder insect, it’s also eating everything in the feeder’s digestive tract - or everything it ate in the last few hours. So, as it turns out, it’s not just what you feed your pet, it’s also what you feed your feeders that matters.

Using the bare minimum, like stale bread or breakfast cereal, for your feeders is normally okay. But right before you feed them to your pet, you should give them something extra healthy to boost their nutritional value. That’s what gut loading means.

This usually involves giving your feeders a highly nutritional gut load mix or “chow” to boost their nutritional content, so those nutrients are passed onto your pet.

Our Gut Load Recipe

We make our own gut load mix, which supplies your pet with a whole bunch of vital nutrients and other good stuff to keep them healthy. Our gut load mix includes:

Whole wheat flour (provides protein, B vitamins, iron, magnesium, and zinc)
Calcium carbonate with vitamin D3
Brewer’s yeast (a great source of protein and several B vitamins)
Soy powder (also a protein source, plus amino acids and healthy sugars)
Paprika (a good source of beta carotene)

This will obviously boost your feeders’ protein levels a ton. But it also includes lots of vitamins and micro nutrients to support your pet’s overall health. Overall, this is the best way to maximize your pet’s digestive and immune health.

Comparatively, store-bought crickets are typically fed a basic mix of bran or grains. This is okay in general, but will benefit your pet much less than if you gut load them before feeding.

How to Gut Load Feeders

This probably makes gut loading your feeder insects sound complicated, but it’s actually very easy. All you need to do is put some gut load mix in your feeders’ enclosure for about 24 hours before you give them to your pet. The insects will eat the gut load chow, taking on all the essential nutrients and other good stuff in it. Then, that mix will be passed on to your pet.

More Nutritional Value

It’s important to remember that gut loading is something you should do in addition to your pet’s normal meal plan. That meal plan should include a variety of insects.

To be clear, you don’t have to have a dozen kinds of feeders on hand, but it’s a good idea to have more than one available for your pet. Reptiles get protein and fat from feeders, so it can be a good move to pick one protein-rich feeder and another fat-rich feeder.

Beyond that, your pet is going to need other things to keep it healthy. As we mentioned, UVB light is a crucial part of your pet’s health. So when buying a lamp for your pet, make sure to get one that produces UVB as well as visible light.

Omnivorous pets are also going to need a steady supply of veggies. For example, bearded dragons may consume plants as more than half of their diet. As beardies age, they will shift away from eating insects to being more vegetarian. Beardies love leafy greens like collards, kale, chard, and mustard greens. They also love tropical fruit like mango, banana, and papaya.

Dusting

The most vital nutrient that reptile owners commonly talk about is calcium. Some gut load mixes include calcium, others don’t. Either way, it’s a good idea to dust your feeders with a calcium supplement to make sure they get what they need.

We normally think about calcium content as a ratio of calcium to phosphorus. Most feeder insects are naturally very low in calcium. Even insects with a high calcium content, like dubia roaches, may only have a ratio of 1:1 calcium to phosphorus. Feeders like superworms are much lower, closer to 1:13.

Ideally, you need a ratio of 2:1 calcium to phosphorus to keep your pet healthy. Gut loading can be a good way to get closer, but dusting is the best. To dust your feeders, just put them in a plastic bag with some calcium dust and shake them up before giving them to your pet.