Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Have any of you fed mantids to your uros?

I havent yet (not for lack of opportunity) but find the uros sit and stare at them incessantly. Even the mantids that look like leaves or other objects, which is pretty interesting that they recognize a very still leaf-like object as food. Makes me think they would recognize phasmids as well...

Anyhow, I am going to try it one of these days as well as some pill bugs I collected last night (going to try my hand at culturing them as well).

-Leah
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www.wildeyereptiles.com

Chameleons, geckos & invertebrates

let us know how those pill bugs work out. also, if its not too much to ask, can you take a pic of the type of pill bug you're gonna try culturing if it works? some people on the gga listserv were talkin about using those as food, and theres a lot of different types of em. i thought they produced some sort of toxin, but i dont know where i got that from and those things would make awesome feeders for phantasticus.

Sure I will take some pics. They are good ole Missouri pill bugs Round, grey, you know the type, lol.
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www.wildeyereptiles.com

Chameleons, geckos & invertebrates

Most phasmids produce nauxious chemicals as well... I would be weary of using them... Also, I know someone who had minimal success using pillbugs as an alternative, but not supplemtary, food source for Uros in the ebenaui group... But they are easy as hell to culture...
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Ben

yea, even if they werent hard to culture, they're still just about everywhere you go so it wouldnt be hard to get some and throw them aside for a few weeks to watch for any other bugs. from what i know of, theres 2 general types found, theres the ones that i think are called the wood lice that dont roll up into a ball, then theres the roly polies that roll up into a ball. which are you all speaking of? i remember feeding wood lice to some hatchling ground skinks last summer, then within a few days i found them all dead. dont know for sure if it was the root of the problem, but it definitely made me suspicious of the lil bugs. ive always wanted to try them on my uros but i honestly dont wanna take that risk!

We have both kinds (the non- rolling ones we call sow bugs, the rolling are pill bugs) here, and I will have both in culture, but the majority are pill bugs. I doubt they are toxic to Uroplatus, but I will let you all know if they are. We've fed the pill bugs to a lot of different animals, without ill effect. Its not to say that the ones you fed hadnt been eating cedar or something toxic and killed yours though.
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www.wildeyereptiles.com

Chameleons, geckos & invertebrates

thats a very good point leah, i think you may have actually hit the nail on the head. although it wasnt likely to be cedar (havent seen any cedars around my place in raleigh), but there was a lot of long leaf pines back there, but its also where i found the mother skink who laid the eggs to begin with.

Oh Leah..I couldn't do that...mantids look way TOO cool haha..
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Uroplatus sikorae 1.1
Uroplatus henkeli
Ball python
Hogg Island Boa Constrictor
Several species of tarantula

Haha, you start to not care how "cool" they are when you have to individually feed 600 of them 3x a week for 4 hours...
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www.wildeyereptiles.com

Chameleons, geckos & invertebrates

Leah-
There has been a significant amount of discussion of isopods as food on Frognet. Someone even posted a ref for a paper that said they have a very high calcium content. They may be a great tool to boost Ca for laying females!