Easy to breed food…

[Vegas Chad]

I would like to start a tread dedicated to easy to breed food. I am sure that a lot of you are in the same boat as I… Having a lot of hungry animals to feed and getting frustrated at the cost of buying crickets, getting them sent to you and the pain in the ass that they can be. So what is everybody’s opinion and experience on breeding bugs? Which is the easiest and most fool proof? Most of us are busy enough working with the reptiles to put an extreme amount effort into bugs. So let’s have it…
Roach, wax worm, silk worm, fire brat, fruit and house fly, ECT…

- I recently started a colony of dubia roach and I think that the roaches are just about perfect! Clean them once a week… Toss in some food, add a little heating pad and you are good to go. I am also starting a lobster roach colony which seem to be really nice too, not as large but still a better and less PITA mean that a cricket.
- I REALLY like silk worms but have yet to attempt breeding them. What say you?
- Wax worms… Same thing… Anybody able to comment on the viability on the breeding of these? More trouble than it is worth?

Or for the most part should we just buy the eggs for the flies, worms, and whatever and just hatch them out… What say you?

 

[John33871]

i would have to say silkworms. just put down the food and watch them grow, lol. but the set back is the reproduction process, takes almost month or so with the worm becoming a moth, having the moths reproduction, and waiting for the eggs to hatch. but no hard if done right

 

[Ren]

Ive tried meal worms, was a lot of waiting and my culture, group, colony? went south real quick and was quite nasty....fruit flies are easy, got a recipe off the internet and they do the work themselves.... crickets stink and i don't even want to try that.... roaches seam to be the easiest for me so far...nice thread

 

[Vegas Chad]

Any good and simple how-to's on the fruit flies? where did you get your set up Ren?

 

[pedro92]

I had a good setup going if this helps reputation would help me Here it is. I ordered four tubes from reptilefood.com. For about 30$ then u have to take a 6- 8" tube or a pop bottle. Then you need to buy a packet of blue media gum. its the food for the fruit flies. take a screen and use it as a ladder for flies. Mainly replicate the tubes you buy from the website. Let the flies you buy from the website mate til there are alot of white larvae in blue gum. Once that has happened You will need to take all flies and divide them into containers you have made put about 25-30 flies in each then keep the process of the larvae and then switch going. You will have a good colony going. I'm not sure where you can get the blue media. I purchased from a guy i know i will ask him though. But main thing is to make the media thick not runny and keep cool to warm temp if to hot they will die or bACTERIA will form. I hope this works for everyone.

 

[lonomac]

My experience so far:

Crickets- Im switching to roaches. Though Id like some info on breeding them if anyone has some. Also, whats the best kind for 2, 4 month old Panthers?

Silkworms- Easiest so far other than the waiting. Its become my bug of choice.

Phoenix worms- Too much trouble to breed, also difficult to feed if not hand feeding. Great Calcium though. I keep some around...

Mealworms - Easy to breed I think. When they pupate I put them in a cricket keeper with about an inch of oatmeal. Beetles will start the breeding easily enough but does take a few weeks before mini mealies come out.

In the meantime, looking for new feeders also...

 

[wow]

Bluebottle flys are great and simple, i just buy abot 1000 pupa at a time. to pupate them i take a little sawdust and put it into a 5 gallon frezzer bag, i have found that you can get about 200 pupa into the bag after you have the pupa in the bag just put it in a warm dark place. under the bed behind the dresser exc..
as for breeding i think you have to have some rotting meat involved

 

[Dyesub Dave]

I am currently breeding crickets and hatching silkworms. The crickets are smelly, don't grow very quickly and half of them die off. ( Maybe I need to adjust my breeding setup however. )

Silkworms are by far the easiest that I've tried so far. I don't bother trying to breed the moths I just buy the eggs & chow, wait for them to hatch and feed them until they are large enough then I cut back on the food. It takes roughly 3-4 weeks for them to get to around 2-2 1/2" They are highly nutritious, a great source of calcium, soft bodied and don't jump all over the cage and chew things. There is also not much smell to them and their poop is like tiny little rabbit turds so cleanup is simple as well.

Of course I still have to buy crickets because one single food source for any animal is not a good idea. I'm currently trying to grow more silkworms than I can use and sell the extras cheaper than the pet stores so that I can make enough $$$ to buy more eggs & chow.

Wouldn't mind finding another simple food for my chams as well.

Dyesub Dave.

 

[Ren]

Any good and simple how-to's on the fruit flies? where did you get your set up Ren?

This one was easy for me and works great... first off you need some fruit flies, i got mine from petsmart on the shelf, will produce 100's of flies on its own.... i buy 2 containers about 9$

Next get some materials... I get 16ounce deli cups... walmart will give me some normally, buy some mac and cheese and tell them you need some extra bowls....

ingredients...

1 cup of bananas -2 bananas
1 cup of applesauce
1/8 cup of apple cider vinegar
2 cups of oatmeal
and 2 pinches of bakers yeast

first you need to microwave on high your bananas to kill of flying fly eggs in the banana (gross) you never know what your eating....
then add to blender and add applesauce, and vinegar,(keeps it from molding..)
liquefy these and start adding 2 cups of oatmeal until its all mixed up... this normally makes about 3 cups worth... pour evenly in 3 cups, about 1 1/2 worth..

i then take a piece of aluminum screen and cut a strip about 2 inches wide and about 5 inches long fold in half 2x 2 1/2 and make like a ramp and stick it in the middle,( be sure it doesn't stick up past the top of container.) now get 2 pinches of bakers yeast and sprinkle over the top of the concoction ,put it in the fridge for a while too cool down and once cool add your flies and put a paper towel over the top and secure with a rubber band...trim the excess and your done...after a few days they will eat and lay eggs and then you'll have cup-o-flies...you can change the paper towel with the deli lids with a hole in the middle and a piece of tight fitting foam, like what comes with the original culture in it... if needed i can show you some pictures a well....

Hope i didn't ramble give it a try its easy and rather inexpensive...

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

Thanks for that ren,
I'm a bit lazy, so I got a few fruit fly kits from the fly sellers
yes, I know I could do it myself... perhaps next time.

Fruit flies ARE EASY I've got 4 lines going right now with different premade media
and containers to see what works best for me.
So far, the problem with the D. Hydei are their slower turnover and output
but they're larger and meatier then the more common D. Melanogaster.
The only thing I would add would be some sort of anti fungal to the media
the yeast should keep the bacteria down and provide amino acids
but the hydei all seem to carry fungal cultures along with them.

My personal experience with lobster roaches is that you're better off
spraying them with a can of raid vs bothering to them your table scraps
They're not as meaty, run around far too quickly for the cham to track and they stink!
Most of my chameleons turned off to them rather quickly.

The Dubia are far better even if the males sometimes can get airborne.
more meat, slower and no stench.
hissers are also VERY MEATY and easy to keep.

Silkworms are great if you can keep the crop going.
I found it helps greatly to have a few mulberry trees in the neighborhood.
you can speed the crop up with feeding them the leaves vs the chow.
So it's spaced out as needed and everything doesn't mature all at once.
Using the chow is fine but I've heard about some serious problems with silks that are fed only on chow
They're unable to cocoon and or emerge as a viable adult
-forcing you to go buy more eggs again.

Hornworms are great for adult chams until they get tired of them and want something different.
The only problem I've had is with their breeding.
I can't complete their lifecycle into the second generation.
Seems like I've got to get another large flying cage and supply them
with hummingbird feeders to get them to lay eggs. (sigh).


and then there's the chirping crickets...
that keep me awake all freaking night

Have you ever gone hunting for "that one cricket" at 3:30 AM?...
and ended up committing some mass cricket murder instead?
I sure as hell have.

 

[Ren]

thanks for that ren,

.

Beauty pic Jeweled... Very Noice!