whoa!! flies!!

[hawaiianice99]

So i decided to order some blue bottle flies as a new feeder for my chams, thought it would be something new to try out.
I ordered them under the assumption that they would come as pupae/maggots and later turn into flies, couple days go by and they arrive. i open the box remove the newspaper and... WHOA!! FLIES!!
about 10 flies come right at my face, i quickly closed the box and put it in the freezer for a few minutes. when i took the box out and removed the newspaper i found the little dish the flies were in was loaded, and i mean loaded with about 1000 flies! so after transfering them to a cricket keeper i had and letting them out of their dish about 20 flies escaped but other than that it was very interesting to say the least.
My only guess is that it must have gotten to hot in the box and speed up the hatching of the flies, i dont know cuz i dont know anything about the hatching cycle of flies, but now im prepared for the next time.

* My chams cant get enough of the flies, they eat the flies more than the crix BTW.

Just thought that i would share.

 

[JoshCrane1]

what kind of chams you got? and how old? i havent tried bb flies yet and was considering it, just as long as their somewhat cost efficient.lol

 

[hawaiianice99]

i have veileds, about 5-8 months, an order of 1000 blue bottle flies cost me about $9. and i feed about 10 flies to each cham.

Its better than watching TV, you just put some flies in and sit back,

here is where i ordered from...

http://www.mantisplace.com/feederinsects.html#BBP

 

[JoshCrane1]

awesome, so i guess you have to feed them too, as well as any feeder insect.
how do you containt all of them? and how do you just feed off ten at a time?

 

[lonomac]

I did this last week experimenting. I had a bowl full of maggots that I thought were dead, threw them in the trash. 2 days later i picked the trash lid up to throw something away, about 300 flies blasted into my house.

I threw them away just because keeping flies turned out to be a huge hassle. Very easy to feed and breed though. You can keep the flies inside netting but getting them out easily is what made me decide not to use flies as a feeder next time.

 

[hawaiianice99]

i keep them in the big size cricket keeper that you can get at any petstore for like $11. when they are shipped they come in a plastic container simular to a tupperware sorta thing. the important thing is to get that container into the cricket keeper asap, so-as you dont have any escapees. the flies will hatch over time and all you have to do is open the cricket keeper inside your cham enclosure and they fly to their dooms!hahahaha! i will try and post pics later to help visually. also a trick to slow your flies down is to put them in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes and then put them in the cage with your cham.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Too bad their nutritional value is so poor.
Really fun enrichment feeder though.

-Brad

 

[hawaiianice99]

here are a couple of pics of the cricket keeper and little container the flies are shipped in. Inside of the keeper you can see my little first timer setup of stuff. I have the container that they came in, strawberries and mango slices, and a cotton ball soaked in water. It has been working really well, and the fruit makes the keeper smell fruity not stinky like when you deal with crickets. i have just been dropping in a little fruit every now and then, they are eating like pigs and have eaten 2 whole strawberries so far. and i keep the cotton ball wet by just dropping droplets with a straw through the top of the keeper, its the easiest way and this way you avoid any escapees.