What do feed your feeders?

The food that goes into your feeder insect essentially gets transferred to the herp that is eating it, so it's extremely important to provide the best possible "Gutload" for feeders.Some feeders can only eat certain things, so there is little we can do to increase their nutritional value via gutloading. E.G: silkworms, goliath hornworms, butterworms, and even waxworms. Silkworms will only feed on mulberry leaves or special chow diet to thrive and grow...although thankfully mulberry is a relatively nutrient rich tree. Hornworms will also only eat special chow (as their native plants are toxic) and many other species of grub eat very little.

Feeders that will readily accept a variety of types of gutload generally include crickets, locusts, cockroaches, mealworms, and superworms (zophobas). For these, it's best to provide a good staple dry food or dry combination, along with regular amounts of fruits, vegetables, and greens as a moisture source.So as the title says what do you feed your feeders to boost the nutritional value ?

This is something which is again controversial for me. Go figure me controversial eh? I feed mostly crickets and I am not keeping or breeding the nasty smelling things. That said I use Flukers or straight apple and other such hard fruits dusted with a vitamin and mineral supplement placed inside of the enclosure of the animal I am feeding and that seems to have worked. I am not sure how many people actually 'need' a breeding colony of insects though but for those who do I would would use fresh greens daily with some hard fruits as well as dusting the lot with a calcium and a vitamin and mineral powder.