Reptile & Amphibian Forums

if seen these threads now about the everywhere

anyways what are the ones with green backs?..im afraid to feed those to my lizards becuase they tend to stay around dead animals

i was wondering if there is away to starilize....weeellll.. dung
House flys are attracted to it and i have rabbits witch tend to have flys around there bathroom "area" in the cage. What if i some how sterilize the poop and put it in s jar to attract flys and let the culture breed for a month or so till the parasite infested wild ones are gone?

this sound so gross to me but would it work?.

what do the kammers do to raise theri house flys?

The only way to provide "clean" flies for your chams is to breed them yourself and raise them on a cultured food. I don't think it matters which fly you choose, just what they eat. There are housefly gutloads available, recipes, and common sense that makes them pretty easy. I use a fine powdered gutload mix from www.herpnutrition.com. It's very easy to prepare.

hey, good to know about herpnutrition's food! I never thought to look there event tho' that's where I get my cricket food. Do you rear them for your birds and chams? Do you get them from Skipio?

lele

>>The only way to provide "clean" flies for your chams is to breed them yourself and raise them on a cultured food. I don't think it matters which fly you choose, just what they eat. There are housefly gutloads available, recipes, and common sense that makes them pretty easy. I use a fine powdered gutload mix from www.herpnutrition.com. It's very easy to prepare.
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles (Jaida, no name)
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - (still no names)

I get the large housefly pupae from Grubco and let them emerge in timed batches. I think their minimum order is 500. I keep the pupae in a bar fridge at 45-48F (the regular house fridge is too cold and will kill more of them) and set out 50-100 to warm up near my furnace. Those little bar fridges are great for keeping various feeder insects. The adult flies emerge hungry in about 3 days. To house them until feeding I use either a wide mouthed glass jar with a lid of window screen or a small Reptarium. The gutload is a paste you pour on the screen or put out in a shallow dish. Getting them from jar to cage is the hard part. You can put the jar in the fridge for 2-3 minutes to slow the flies down, shake-and-bake them with any needed dusts, and dump them into the cage before they warm up again. From the Reptarium I just scoop them up with a jar as they climb on the mesh, chill as before. The first time I did this was a mess. The styrofoam shipping container got too warm and I picked up a box that was literally vibrating with 1000 hungry flies. That was a nightmare trying to get them into some type of cage and not loose in the house. I was swatting flies for weeks and thinking how much each squished fly cost me.

Hi Carlton - thanks for the set up info! I looked at grubco and only see larva available...hmmm. With only one cham and three anoles - well, I guess the geckos would eat them, too - will I lose a lot buying 500? kammer's shipping is high and grubco not far behind. Skipio's is only $5.50Kammers say 2-3 days in fridge and some other place (don't recall, maybe skipio's) said 2 weeks. What has your experience been?

lele

>>I get the large housefly pupae from Grubco and let them emerge in timed batches. I think their minimum order is 500. I keep the pupae in a bar fridge at 45-48F (the regular house fridge is too cold and will kill more of them) and set out 50-100 to warm up near my furnace. Those little bar fridges are great for keeping various feeder insects. The adult flies emerge hungry in about 3 days. To house them until feeding I use either a wide mouthed glass jar with a lid of window screen or a small Reptarium. The gutload is a paste you pour on the screen or put out in a shallow dish. Getting them from jar to cage is the hard part. You can put the jar in the fridge for 2-3 minutes to slow the flies down, shake-and-bake them with any needed dusts, and dump them into the cage before they warm up again. From the Reptarium I just scoop them up with a jar as they climb on the mesh, chill as before. The first time I did this was a mess. The styrofoam shipping container got too warm and I picked up a box that was literally vibrating with 1000 hungry flies. That was a nightmare trying to get them into some type of cage and not loose in the house. I was swatting flies for weeks and thinking how much each squished fly cost me.
-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles (Jaida, no name)
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - (still no names)