Any of you use maggot fly as a feeder?

[Loz]

Following a spot of fishing last weekend I've discovered many annoying flies in my home, must have had a few stray maggots in my bag leading to my question...

... I know maggots should not be fed to chams as they are full of bacteria. But would it be OK to feed chams the flies (from maggots) if they had been kept in clean conditions and gutloaded well?

Do many of you on here raise maggot into flies as a feeder for their chams? And if so please advise what you use a a gutload.

Any in put would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

[Lizardlover]

Yes they are OK, but if you got them from a bait shop I would be weary. mantisplace.com has bb flies and house flies chameleons love!

 

[Montium]

Not sure that is going to work for him in the UK. The chams would certainly enjoy the flies but I too would be worried about transferring anything.

 

[nick barta]

Bait shop Blue Bottle flies (and mantisplace.com) are safer than wild caught flies in regards to parasites and bacteria.

Do you have bait shops in England?

Nick

 

[xanthoman]

flies are fine as long as they come frome a wholesome source ,its easy to culture them yourself , go through at least two generations of self cultured flies and you should be fine, there is info at both adcham and mantiseplace about how to culture and feed them. there are two common types used for feeders the common housefly (Musca domestica) or the twice as large large blue bottle fly (Calliphora vomitoria) both are easy to culture and both use basically the same technique

 

[weezyboi94]

oh dang....i just fed my chams 2 or 3 maggots yesterday..(came from my veg n fruit compost heap)...wht d yu reckon i should do...????they look fine at the moment......

 

[Loz]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Montium - I am a her lol

Nick - Yea we do have bait shops over here

Xanthoman - Cheers for the info, I reckon I'll do some research into doing a culture for myself, better to be safe than sorry

 

[Miss Lily]

I was given some fly casters by a friend and hatched them out for Amy a few at a time. Gave her good shooting practise as a baby, but I'm not sure that they would be satisfying enough for an adult. If you want to vary the feeders, have you tried Phoenix Worms, Super (Morio) Worms, Butterworms, Silkworms or Roaches? We can get all these in the UK.

 

[Jonas]

I know maggots should not be fed to chams as they are full of bacteria.

This is new to me, what did i miss?
I know few animals find the larvae good to eat, it seems to be too chewy. But bacteria? What kind?

There is genarally a huge misunderstanding around "bacteria", it has become synonymous to "bad", "dangerous" etc etc. Not saying this is the case here.

 

[Loz]

Thanks for the suggestions Miss Lily, I've tried phoenix and silks. I'll have to try the others you said. There's nothing my cham hasn't liked so far.

Jonas - Sorry, I shouldn't have said: "I know they are full of bacteria" I should have said "I've heard they are"... some people had mentioned on past posts that they are full of bacteria. I assumed bad bacteria as people were advising not to use them as feeders.

 

[Jonas]

Ok. Well, all living organisms are full of bacteria, probably more so in a cricket than a maggot, quantitatively. I guess ther could be a specific type of bacteria, It would be interesting to hear.

 

[Montium]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Montium - I am a her lol

Nick - Yea we do have bait shops over here

Xanthoman - Cheers for the info, I reckon I'll do some research into doing a culture for myself, better to be safe than sorry

Sorry my male chauvinism was showing, you mentioned fishing and I thought male. Many apologies

 

[xanthoman]

this why you need to culture your own and not rely on "fish bait maggots" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPU5DE0Z_TA&feature=related they would probably be ok for starter culture as long as you took them through several generations ,maggots can be raised on a mixture of grains bee pollen and honey (not the same mixture as fly food ) if i can find the recipe again, i will post another link, both rincon vitova and mantis place claim to raise their maggots on a similar mixture, but how would one really know?

 

[Jonas]

I still dont get it. I watched the link, but what is it that makes these maggots unfit?
Maggots live on dead meat. They do this in nature too. Chameleons live in nature. Flies are one of the most common food source for many many animalsb in nature.

I have hatched maggots from the store and fed the flies directly to my chams from time to time for years. Should I not have? Why?

 

[xanthoman]

many (if not most) wild chams have some form of parasite(s),and some (if not many) succumb to them, and many live out their entire lives with them, without significant issue, but, wild chams dont have to deal with the stresses of captivity, often (usually) the stress of captivity combined with an excessive parasite load is just too much for them. dead meat can harbor coccidia and other potentially cham unfriendly candidates, feeding flies is different than feeding maggots. maggots have in their stomachs what they have eaten, flies however have metamorphisized, and emerge with an empty stomach, and are less likely to harbor the parasites of their previous self, but flies come in contact with, and eat unhealthy stuff too , so better to feed flies than maggots, unless the maggots have been cultured on wholesome stuff , in which case it probably wouldnt make any difference except maybe nutritionally ,and better to use cultured rather than wc flies even if they are raised on meat (flies that are raised on a salmon fillet out of the freezer are less likely to harbor coccidia or some other harmful bacteria/parasite, than those that have been raised on some dead animal outside that has been exposed to who knows what. the point was, is that it is possible to raise and culture youre own flies without using dead rotting meat, which is probably not the best gutload regardless of the parasite issue

 

[Jonas]

But you specifically say that is why you need to culture your own. With what you say now, it should be fine to hatch store bought maggots.

Also, I dont agree with your analysis of chameleon stress. In nature you have predation risks along with a HUGE number of physical stress factors. I would say the sum of stress is greater in the wild.

 

[Loz]

Montium - No worries, I thought someone would assume that. Most people find it a bit strange that I'm a girl who enjoys a bit of fishing.

Xanthoman - Cheers for the link and interesting info.

Jonas - You raise a good point.