Next fun insect to raise??

[JacksJill]

I plan to feed them off when they are small and the shell is still thin but packed with calcium. Land snails don't have any smell that I have noticed. I only have 2 of them so far. They do however poop a lot.
I've heard Jackson's like them I don't low about panthers yet.

Poor Moona.

 

[djdanny402]

Land snails are awesome ,
I've had a few as pets in the past.

I have over a 100 fresh water ones in my fish tank. Started with 3 lol

 

[Mtnlaurel]

Can I see pictures of your terrestrial snails?? Don't go to a huge effort. I see lots around here. Never thought of keeping them as a pet / feeder.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

Snails are notorious for carrying flat worms and other nasty stuff as parasites that could harm chameleons. I understand that this problem can be eliminated with land snails by removing the freshly layed eggs and raising them seperately. Not sure how to solve these issues with water snails.

 

[Andee]

Immediate answer to the powdered question of food for stick insects: no they will not do well with it. It goes against their feeding nature to feed them powdered food. They sit on twigs all day and eat leaves, in fact the only way they survive well in captivity from my experience when they get older is having a taller screen or combo terrarium and allowing for climbing sticks and food plants etc that are at least twice their body length. Otherwise you will get deformed insects after molts which most sticks when they molt badly unless it just causes leg problems, do not survive. I tend to keep a small basking light on my sticks, to stimulate a natural day and night cycle because most stick and leaf insects are nocturnal. During the winter months I also have a very wattage ceramic heat emitter that keeps them slightly warmer than my night temps would provide.

 

[AZChamFan]

Immediate answer to the powdered question of food for stick insects: no they will not do well with it. It goes against their feeding nature to feed them powdered food. They sit on twigs all day and eat leaves, in fact the only way they survive well in captivity from my experience when they get older is having a taller screen or combo terrarium and allowing for climbing sticks and food plants etc that are at least twice their body length. Otherwise you will get deformed insects after molts which most sticks when they molt badly unless it just causes leg problems, do not survive. I tend to keep a small basking light on my sticks, to stimulate a natural day and night cycle because most stick and leaf insects are nocturnal. During the winter months I also have a very wattage ceramic heat emitter that keeps them slightly warmer than my night temps would provide.

I was honestly thinking from the beginning that the food would definitely have to be elevated into branches somehow. I completely agree with everything you said about their environmental requirements!!! Also I didn't mean to imply that I would feed them the food in powdered form, but rather that it would be made into a gel or paste much like the powdered silkworm food and then be placed high in the branches somehow. Perhaps stuck into some type of grid or mesh bag to hold it up in ideal locations.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

I was honestly thinking from the beginning that the food would definitely have to be elevated into branches somehow. I completely agree with everything you said about their environmental requirements!!! Also I didn't mean to imply that I would feed them the food in powdered form, but rather that it would be made into a gel or paste much like the powdered silkworm food and then be placed high in the branches somehow. Perhaps stuck into some type of grid or mesh bag to hold it up in ideal locations.

You are just going to have to do the experiments for us! Lol

 

[Andee]

it might work? I would imagine you would have to get agaragar or something to make it? I think there are some online tutorials on how to make homemade silkworm chow which should work for other plants? For stick insects anything that eats bramble usually eats rasberry, usually fruitless versions of blackberry or raspberry plants, I have had great success with ornamental rose bushes (I have a minature rose that I have planted in the ground and don't spray in anyway, I usually trim it and feed it to my sticks), they also do really well on freshly cut and especially newly grown evergreen oak, eucalyptus of course (but I usually don't feed off insects that have had that) certain sticks will be easier to feed of course. Supposedly some species like guava plants? I have yet to try mulberry.

 

[Andee]

it might work? I would imagine you would have to get agaragar or something to make it? I think there are some online tutorials on how to make homemade silkworms

• Weigh out 29 ounces (822.15 grams) of mulberry leaves.
• Weigh 28 ounces (793.8 grams) of soy flour.
• Measure 6.1 ounces (172.935 grams) of maize/corn meal.

That is supposedly a recipe for homemade silkworm chow, Idk how true it is or not.

So I imagine you would replace the mulberry leaves with whatever food plant you were feeding and dry them (low oven temps or dehydrator) then you blend.

 

[AZChamFan]

You are just going to have to do the experiments for us! Lol

Not sure if you're serious or not but I may do that!! I've found a good source for dried bramble (R. fruticosus) leaves, dried hawthorn leaves, and dried raspberry (R. idaeus) leaves. Oak leaves would be great to include but I haven't found dried ones yet!!! Dried rose petals are easy to find but not the leaves. I would need a mill to grind them fine and then of course something like the agar agar powder that Andee mentioned.

 

[Andee]

I am not sure if you need agar agar with the weird recipe I threw up there? but it would be easy enough to add if the concotion doesn't gel correctly. I think agar agar comes in a powder form and then when hot water is added it activates? I am not positive though, I have never actually used it. ^^

 

[AZChamFan]

it might work? I would imagine you would have to get agaragar or something to make it? I think there are some online tutorials on how to make homemade silkworms

• Weigh out 29 ounces (822.15 grams) of mulberry leaves.
• Weigh 28 ounces (793.8 grams) of soy flour.
• Measure 6.1 ounces (172.935 grams) of maize/corn meal.

That is supposedly a recipe for homemade silkworm chow, Idk how true it is or not.

So I imagine you would replace the mulberry leaves with whatever food plant you were feeding and dry them (low oven temps or dehydrator) then you blend.

I do have access to evergreen oak - but it's a couple hours away so not a good source for fresh daily use. However I could get the leaves and dry them like you said in an oven or dehydrator.

 

[AZChamFan]

I am not sure if you need agar agar with the weird recipe I threw up there? but it would be easy enough to add if the concotion doesn't gel correctly. I think agar agar comes in a powder form and then when hot water is added it activates? I am not positive though, I have never actually used it. ^^

Yes that would require some expiramenting!!! But you are correct - it is readily available in powder form and is a replacement for gelatin.

 

[Andee]

Evergreen oak is a great additive to generally any insects diet if they are vegetarians. Isopods do great with it mixed into their soil. I actually need to go collect some more pretty bad because my colony is running low on it due to everyone in there regularly munching on the oak leaves that starts rotting. I also always add several handfuls to my green banana roach enclosure about every other month. A lot of insects that have substrate of some sort do great with added oak leaves and twigs. Though I always clip my stuff fresh and then dehydrate it. Scarab beetles often need it to reproduce well.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

I was serious! I have stick bugs! I would love to have a bag of dry powder that I can reconstitute and make sticks (like licorice vines) and hang it around for them to climb on and eat! I would say that it might be impossible without agar! On top of firming the food up and making us able to let it take a specific shape, agar would also help to keep moisture in so the food does not dry out too quickly! I also would suggest a slow, low temperature dehydration of freshly picked leaves! A lot of nutrients gets destroyed by high temperatures!

 

[Nadine83]

Dubia are obvious, and I will raise them if my guy decides whether he likes them.

Crickets I will NOT raise, because they are just too noisy and they smell bad and they are so cheap and readily available.

But the blue bottle flies have been a blast. I will always have those. I think I'll do green too on occasion. They are super easy and fun.

The silkworms were fun, until I killed them, I left my thermostat outside of the incubator and cooked them. :-( but I will get more going soon.

I'm thinking black soldier flies next. Has anybody messed around with the "composting" by black soldier fly??

I'm also interested in isopods and stick bugs, maybe even superworms.

I'm looking for something that's easy and prolific without too huge of an investment, and appropriately sized for a panther Cham. I like bugs, and I hate shopping. And they don't have anything I want at the pet store anyway.

Maybe some other roach?

Which would you try next?

Random list of bugs and stuff that I enjoy raising: (Not all are good choices for Cham's)

Roaches- I have several species. Dubia, Javanicas (My favorite.), Tigers, Chopardi, Madagascars, and soon to be more. For feeders adults you cant do much with because they are so large and exoskeleton is tough, but the babies would make great snacks.

Worms- (though not actually insects.) I enjoy raising Canadian nightcrawlers.. would not work too well for cham's though.

Crickets- I raise tones of these. If given proper ventilation, food, and kept clean. Crickets don't really smell (My cricket bins smell like oranges, lettuce, and grain (food). Crickets don't make noise either until they do there final molt into adult hood and receive wings. So if you don't keep adults, then they are silent.

Mealworms/Super Worms- Like having these fun to raise, however I don't go through that many.

Spikes/Flies- You can raise house flies or just buy the spike and let them pupate.

Ants/Termites- Simple enough to care for. Kept mine in a storage shed away from my house.

Fish- Guppies Prolific breeders, live baring.

There is my list of random fun things to raise. Wish I could find a way to raise Butterworms, Wax Worms, Horned Worms... maybe one day.

 

[Mtnlaurel]

There is my list of random fun things to raise. Wish I could find a way to raise Butterworms, Wax Worms, Horned Worms... maybe one day.

I never put it together until just now, but waxworms are not that tough to raise. I keep honeybees and I try like hell to keep those things from getting in my hives in the winter. If you leave a box out they will be FULL of waxworms.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

Wax worms are easy!

 

[Mtnlaurel]

I think you guys have got something going on there with the agar gel and leaves. I bet it wouldn't be that hard to do I'm thinking more like making fruit roll ups but with leaf dust. Then you could just peel it up in sheets and clip it to a branch. When I get stick insects I am going to try it out!

 

[Mtnlaurel]

Crickets- I raise tones of these. If given proper ventilation, food, and kept clean. Crickets don't really smell (My cricket bins smell like oranges, lettuce, and grain (food). Crickets don't make noise either until they do there final molt into adult hood and receive wings. So if you don't keep adults, then they are silent.

Sometimes my crickets smell, and sometimes they don't. I expect any animal
If kept well won't stink, just like pigs and chickens. I switched the place I was buying crickets from, because the first suppliers were mostly dead when I got them. These smell much better so I suspect that may be my issue. It really surprised me that they would even have a smell, although I don't know why because honeybees smell WONDERFUL.