Prairie Exotics

Why should you use our products?

Gut loading is the process by which an animal's prey is raised and fed nutritious foods with the intention of passing those nutrients to the animal for which the prey is intended. Remember that what goes into the crickets, mealworms and other insect prey is what you are ultimately feeding your pet. Keeping crickets and other insects at home for a few days before feeding them (or raising your own) has the tremendous advantage of allowing you to "gut load" them before giving them to your pet. This simply means feeding them nutritious foods so that the nutrition is passed on to your pet. Insects that are raised commercially for the pet trade are themselves of little nutritional value. By providing the prey animals with a high quality diet immediately prior to feeding, they become a more nutritious meal for the predator. Gut loading can be accomplished by providing fruits, vegetables, and a nutritionally complete manufactured diet such as our Bug Food which is fortified specifically for gut loading. It is also recommended that you sprinkle the food with a reptile vitamin and calcium supplement to further enhance their nutritional value. Gut loading feeders requires you to provide a nutritional diet at least 24 hours before feeding them to your reptiles and amphibians. It’s also important to note that feeding crickets correctly is crucial because they require a high protein diet to keep them healthy and without an adequate diet they will prey upon each other.

Although providing a “high calcium” gut load 24hours prior to feeding your pet is recommended you do not want to provide these as a daily maintenance diet. This goes for your feeder’s water supply, water gels and cubes, as well. The reason for this is that calcium causes issues with crickets and other insect feeders that molt which can cause death. There have been reports of people who switched to a “high calcium” cricket food and started seeing more deaths in their feeder colonies. The best way to get calcium and other vitamins/minerals into your reptiles and amphibians is to simply dust the feeder insects with an appropriate supplement prior to feeding. For this reason our products are not “high in calcium” with only healthy and normal levels present. Please ensure to dust your feeders as appropriate prior to feeding your pet for the maximum benefit!

The second most important item in caring for your feeders is providing water! One method used is to place a cotton ball or pieces of sponge in a shallow dish and moisten it. Disadvantages to this method are that small crickets can easily drown in even the smallest amount of standing water and unwashed water holders are one of the leading causes of offensive odors in your cricket bin. A much easier and more convenient method of watering crickets is to use the water gel crystals. Crickets cannot drown in them and it solves the problem of having to replace cotton or wash sponges using the other method mentioned. Water gel crystals will not spoil or mildew and once they dry out they can be re-hydrated again and again!

We provide 3 different products to help you care for your feeder insects and provided increased nutritional value to your pets!!

Prairie Exotics Bug Grub
Our Bug Food is a high protein diet that can be used daily as a maintenance food to keep your bugs in their best nutrient enriched condition for your pets! Other bug foods and "gut loads" often contain high amounts of calcium which is good for your pets but not so good for the bugs. Too much calcium causes issues with molting which results in an increase in deaths in your feeders which is a loss of money for you! We suggest that you dust your feeders with calcium and other vitamins/minerals as required just prior to feeding your pet as this is best for both your pet and the feeder.

Sizes Available: 4oz / 8oz / 1lb / 2.5lb / 5lb
*Larger sizes may be special ordered

Directions: For crickets and roaches you can either place the Bug Food in a small dish and refill as needed or sprinkle on top of veggies being given. For meal and superworms simply mix Bug Food in with bran substrate. We suggest about 1oz of Bug Food to every 1/2lb of bran used.

Ingredients: Bee Pollen, Spurilina, Alfalfa, Chicken by-product meal, ground yellow corn, ground wheat, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, pork fat (preserved with BHA and citric acid), animal digest (liver), salt, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, choline chloride, dicalcium phosphate, taurine, fish meal, dried skimmed milk, ferrous sulfate, vitamin E supplement, zinc oxide, niacin, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium pantothenate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin D3 supplement, calcium iodate, vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid, cobalt carbonate, sodium selenite, Grain products, plant protein products, animal protein products, processed grain by-products, forage products, pork fat (preserved with BHA), monocalcium phosphate, methionine, L-lysine, potassium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, vitamin A acetate, riboflavin, menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite (source of vitamin K activity), ethylenediamine dihydriodide, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper oxide, yucca schidigera extract

Prairie Exotics Water Gel Crystals
Water Gel Crystals are a great and convenient way of hydrating your feeder insects and also increasing humidity if needed. Please note this item contains no nutritional value. Some water gels are enriched with calcium and this shortens the life span of crickets and other insects considerably. Water Gel Crystals are a non-toxic polymer with the ability to absorb over 200 times its weight in water. We recommend using bottled spring, filtered, or distilled water. Water Gel Crystals will not spoil or mildew and when they dry out they can be re-hydrated again and again! Products like Fluker’s Cricket Quencher are over $8 for just 16oz of wet product while it takes just 1tsp of dry crystals to make the same amount of wet product! At 6 tsp per 1oz package you’ll be able to make 6 – 16oz batches for less than the cost of one Fluker’s product. Water gels are also a great way to hydrate your pet Tarantulas and Scorpions!!

Sizes Available: 1oz / 4oz / 8oz / 1lb

*Larger sizes may be special ordered

Mixing Instructions

Prairie Exotics Waxworm Bedding/Food
Our Wax Worm Food is ideal for keeping your wax worms plump and healthy. Wax worms don't eat the pine shavings they are packaged with so it is crucial to provide a food source if not refrigerating the worms. This special blend can act as a substrate and food source if breeding your own waxworms.

Sizes Available: 1oz / 4oz / 8oz / 1lb
*Larger sizes may be special ordered

Directions: You can either sprinkle the Waxworm Food on top of the worms or simply replace the pine substrate with the Waxworm Food.