Gutloading flies

[Extensionofgreen]

Every gutload recipe for flies calls for milk or sugar mixtures. In discussions about things to avoid using in gutloads, animal proteins and milk are advised against. Whether or not one thinks milk is ok to use or not, I'm wondering if anyone has tried wetting their dry gutload, such as cricket crack or similar nutritious, dried, chow and had success with the flies feeding on it?
I'm about to offer my parsonii their first, newly hatched, blue bottles and I'd like to have their bellies full of good stuff, besides milk, sugar, or other empty/questionable foods.

 

[jpowell86]

I'm interested in this as well Andrew. I use BBF quite a bit..well a ton actually and I have always made a mixture of bee pollen and water and stuck slices of citrus in with them. I would love to know if there are any other gutloads besides the ordinary. I stay away from powdered milk myself.

Good topic!

 

[trickedoutbiker]

I use the fly food that Mantis Place (a site sponsor) supplies with their flies.

http://www.mantisplace.com/#!product-page/c1cs/4cbb496e-8455-591c-f347-f5880d7f68dc

It's made with bee pollen, but it does also contain powdered sugar. With that being said, all plants produce sugar as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Fruits and vegetables have sugar in the form of fructose, which is broken down more slowly by the body than sucrose. In addition, fruits and veggies boast vitamins and minerals which also have fiber to slow down the digestion of their natural sugars, which leads to more stable blood sugar levels. Now, I understand that there is a difference between natural sugar, which occurs in plants and such, and processed sugar that is made from sugar cane. I'm no vet or anything, but the way I see it though, is, as long as you aren't using flies as your primary feeder, day in and day out, week after week.... then you should be okay. Mix it up here and there and don't ALWAYS supply flies which feed on a gutload containing sugar, and use other main feeders gutloaded with healthy greens primarily and you should be fine.

In the wild, a chameleon will eat lots of things that aren't exactly considered healthy for them, such as earthworms which eat dirt (yum) - how healthy is dirt? Or flies that have been feeding on dung? Or beetles that have been feeding on a rotting carcass? Lots of things aren't exactly "good" for them, but as long as you aren't feeding bad things consistently then you will probably be okay. Just compare to humans for a second --- I know we are TOTALLY different species, but still. If you have a bowl of ice cream one night a week, then you will live. A couple of nights a week, sure whatever. If you want to have ice cream a FEW nights a week, then cut the portions back from a whole bowl, to say, maybe just a scoop, and then have it a few days a week. You will still be okay. But say you eat a whole bowl of ice cream, every day, week after week, for a month or two..... You probably gonna notice a bit of a weight gain. Not good. It's called moderation; ya gotta have moderation. Lots of fly food contain sugars because the flies love to eat the sugar - but as long as flies aren't your primary feeder then I honestly think it will be okay. Like I said, I'm no vet, this is my opinion, but maybe a vet can chime in here. I just know that people been feeding flies to reptiles for a long long time using the same kinds of gutloads made with sugars and I've never heard of anything bad coming of it.

 

[Extensionofgreen]

I almost bought the mantis place food, but couldn't find the ingredient list, online. Sugar doesn't bother me as much as milk, but I'd like to fill those fly bellies with other nutritious things, aside from the sugar. Bee pollen would be a good start! I used my dry gutload and wetted it down, but I have no idea if the flies consumed it. I may just pick up some pure fruit juices and coconut water and soak some water crystals in it, then let the files eat that. At least there's vitamins, electrolytes, and other good things getting in, with the sugar.
My male parsonii ate those blue bottles, like he was hoping enough in his belly would give him the lift off to fly back to Madagascar! Lol
He really went nuts for them!

 

[trickedoutbiker]

I almost bought the mantis place food, but couldn't find the ingredient list, online. Sugar doesn't bother me as much as milk, but I'd like to fill those fly bellies with other nutritious things, aside from the sugar. Bee pollen would be a good start!

On the Mantisplace link I posted, it mentions the ingredients right there on the page in the description....

"The mix is made special by myself and includes, casein, powered sugar, Bee Pollen, brewers yeast and another ingredient."

If you wanted to know what that "other ingredient" is, you could always email them or call them and ask.

 

[Davecameos]

Anyone knows if we can use organic blackstrap molasses with bee pollen in the mix?

 

[Twitchet]

Hi there, I asked a similar question the other day about gutloading my fruit flies , Matt vanilla gorilla said this "I do, my mix that I have as a medium for my fruit flies is very rich in nutrition! I also add tumeric, spirulina grated carrots, molasses and calcium."
I have of late been grating carrots and sweet potato and squeezing out the juice ( i know I'm not getting full benefit but at least the juice is sweetish and hopefully supplies a fairly nutritious wetting agent) and mixing it with bee pollen which my ffs seem to like.

 

[Extensionofgreen]

Fruit flies are fairly easy to gutload by using a mash of soft or boiled down vegetables and it lends itself well to adding other ingredients. This gives me an idea that my blue bottles can be kept with homemade fruitfly media and gutload on that. Unless you add preservatives, the homemade mixes aren't as productive and will sour faster, but I prefer to use yeast to minimize mold growth and no other preservatives.

 

[Twitchet]

That's good news for me- I'll try gutloading my ffs on some veggies to feed to my baby xanths and pygs- I buy a pre made ff mix and it's stuffed full of allsorts of minerals and vitamins but on a down side I guess it includes grain and milk based products, I am afraid I dont know enough about the mouth parts and eating abilities of ffs and bottles but it's all very interesting and I'm certainly learning. Would a humble banana mash be good for bottles? or would they not be able to eat it, bananas have oodles of good things in them. Best wishes

 

[Davecameos]

I will try yeast. I find my own mix goes off fairly quick. Experimenting with different ingredients.

 

[Extensionofgreen]

I thought of looking at organic baby food, from the grocery store! Just beware of Vitamin A or D3 that may be added, which will be declared, though perhaps by its chemical name.

 

[Kecleon]

Hi Guy's,

I'm busy with a house fly colony, correct me if i'm wrong and if you can help me out with the wrong parts.

I have made mi own kind of gutload cause i am going to begin with the fly colony between today and tomorrow, i had a link once i read and it said i can use wild flies but i need to pass them thru a process to cleanse them from any nastyness they have inside them.

I would pass them thru a 3 times cleansing process and after that gutload them and breed them for when i recieve my Cham i can feed them to it.

But my gutload from the info i recieved i put like dogchow, powdered milk, bird supplement, sugar, fish food, cornflakes throw them all in a food processor so they become like bread crumbs.

And the way i will feed and breed them i will post some pictures for you guys to see.

I will first put the gutload load in a small cup mix it with some water to attract the wild house flies so they can put there larvae on the gutload put the cup in the process i made let them eat and fill up after a couple of days they will go to pupae stage and after that become flies i will take out the cup wash it up make a new one and i will let the batch i breed put there larvae on the new gutload and so on.

Just let me know if there is something wrong or not and correct me please so i can take good care of my feeders and Cham.

Open for any advice

 

[nick barta]

Blue Bottle Flies and Houseflies can be gutloaded, I am not sure it is effective though. I have used honey or molasses laced with Cricket Crack, Bug Buffet, bee pollen, or my own creation. A respected chameleon keeper once said he thought fly stomachs were too small to hold enough gutload, that fled were for eating fun...I would agree.

I think you would be more successful dusting them with finely ground gutload than to have them eat a gutload.

Another issue is that flies gut loaded tend to "spit" all over the cage and leave little brown dots everywhere.

Cheers!

Nick