Reptile & Amphibian Forums

and I was wondering about diseases in wild caught bugs. I am primarily wondering about flies as they seem to be(as I am reading in the below posts)a favorite to get a Cham to eat when other things are failing. 2 Qs:

1. Someone on another forum wrote me and told me to be careful when feeding a wild caught housefly to animals as they carry a lot of disease. When I wrote back in inquiry of this as many Dart Frog people will culture Maggots to feed to Darts and I wanted to make sure there are no unforeseen problems with this, he did not reply. Do you folks know if this is in fact a risk(diseases from wildcaught Common Houseflies)?

2. I was culturing Fruit Flies for my Darts and some houseflies got to the culture somehow. They layed eggs in the FF culture and maggots arose. Not realizing that the colossal maggots were not just very robust FF maggots from the very nutritious culture(so I beamed), they emerged as houseflies to my suprise. The qs is-Has anyone cultured houseflies, and is this process a very involved and, dunno how to put it but, gross? I read that many of you will order the flies. Is it for ease, to make sure no diseases are involved or some other reason? I imagine that the shipping could be very expensive and if I am worried about my Cham, I just want to have access to flyers without waiting.

Sorry so long, I'm just trying to cover all my bases. Thanks-maggie

Hiyas Magz!

Hope you had a great Christmas! With regards to the questions of clean wild houseflies...all you have to do is think about WHERE you see flies most often. I see them in and around poop, trash, dead animals, etc. If you are what you eat, then feeding wild caught flies to chams makes them carrion eaters. I suppose you COULD catch a bunch of flies and breed them in a cup like you do fruit flies and let the adults die or fly off once the eggs are laid thereby assuring "clean" flies for your chams.

Personally, I tried the flies from americancricketranch.com and they were very good at breeding new colonies but my chams (jacksons) did not seem to care for them one bit. You CAN purchase eggs from skippios and hatch them yourself and save on overnight shipping. You can also order them from americancricketranch. They show up as mainly eggs with a few flies hatched. They hatch in about 2 days at room temps and then keep hatching and hatching and hatching.

those are my 2 cents on the subject. I am very leery about WC bugs of any kind so I prefer to buy mine and not run the risk of infections in my kids.
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Raf

1.2 Jacksons Adults (Frank, Patty, Lucille)
0.0.1 Jackson's baby (George, R.I.P. 11/17/2003)
1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
1.1 Veiled - No Names Yet
0.1 Adult Sulcatta (POOPIE,I bought it from Victor at Kobey's in SD)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY, From Victor as well)
1.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis and Dorkus)
0.0.1 3 toed box turtle - No Name Yet
0.0.1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle - No Name Yet
1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
0.1 Black Lab (Krissy)
0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too

Hey there: Thanks for the input. It sounds like buying the eggs are the best sure way to go. Since Chams can last a bit longer then Darts on not eating, I suppose waiting for shipping is not as scary as it would be for a Dart. Thanks for your help again! Maggie

Magz,

youre in california. Most suppliers seem to be in california too. Shipping is usually next day for even ground shipments. I think if you order some houseflies from either skippios or americancricketranch you'll have food as soon as they arrive. The houseflies are prodigious breeders and hatch really quickly. from one day to the next I had a full vial of them ready to be eaten.

I have not ordered from skippios but many here have. I have ordered from acr (san diego) and I was able to pick the stuff up from them but they do ship quickly.

hope this helps.
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Raf

1.2 Jacksons Adults (Frank, Patty, Lucille)
0.0.1 Jackson's baby (George, R.I.P. 11/17/2003)
1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
1.1 Veiled - No Names Yet
0.1 Adult Sulcatta (POOPIE,I bought it from Victor at Kobey's in SD)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY, From Victor as well)
1.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis and Dorkus)
0.0.1 3 toed box turtle - No Name Yet
0.0.1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle - No Name Yet
1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
0.1 Black Lab (Krissy)
0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too

Thanks Raf! You are always so helpful with the info! You are in CA too? Great! Maybe I'll run into you at one of the local shows! Thanks-Maggie in San Gabriel, CA