Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I would like to know how much you guys spend on ants per month, assuming that your HL's ants are solely ordered. I have been reading up alot on Hl for the past few weeks, and honestly the only thing stopping me from purchasing them is the intimidation of supplying a couple of thousand ants for them a month. I am already ordering a couple of thousands of other feeders for my herps, and was wondering if i could feed them some circkets or mealworms, instead of just ants. I know they can eat up to 200 ants a day, but do you guys really feed them that much a day? what else can you feed them? Is it okay to compose their diet of 50% ants and 50% other feeders.I had my eyes set on Round tail HL or the regular DHL. I would greatly appreciate your response from all you Expereicned Hl keepers, Thanks in advance.

The HLs require the ants and that is just a fact about HLS that you are going to have to accept. 200 ants a day is the typical requirement during the recovery from hibernation and all during the Spring - early Summer activity period. In captivity, you negate the mid season aestivation that HLs in the wild go through and the diet requirements do not decrease because of the continued activity. If you want to keep HLs, ants are going to be the mainstay of the diet. The 50% you mention is at the low end of the requirement, and is species dependent. In actuality, 70% to 80% is the minimal requirement for healthy HLs. If the cost of meeting this is a problem for you, I recommend that you do not attempt to keep HLs. Crickets and a variety of other insects are okay for snacks and minor supplements, but not a major part of the diet. Mealworms are not recommended at all. The types of ants may also be HL species dependent. Lester G. Milroy III