6 replies to this topic

[mattknepley]

Was in the lfs yesterday, and checked out three different brands of freeze dried blood worms. All claimed blood worms as the only ingredient, no vitamins or other additives. The "guaranteed analysis" for crude protein of each brand was over 45%. My frozen blood worms at home only boast a "guaranteed analysis" of at least 3.5%. Why the differences?

[mattknepley]

Take it from someone with a background in food chemistry. You're comparing apples to oranges because the frozen worms are mostly water, and the protein comprises 3.5% of the weight including the water. Take the water away and now that 3.5% is 45%+ of the dry weight.

That makes perfect sense.

IMO, .......Gut load. We do it with crickets for our pet lizards & frogs. what ever the bw's had in their tummy's when sent for analysis was different between one farm to another. One co. may have let them clean their systems out before processing them while another had a fresh from the rearing pen batch.

I wonder to what extent you could change the protein values by gut loading alone. I used to gut load my herps' crickets, too. Wonder how much I really boosted their nutritional value.

[mattknepley]

I would expect that most commercial gut loads are more vitamins and minerals than protein. I don't know about crickets, but I can tell you that cockroaches are over 45% protein on a wet basis. The roaches were there, an empty slot on the digester now and then and you learn such things!

It is not a good thing when you have idle time, is it? At least not for the roaches...

I agree. Dry mass is very different from wet.

Matt, check out post #6 of this topic: http://forum.nanfa.o...efenokee-spawn/
I compiled a list of a whole bunch of foods' wet and dry masses and linked to sources. You can see wet and dry mass are very different, and that difference is water.

That's some thorough reporting, Erica! I enjoy planning up my fishes menus. I'll be sure to hit that thread again.