Nutrition of Flies

[Jakedn]

Anybody know the nutritional facts of house or blue bottle flies? Thinking about buying some for Waldo as it would be nice to keep some of them free ranging in his cage as he likes to hunt them.

Anything I should watch out for when using them as feeders?

Should they be fed sparingly or would it be okay to feed a good amount of those along with dubia?

Thanks,
Jake

 

[Jakedn]

Bump

Anybody know?

 

[RSGriff]

idk if this helps at all: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blue-bottle-fly-larvae-683/

 

[nick barta]

Jake,

Houseflies and Blue Bottle flies typically come in maggot form, and you keep them in the refrigerator. If you buy pupae, they will all hatch during or right after shipping, so I always get maggots.

When I get my 500 BB (3 times the size of the housefly), I spoon out a tablespoon into my six cage feeders (a plastic sandwich box with a 3/4 inch hole in the side for the hatching flies to escape into the cage from), and my two larger fly hatching containers. I try to do this daily, so I get flys hatching over a 2 to 3 week period.

I put one of my larger hatching containers over my roaches so that they hatch before everything else. The second container is at room temperature, so it hatches several days later.

Once flies begin hatching, I quit spooning out into the containers, and let the maggots stay doormant until I need more. Some people get 2 months out of the maggots, I get about 3 weeks before the hatch rate dies off.

For the bigger containers, get the "Cup-o-Flies" at mantisplace.com, it shows you how to do the food and water, and comes with the little cups and climbing screens so you don't have fly soup.

You can feed the flies Molasses, Honey, or my favorite, powdered white sugar and powdered milk, 50/50 mix. The others are too messy for me...

Quite honestly, there is not much of a gut on a fly to load, I feed them just to have them as targets for a longer period of time!

For 500 BB and shipping, 2-3 weeks of food for my 6 chams is well worth it, reminds me of Pearl Harbor, except the ground forces win in these battles.

Nick

Nick

 

[Jakedn]

Jake,

Houseflies and Blue Bottle flies typically come in maggot form, and you keep them in the refrigerator. If you buy pupae, they will all hatch during or right after shipping, so I always get maggots.

When I get my 500 BB (3 times the size of the housefly), I spoon out a tablespoon into my six cage feeders (a plastic sandwich box with a 3/4 inch hole in the side for the hatching flies to escape into the cage from), and my two larger fly hatching containers. I try to do this daily, so I get flys hatching over a 2 to 3 week period.

I put one of my larger hatching containers over my roaches so that they hatch before everything else. The second container is at room temperature, so it hatches several days later.

Once flies begin hatching, I quit spooning out into the containers, and let the maggots stay doormant until I need more. Some people get 2 months out of the maggots, I get about 3 weeks before the hatch rate dies off.

For the bigger containers, get the "Cup-o-Flies" at mantisplace.com, it shows you how to do the food and water, and comes with the little cups and climbing screens so you don't have fly soup.

You can feed the flies Molasses, Honey, or my favorite, powdered white sugar and powdered milk, 50/50 mix. The others are too messy for me...

Quite honestly, there is not much of a gut on a fly to load, I feed them just to have them as targets for a longer period of time!

For 500 BB and shipping, 2-3 weeks of food for my 6 chams is well worth it, reminds me of Pearl Harbor, except the ground forces win in these battles.

Nick

Nick

Thank you for the detailed response Nick, I'll be sure to pick some up in the hopefully near future.

-Jake