# Freeze dried insects.



## kittyeats (Nov 23, 2011)

I have heard that I can feed freeze dried insects. I also heard that I cannot. Yes or no to freeze dried?


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## casxcore (Jul 28, 2011)

I'm pretty sure they are frowned upon as they can cause compaction but someone who's more knowledgeable will come along soon.


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## Christemo (Oct 5, 2011)

They can't digest their exoskeletons, so they're a no.


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## kittyeats (Nov 23, 2011)

But, they will have exoseletons even if they are not freezed dried. Do mealworms have ectoseltons? I'm taking about mealworms here.


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

The freeze drying process removes certain enzymes and makes the chitin on mealworms much harder to digest. The exoskeleton of mealworms can sometimes already be hard to digest, usually if fed in large quantities all at once. So freeze dried mealworms are much MUCH harder to digest, thus causing impactions. They MAY be ok to feed in miniscule amounts(like 1 per day) or something, but the risk is there and the choice is yours to make.


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## kittyeats (Nov 23, 2011)

Could I feed live crickets? They seem much easier to farm...


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

Yup! Live crickets, mealworms, roaches etc etc are all ok to feed. If you're looking to farm your own, mealworms or Dubai roaches are probably the more popular insects.


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## kittyeats (Nov 23, 2011)

Thank you!


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## chelsea.kang (Dec 2, 2011)

I buy live ones, gut load them and then freeze them in the freezer. They take about 10 minutes to thaw. I like to buy live and freeze because it allows me to decide what my crickets eat before being fed to Marvin. I freeze because then they are dead and can be hid around his cage for him to find.

Here's a quick video on a gut load method that I use for both crickets and roaches. 



You can put whatever you want in your gut load. Mine is currently sweet potato, carrots, orange, apple, peas, and lettuce.


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