Photograph courtesy of Clint’s Reptiles
We’ve lately lined a few different feeder bugs right here on The Tye-Dyed Iguana weblog, together with our articles:
Methods to Feed and Maintain Mealworms
Methods to Feed and Maintain Dubia Roaches
However do you know that your insectivore can really eat all kinds of bugs? You’re not restricted to just one or two varieties. Yow will discover the sorts of bugs that work finest to your price range and skill to maintain them.
Listed here are a pair extra choices for what to feed an insectivorous reptile or amphibian.
Drosophila fruit flies
Clint’s Reptiles
Drosophila fruit flies begin out as maggots (small wormlike creatures). This can be a turnoff to some unique pet keepers, however maintain studying to search out out the advantages earlier than you determine you don’t need to buy drosophila fruit flies to your lizard or frog to eat.
Fruit flies are extremely simple to maintain for feeding your animal. You place them in a plastic container with fruit fly paste to eat. You should purchase premade fruit fly paste or make your individual.
There’s additionally a particular fruit fly substrate that sometimes comes with fruit fly cultures. The substrate offers the maggots and flies one thing to crawl round in in order that they don’t drown within the meals paste.
Fruit fly maggots and pupa by Clint’s Reptiles
Earlier than you get too frightened about having fruit flies throughout your own home, know that drosophila fruit flies are a flightless fruit fly species. They’ll solely stroll.
When may you need to feed drosophila fruit flies to your reptile or amphibian? These flies are fairly small feeder bugs, so they’re excellent for smaller animals that will do higher with smaller prey.
Drosophila fruit flies breed very simply and make lots of of extra flies at a time.
Superworms
Superworm larva and pupa by Clint’s Reptiles
Superworms are similar to mealworms. Like mealworms, they’re the larval stage of a beetle—only a totally different beetle from mealworm beetles. Superworms are a lot bigger than mealworms and are thought-about to be extra nutritious since they include extra “goo” to chitinous exoskeleton.
The exoskeleton will not be a really nutritious a part of bugs, so these juicier worms is usually a actually good diet supply, particularly for bigger insectivores.
Superworms in comparison with mealworms by Clint’s Reptiles
One good factor about superworms is that they begin out pretty small and molt a number of instances as they develop, so you possibly can feed them to your amphibian or reptile at no matter stage is the best measurement to your animal to eat, so long as you feed them earlier than they pupate into beetles.
Superworms are much less simple to breed than most different feeder bugs, however they’re cheap to purchase in massive portions and have a protracted sufficient lifespan that for most individuals it actually isn’t essential to breed them.
Superworms are a low upkeep feeder insect that may be put in a container with a small quantity of meals, and that’s all they really want. Know that they are going to eat one another if not given a meals supply, and they are often harmful to unique pets that aren’t wholesome sufficient to eat them straight away, because the superworms might chew the lizard or frog.
One other perk of this feeder insect is that they’re quiet, so even should you’re retaining them in massive portions, they received’t make irritating noises.
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