Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am more of a visual person, I always like to see how things look before I go through with them. I am a volunteer at a local non-profit shelter for reptiles. We are going to contact canadian tire to see if they can donate supplies for us (drawers below, and was wondering how you think this set up will work.

Pupa- top drawer will be filled with film can canisters, around 50-75. I will start by only filling 25-30 and then in a week fill up the rest, so the beetle production is offset.

Beetles- beetles will breed here. There will be food, water (potatoes), and wood (to lay eggs in).

Weeks2-20 - everty 2 weeks I will rotate the worms to a new bin. When they reach week 18 - 20 I can pull out new breeders.

At the moment we are still ordering full grown supers as food so I will be able to always be turning out new beetles until It becomes self sufficient.

Any help would be great, tell me what you think??

Jordan,
www.rainforestsearch.com - RRRS

This looks like a good setup. Changes I would suggest would be

1) put the beetles in the biggest drawers. The worms don't need as much space.
2) use carrots as a water source - they are less prone to mold than potatoes
3) use a clear plastic fishing lure case or hardware organizer (box with lots of compartments and flip lid) rather than film canisters. It's easer to fill up, and you can see at a glance what state they are all in. Just put it in a dark drawer.
4) Saw grooves into the wood for egg deposition.

I haven't kept close track of growth rates, but 20 weeks to full growth isn't far from what I'm seeing.

Colin