Grasshopper diet?

    • Gold Top Dog

    Grasshopper diet?

    Is it safe for dogs to eat grasshopper?

    Suddenly within the last week it's been grasshopper breeding season where I live and suddenly they are everywere and they are huge. I guess they need to get thoes eggs layed before the cold sets in so they can hatch come spring. Other bugs have seem to come out as well but this year grasshoppers are the most abundent bug. Giz loves to catch the things and eat them I don't mind her eating one ot two every now and then but now she gone crazy eating them and will eat about 10 full sized hoppers withing 15 minets of me letting her outside. she will jump and bite them off trees, the side of the house and runs around like crazy in the tall grass field catching them and eating them. Should I stop her somehow from eating so many of them? I've never seen her whine so much to be let outside since the hoppers appeared.
    • Gold Top Dog
    My dogs LOVE grasshopper hunting!!  My mom wants us to encourage them to keep the buggers out of her garden, so we always point one out when we see it and the dogs bound after it.  They don't always catch them but sometimes they do.  I can't imagine that they'd be harmful considering I'm pretty sure wild canines munch on bugs now and then.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I don't worrie when she eats a few every now and then, but lately they seem to almost make up half of her daily diet. It may just be me being the over worried owner but if it is a serious issue I'de like to know.
    • Gold Top Dog
    They only thing I would worry about is pesticides.  I don't feed any insects from outside to my sugar gliders for that reason.  I worry too much about it.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I thouhgt about pesticides being an issue but we don't spray our house on the outside and our house is in the middle of two empty fields with nothing but tall grass and weeds growing in them, they were once used as a dairy 20 some years ago but now they are just huge empty lots of farm land. Gizmo's stoll looks normal so far and I haven't noticed any changes in the way she behaves, probablly just me being the always worried owner agean.
    • Gold Top Dog
    SInce grasshoppers are eaten by people in some countries (desert areas notably), I don't think it's harmful for your dog to eat them.

    They are very high in protein and biotin, by the way.  [;)]
    • Gold Top Dog
    Quite interesting
     




    [align=center]100g Grasshoppers
    [align=center]100g Beef

    [align=center]14g protien
    [align=center]23g protien

    [align=center]5.5g Fat
    [align=center]22.2g fat

    [align=center]121 calories
    [align=center]228 calories

    [align=center]75.5mg calcium
    [align=center]25mg calcium

    [align=center]185.3 mg. of phosphorous
    [align=center]189 mg of phosphorous

    [align=center]9.5mg iron
    [align=center]1.5mg iron

    [align=center]Low feed to meat ratio
    [align=center]High feed to meat ratio

    [align=center]Simple butchery techniques
    [align=center]Gory complicated and usually cruel butchery techniques

    [align=center]Easy to breed and raise
    [align=center]difficult and expensive to breed and raise

    [align=center]require minimal space per pound of protein produced
    [align=center]require huge spaces per pound of protien produced

    [align=center]No animal activists object to the killing of edible insects
    [align=center]Animal activists object to the killing of mammals
    • Gold Top Dog
    Sorry, it wouldn't post properly.
    The first in each is for grasshopper and the second is for beef:
    • Gold Top Dog
    For some reason the quote thing isn't working for me right now...so...
     
    "Simple butchery techniques"
    "Gory complicated and usually cruel butchery techniques"
     
    Ok the idea of anyone butchering a grasshopper at all just totally cracks me up [:D]
    • Gold Top Dog
    Mikaela, you make me laugh[:D]
     
    And Off with his Head[sm=rofl.gif]
     
    I was more interested in the protein values.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Bree is an EXCELLENT bug catcher - and grasshoppers are her favorite. She typically plays with (pouncing and tossing) and subsequently kills and eats several a night. Doesn't seem to bother her one whit. Bothers me more than it does her. After three years of this I finally stopped worrying.
    • Moderators
    • Gold Top Dog
    Bugsy loves bugs - go figure!
    Loves beetles, cicadas are especially yummy and tickle the nose with their wings, last night found a HUGE spider, crickets and grasshoppers are also fun and lovely to eat once they stop hopping.

    He loves to hunt them - play with them and finally eat them once they've quit playing
    • Gold Top Dog
    Zhi hunts and eats flies.  The only thing is I just can't let her kiss me, right after she's eaten FLIES.  I know my farm and I'm pretty sure where they've been. [:o]