How Better Bugz came about.
Many years ago when I was trying to formulate a homemade diet. I was disappointed in what I was seeing in my animals, and the issues they were having on the commercial CGD I had been using at the time. This was during a time when there was only one major, easily accessible CGD brand out there. I had taken a formula for feeding New Caledonia geckos formulated by a well respected chahoua breeders, and applied that to my own collection of animals (cresteds and chahoua at the time). The biggest modification I had made was the protein source. Instead of using the typical whey protein that is used in most diets, I decided to try insect protein. I started using cricket meal instead of whey protein, to offer a natural protein source. Although this worked, the geckos did not eat it as well, so I had to opt for a whey/cricket meal mix which was more regularly accepted. This is where I do want to clarify, live feeders have always been maintained as part of my animals diets. Adding insect protein wasn't to eliminate the use of insects. It was used at this time to offer a protein source for my homemade blended diet, and extra protein to specific species. A few years had passed, I seen a huge difference in the over all health of my animals. At this time I had started using new brands of commercial CGD that had come out. I had then slowly switched from 100% homemade diet to 50/50 homemade/commercial diet.
Now I pushed this idea for a long time, adding cricket powder to commercial CGD. It became pretty popular among keepers who wanted to give their animals a bit of a protein boost. Many people seeing success over just feeding CGD without the addition of cricket powder in the over all health of their animals. Yes I had mentioned I still feed insects, and I do recommend it. However many people were experiencing better growth rate when offering it in conjunction with insects, and without insects.
When covid came around, it had become increasingly hard to get crickets. I had always bought crickets locally at the reptile show. Without those shows, it make it increasingly harder to get crickets. Yes, yes, I know you can order them online. However many places the shipping was outrageous, more than the crickets! Other times it was due to temps, no live arrival guarantee during heat or cold, both of which NW OH sees. So in winter and summer I had limited access to crickets. I had started increasing the amount of cricket powder into the CGD during these times I couldn't get access to crickets, however I was finding the palatability declined by doing so. So I had to come up with a new solution.
New Solution, BSFL powder! I had started ordering BSFL powder and trying it in place of the cricket powder in CGD. The results were quite simply astounding! I know what you're thinking, you're fluffing your product. I assure you, I am not. Where as making CGD in a large volume, I was only able to get a fraction of cricket powder in before I started to notice the palatability decreased. With BSFL I was able to get double the amount in, and was still not seeing the palatability decrease. If anything they were eating more!
I was so impressed with the outcome, I realized there wasn't many options for buying BSFL in smaller volumes. The sources you could get were often chunky, not fine, and would clog up squirt bottles. So in 2024 I rolled out with Better Bugz and debuted at the 2024 Flora Fauna show. It has been slow growing ever since. The goal was to offer a more nutritional dense protein source, while maintaining the palatability of CGD, and I believe this is the product to do it. Our BSFL is milled ultra fine, no more clogging squirt bottles! I had then started recommending to friends of other species to try it as salad toppers. They wrote back telling me they were finding their animals who usually just picked at their salads started eating them with more gusto. That picky animals didn't sniff around their pre-made diets picking out their favorites and leaving the rest. Sprinkling it on top, they were finishing their meals. I then decided to try it out on other "bugs". I started adding it into my isopod bins and they gobbled it up! What's next, birds?!? I suppose I now need to buy chickens!
So if you're thinking about adding some extra protein to your animals diet, I highly recommend giving our product a try!
-Melissa Walker, Better Bugz
