Grasshoppers

[Echoezra]

Just curious, notice people mentioning grasshoppers as feeder option, can you raise them, like crickets? How do they rate as a feeder? Can they be gutloaded like crickets?
I am really cool with bugs by most people's standards, i dig my hands right in the cricket & worm bins at work, count them out by the hundreds barehanded, but I don't think I could do the roach thing. I don't care how clean or non-smelly they are. Lol.
I also don't think I could feed a mantis, I love them too much, I raised some two summers ago and cried when they died.
So what about grasshoppers as an alternative?

 

[warpdrive]

I say go for it.
in the spring I'll buy some from you.

Harry

 

[jojackson]

Awesome food source, I was thinking of giving them a shot at breeding myself, nobody
raises them commercially here, I catch them in my backyard wherever I find them.
Has anyone else observed that chams have a particular penchant for green food sources?
Both mine go ballistic for any green livefood.

 

[Lizardlover]

Yea, chams do love green things. Hoppers can be hard to raise because most species lay eggs that need to go through diapause. worth a shot though.

 

[donnak0125]

Yes, I couldn't feed my cham a mantis either, I love to watch them too much. My cham loves something similar though. Those larege lime-green grasshoppers that are more soft bodied than regular grasshopers, we call them katydids (sp?) here. They have long softwings and very long legs (longer than regular grasshoppers). Chams really love them!!!!! They can be tricky to catch, but I have a system now. Katydids love especially to hide in Calla Lily flowers. I can always find them there in the summer. When my cham was yound/growing fast she could eat a lot of them, up to 6 a day, and they are big! I did cut the extra long back legs off the Katydid and trimmed the wings a little too just so if my cham didn't get it out of my fingers on the first shot/and or I dropped it the thing it wouldn't fly off (after all the hard work of catching them)! My cham would get so excited when she's see me holding one! (I'd put her outside in the sun with me while I caught grasshoppers). She'd start whipping her tail real fast and hurry over to the side of the cage where I was holding the katydid, get into position, and zap!!! Yum, yum, yummmm! It was fun! Unfortunatly, I suspect my cham has sullied my reputation among my neighbors. They probably think I'm a kook, because half the time I did my hunting for katydids at night under a bright security light (next to the calla lilys). I was always sneeking around the yard swatting at stuff in the dark. The things I do for my cham...

 

[jojackson]

LOl Donna, thats two of us!

Fortunately the neighbours either side know what im up to, but once last year, the local police came calling, because a new family moved in across the street , saw my torch light and thought I was a burgular!

 

[Echoezra]

Yea, chams do love green things. Hoppers can be hard to raise because most species lay eggs that need to go through diapause. worth a shot though.

Care to elaborate lizardlover? I haven't bred insects before (my male mantis wouldn't "perform", lol) I have easy access to crickets, silks, butters, waxworks & usually horns, so no need to breed those, but I would research and try the grasshoppers if it was likely doable and worthwhile.

 

[Echoezra]

Or those katydids, for that matter, if they're so delicious? Anybody breed either of these, is it doable?

 

[Echoezra]

My family & neighbors realized I was a weirdo long ago. I don't think they'd even check on a late night flashlight mission, or be surprised by the answer bug-hunting if they did. Lol

 

[donnak0125]

My family & neighbors realized I was a weirdo long ago. I don't think they'd even check on a late night flashlight mission, or be surprised by the answer bug-hunting if they did. Lol

Funny, but I live in a tiny, silly, little, TX town with a lot of nosie, busy-bodies, so I'm always trying to fly under the radar... Not use to it cause I was a city girl.

 

[Ricardo]

Hi,

The katydids are can be hard to breed, depending on the spec. There are two kinds: 1. eats only other insects 2: mixed food, so they are eating plants too. They need lots of heat and "sunshine" or light, and because they are bigger than crix they need space. But doable i think, just do a little research on the needs of the katydids spec. you want to breed (food, moisture, temp etc.)
For the locusts, they are more easy than katydids. First of all they eat plants. Almost any kind of greens, so they can be gutloaded with some. They need space and 90-95 F too, and a laying bin with a substrate mix (sand and soil). If you provide the right circumstances they gonna breed more than one time a year without any problems.

hope it helped, but feel free to ask if i missed something.

 

[ghettomike]

hello echoezra, my f veiled loves grasshoppers and moths, I go out every saturday morning in the summer to catch her some, people that see me out with my net chasing bugs must think I'm nuts haha If you end up breeding them let me know and maybe we can do some feeder swapping as I have dubia roaches (hundreds of them and my cham doesnt really like them) , indian walking sticks (which are still laying lots of eggs so no babies quite yet) and will have mantis' in the spring too. (a local gardening store sells mantis ooths seasonally) Where is Amherstburg near? Im in Stratford.

 

[Echoezra]

Thanks for the info Ricardo.
And ghettomike, Amherstburg is all the way south - near windsor & point pelee, across from Detroit. So not that far, couple hours drive from you.

 

[Echoezra]

Walking sticks

So tell me about the walking sticks...

 

[ghettomike]

ill private message you.

 

[donnak0125]

So tell me about the walking sticks...

Euwww, our walking sticks in central TX can get huge, as long as your forearm. They are ulgy. In some areas around we get little hoards of them. I was at a home once near a lake and in their yard, one the trees and all over the house there were easily 1,000 of them. I couldn't believe how big they were. Yucky!!!