Calcium Deficiency

[richard]

I was wondering if there was any way that I could avoid powdering insects by feeding my cultures a calcium rich media.

 

[jennifer]

Based on what Ed has had to say on the subject, it is difficult to get enough calcium into an adult cricket by diet alone. If the diet is sufficient to truly gutload the cricket, it kills the cricket within a few days. In other words, you can, but you can't keep the crickets for long on that kind of diet. I'm no expert on the subject.

In this link (PDF), look at Table 2 at the end. The important thing is not the absolute amount of calcium, but the ratio of CA/P:
http://www.nagonline.net/Technical%20Papers/NAGFS00397Insects-JONIFEB24,2002MODIFIED.pdf