Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello hey could you please read the responce i left you from your cyrus wanted to visit post
thanks
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chameleon76

Hi Kevin,

I did read it and apologize for not responding sooner. Thanks for the compliment on Cyrus I copied your reply/my reply here:

he likes mealworms right now especially supers, curious how does your male prefer them?

I just began feeding him the supers to see if he could handle them - he sure can and he LOVES them! I place them on the screen and he shoots almost immediately and will even take them from my hand (he will NOT take any other feeder that way.)

Maro likes when th supers crawl up the screen although we all know the worms only do what you want them to 10 percent of the time LOL.

A way to get them on the screen is put it a small cup (like the 1/2cup GladWare container) and put the opening against the screen. Usually it will crawl toward the screen and once it is locked on and head up take the cup away.

It also seems he is tired of silkies as well. I hope he come back around to them soon.
I found that Luna and Darwin both grow tired of silkies, so it really s--ks if you have too many going! I have not bothered to hatch any out for Cyrus yet. I am going to hatch some out in a couple months b/c I will have side-blotched babies in a few months and hope they will take them and baby mantids. I will grow some silkies on for Cyrus, Darwin and the blotchies pair.

I wanted to ask you a question about local mothes. I live in cinci area and was wandering how many and which spiecies of mothes are at all toxic and are there any more benificial than others. I really cant wait for the katydids to come out . They are a favorite around here.

For the most part (to my knowledge) adult moths are pretty safe as feeders. It is the caterpillar stage that can get tricky - spines containing formic acid (io moth), hair that can irritate (tent caterpillars), etc. I do not know if the toxicity (say of the io) is transferred to the adult in anyway - I do not believe so, but this question prompted me to ask some of my "expert" friends and will let you know when I hear back.

But what you find flitting around your lights at night should be safe. The drab gray, brown, tan, white are fine. Moths that feed (some do not, like the wild silk moths that I rear - luna, polyphemus, etc.) mainly feed on nectar so the pesticide issue can be a concern but many of the ones we see have such a short life span and consume small amounts it should not be of concern. I collect some and feed to everyone. The geometer moths (inchworm caterpillars) are frequently found (some are very pretty and nicely patterned) and are safe.

The general color rule of nature pertains to all insects: combinations of black/orange, black/red, black/yellow are warning colors - something you rarely see in moths.

Here is a link to moth silhouettes to help you at least figure out what family it is

hope this helps!
Moth Silhouettes

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - swifty and blotcha for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet