Keeping track of an animal's age, weight and body condition over time is a more reliable guide than following a fixed schedule indefinitely. Watching for changes in body shape or activity level alongside age is often more informative than relying on age alone, since individual growth rates can vary even within the same species. Adjusting food quantity and frequency gradually, rather than in sudden jumps, also tends to suit most animals better.
It's also worth building supplement costs, such as gut-load products and dusting powders, into the overall picture rather than treating them as an afterthought, since these are recurring costs alongside the livefood itself, generally adding a modest amount to the monthly total rather than a significant one.
Gut-loading is one of those livefood practices that sounds technical but is actually a simple idea: feeder insects are fed nutritious food for a period before they're offered to a pet reptile shop, so that whatever is inside the insect's gut at the point of feeding passes on some of that nutritional value too.
This is a general good-practice principle rather than a precise science with fixed timings or quantities that apply to every household. How long to gut-load, and how often, depends on the insects being kept, the conditions they're kept in, and the feeding schedule of the animals they'll go to. Rather than following a single fixed rule, it helps to build gut-loading into the same routine as storing and checking livefood day to day, so it becomes a habit rather than an extra step.
What follows is background on the husbandry side of things, the parts that are within a keeper's control and worth checking regardless of cause, not a substitute for a vet's assessment.
Different feeder types have slightly different needs, from temperature preferences to how much moisture they tolerate, so it's worth checking guidance for the specific livefood being kept rather than applying one set of rules to everything. Rotating older stock to the front of a tub and using it before topping up with a fresh delivery is a simple habit that reduces avoidable losses further.