Otherwise, your hedgehog may not benefit from vegetables and fruits when eaten directly. Gut loading is feeding the hedgehog insects the food and moisture that you want them to break down for your hedgie. A study on amounts of taurine in some insects can be found here.ĭid you know that Chitin is also called animal fiber? And, its Greek name is χιτών, literally meaning covering. The amount of taurine your hedgehog receives in their their cat kibble or raw diet plus the insects a hedgehog can eat, helps with metabolic and neurological functions like eye health.

Taurine is a naturally occurring essential amino acid inside of the insect's organs and skeletal tissue.

Some worms have a heavier exoskeleton which gives fiber, some bugs are high in calcium naturally, others high in protein and amino acids like taurine. It basically helps hedgies digest their food.Īnother reason for feeding bugs is that when fed an assortment of types, your hedgehog receives all their essential nutrients. Why is that cool? Because chitin is a polysaccharide, which helps store energy gained from food and helps with healthy bodies and minds. Chitin levels in the mealworms and cockroaches were 45% their total body weight when water content was removed (called dry matter content). The armored outer layer of mealworms and crickets were extracted and measured in the study. You could also start a superworm colony in the same way, and simply feed the younger, smaller superworms to your gecko.What is The Nutritional Value of Insects?Ī study conducted by the University of Helsinki revealed some interesting benefits of bugs. It's possible somebody nearby might even want to buy any extras you have for their reptiles, if prices are that bad where you live! I'm trying to set up a superworm colony at the moment myself, and I've got a few reptile-keeping friends and one friend who has a small eco-friendly cruelty-free chicken farm who will probably buy some of my extra worms, since I'm only feeding a bearded dragon and, eventually, once he's full grown, possibly a gargoyle gecko. There are a lot of good articles about it, and there are a number of uses for the extra worms. Since you can't use superworms yet, and mealworms are so expensive, I might also suggest that you try starting a small mealworm colony! You can put full-grown ones in the fridge to keep and feed off, and keep some to pupate and turn into more breeding beetles.

Download feeding superworms