enough variety

My baby girl seems happy and healthy but worried as she is a v ussy eater! She will eat her cat biscuits, live meal worms, cucumber and apple but anything else i have tried (chicken/mince/veg etc) she just huffs and wont eat it. Concerned im not giving her enough nutrients and stuff
any advice would be very very much appreciated xxx

no expert but mine wont touch veg but has locust and worms live which i feed cabbage and carrot .
but your one should be ok i would think. am sure you will get more advice

thank you just dont want her getting poorly! maybe time to try some more 'live' food and get the nutrients in through them! Off to the vet next week so should be able to get a health/weight check then

I have a fussy eater too, she won't eat cooked meat, veg or fruit that I have offered her. She loves insects so I give her mealworms, waxworms and crickets. I have just got her some butterworms today for her to try as well to add a bit more variety. Might try cockroaches too!

xkatymayx.....are waxworms fattening do you know? would like to add to my list but have a hog who tends to put weight on if not watched

Yes they are very fatty! I only give her one a week because she isn't very active.

Assuming live and gutloaded, here is most of the list I have (name/%fat/%protein):

Butter Worms 12.68% 39.51%
Mealworms 33.42% 53.42%
Phoenix Worms 26.86% 49.43%
Silk Worms 44.17% 265.83%
Superworms (Zophobas) 44.75% 43.50%
Wax Worms 58.42% 40.79%
B. Dubia 17.39% 91.71%
B. Laterallis 14.60% 100.36%
Banded Cricket 22.34% 58.51%
Black Field Cricket 36.04% 47.45%
Brown House Cricket 15.02% 67.58%
G. Portentosa 14.06% 74.35%
Silent Brown Cricket 29.81% 52.56%

For a fatty hog, your best bet is roaches (high meat to chitin ratio, all of them are very low in fat, but high in protein), butterworms (waxworm's bigger, healthier, red look-a-likey) and crickets. I assume locusts are similar to crickets, but don't have any data - they are easier to keep though as they don't smell as bad, and aren't such escape artists.

thanks for the info....will keep it handy

If you PM me your email address, I'll send you the live food nutrients spreadsheet I have It is easier to read than copy and pasted lists

I have only seen that butterworms have more fat than waxworms, but your information seems to differ?

http://www.reptileforums.net/forums/showthread.php?61842-Lizard-Food-Reference-Chart/page2
"Butterworms are higher in fat and moisture then Waxworms due to their larger size. They also lack the chitin rich exo-skeleton that mealworms and superworms have so they can be fed to younger lizards."

I will give cockroaches a go because they are less fatty than mealworms and have chitin. Don't want my hog becoming a porker

How interesting!

I got mine from here:
http://hedgehogcentral.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=151

The thread you posted says for waxworms:

Nutrition Information:
Crude Protein: 42.4
Crude Fat: 46.4
Ash: 2.7
Gross Energy: 7.06
Calcium: 0.11

For butterworms:

Nutritional Information:
Moisture: 58.54
Ash: 1.04
Protein: 16.20
Fat: 5.21

Not sure the difference between crude fat and normal fat.

You also need to take into account that I'm using dry weight, which excludes the moisture content of food so you can actually look at like-for-like without the moisture content buggering about the values.

I've also got different values for phoenix worms - according to my research, they are healthier than mealworms (fat wise), but according to the link you've given, they are worse than waxworms!

Definitely try roaches though - dubias or discoids go down well. Bodhi doesn't like the adult males due to the wings, but all the others (especially the 'bite-size' nymphs) go down without a fuss. Dubias breed more readily if you're breeding. Discoids need to be left completely alone to breed (or at least, shouldn't be disturbed except for food - so you'll need a breeding colony and a feeding pot for them). For dubias, I bought a mini colony, and they seem to be breeding faster than Bodhi will eat them (at 3-5 per night depending on size). It is my entire argument for why my OH should let me buy a gecko

I'm worried about escapee cockroaches! Apparently discoids suck at escaping, not good climbers and can't fly, but dubias look as though they could be good at it. Don't want cockroaches infesting my house! Have you had any escape?

We have the occasional escape (mealworms, mealworm beetles, aliens, and roaches). My OH found a baby roach in his swimming bag - he'd taken it into work, to the pool (spotted it), and then brought it home again - nice little trip for it

We have two exo terra flat faunariums, which hold the two feeder colonies, but these have slots for adding a partition, and the babies can clamber up them and flee. So for the adults and little'uns, I use curv'e'keepas. Both the faunarium and the curv'e'keepas, I got from Joey - even with shipping, the price was about £5 per cage less than ebay.

Both can climb if you give them something to climb up - sealant, ridged plastic, etc. But they can't climb smooth plastic or glass, and neither can fly. The adult males can 'fall with style' if you pick them up and they jump, but they can't take off.

Did you want photos of my enclosures? I'm about to swap the feeder tank from wood chips (roach substrate from Rick's lifefood) to Rubbstrate, and my breeders aren't on substrate, to make it easier to clean them out occasionally. Haven't had to yet, but I will before I move. Think that'll be about the 4 month point. They aren't terribly dirty though. I know commercial breeders just leave them, and scoop out the poo occasionally! I'm not that bad, just spackly.

precious is going to be spoilt for choice thanks to all this info thank you! I was worried about escapees too but all questions have been answered, the table was very helpful,dot want my baby girl gettin overweight,specially as she is not keen on using her wheel at the moment for some reason! Thanks peeps,help appreciated!