# Raising feeder insects?



## RachelsaurusRexU

I'm thinking about raising feeders for my Common mynah bird, Bonsai. His diet consists mostly of fruit, he gets insects almost daily, and hardboiled eggs once in a while. I've been buying Phoenix worms for him (black soldier fly larva), but it gets a little expensive. I'd like to grow his own food to save money and give him a larger variety. The insects I'm considering are Dubia roaches, wax worms, pill bugs and meal worms. I know that mealies aren't very nutritious, but I figure if I gutload and give a variety, they'll be fine to include. I'll likely still buy Phoenix worms on occasion, because he really loves them and they're supposed to be very nutritious, and I might try buying some crickets as well. He'll have A BLAST chasing those around. I have a five gallon aquarium with a screen lid and some shoebox sized plastic containers. I've read a bit about what to feed various creepy crawlers and it seems to be the same from species to species, but if anyone has personal experience in raising insects PLEASE share your knowledge! 

I feel like the gross factor with the roaches may be a little tough initially, but I'll get over it. They supposedly can't climb smooth surfaces like glass or plastic, so that makes me feel a little better, haha.


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## swolek

I've raised mealworms by accident. I had a huge colony and they just bred on their own, ha. So I think they're easy .

I tried raising crickets but the smell, noises, and escapees made it not really worth it. Oh, and the occasional rogue adults going around eating the smaller crickets... Now I just get juvies and keep them for up to a couple of weeks. They're fairly easy to breed, just a pain and so cheap in the store there's no point if feeding a single animal.

Dubia roaches are supposed to be really easy to keep but I haven't had a need to raise any. It seems like mostly Bearded Dragon owners who do.


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## minnieme

I did a quick wiki search on that bird and didn't even know you could have it as a pet! A little OT.....but is he social? 

I have no clue about the bugs though...sorry. Sounds gross. :wink:


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## RachelsaurusRexU

LOL. Yes, he's social. And yes, bugs are gross, but I kinda think raw meat and various bloody animal parts aren't so pleasant either. Whatever it takes to keep the kiddos happy and healthy.


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## RachelsaurusRexU

swolek said:


> I've raised mealworms by accident. I had a huge colony and they just bred on their own, ha. So I think they're easy .
> 
> I tried raising crickets but the smell, noises, and escapees made it not really worth it. Oh, and the occasional rogue adults going around eating the smaller crickets... Now I just get juvies and keep them for up to a couple of weeks. They're fairly easy to breed, just a pain and so cheap in the store there's no point if feeding a single animal.
> 
> Dubia roaches are supposed to be really easy to keep but I haven't had a need to raise any. It seems like mostly Bearded Dragon owners who do.


Yeah, I've kinda heard that about crickets, which is why I'd just as soon buy them. Hmmm...maybe I'll track down some Beardie owners for roach info... It seems pretty simple and straightforward though... Have you heard anything about raising pill/sow/roly poly bugs?


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## Tobi

do they eat maggots? because those are pretty easy :becky:


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## RachelsaurusRexU

I'm sure he'd happily eat maggots, but I'm not really wanting to grow them! Bleh!


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## Tobi

RachelsaurusRexU said:


> I'm sure he'd happily eat maggots, but I'm not really wanting to grow them! Bleh!


lol i know... they are so gross...

this spring when we get our chickens i was thinking about farming superworms, and they are supposedly more nutritious and easier to digest than meal worms... Maggots would be pretty inexpensive... could really just put some beef scrap in a tin outside and let em feast :lol:

There are a few good videos i was watching a few months ago, one of witch i couldn't find -_- which i liked more but didn't favorite it unfortunately... but How to breed super worms - YouTube is okay, he's a bit annoying with as much talking as he's doing but... helps to understand a bit. the superworms are a bit more of a chore than mealworms from what i've learned. you essentially have to seperate every single worm to get it to turn into a beetle... i can't imagine how much of a pain that would start to be :lol:


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## naturalfeddogs

Do they eat crickets? Kirby had a frog for a couple of years and thats what we fed him. I bought cricket food at petsmart along with moisture gel for a water source so they wouldn't drown. He had that frog for about two years I think, and I only had to buy cricket food maybe twice. It lasted that long!


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## CavePaws

I've done mealworms and crickets. The mealworms took FOREVER to actually turn into anything. And the crickets, well they were stinky and gross and ya...the rogues; waking up to those in your bed. NOT COOL.

As far as crickets go...Their diet is super easy; vegetation, water, and something with protein (cat kibble or some kind of meat) and they are good. You need to make sure you clean out the dead ones daily as well...disease does spread really quickly through the colony. They are stinky and loud and messy and I wouldn't ever breed those things again. As far as habitat, you need to give them a decent amount of space to crawl on or else they start cannibalizing. I used a 100 gallon aquarium filled with toilet paper rolls, small card board boxes, and egg cartons. It had a screen lid. They like having something kind of "marshy" to lay their eggs in, something like sand mixed with sphagnum moss will do. Also, I started out with a colony of 1,000 crickets that I ordered online. Eventually, it became too stinky and too noisy for me to want to keep up with and my beardie is almost an adult now so he doesn't need too many insects in his diet. Now he really just eats eggs for protein with the occasional mouse and superworm.


As far as mealworms go. Cole, my SO, is the one who took care of those. I believe he put them in oats and gave them slices of potato every other day. Not sure how he did all the separating that was necessary to keep the beetles from the eggs and pupa...But, we did have free (albeit very puny) mealworms for our leopard geckos for a few months. 

Now, because I only have 3 geckos and one adult beardie, I really just buy my insects from the store. Just remember...If you do crickets, keep their area clean because disease does spread really fast.


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## Caty M

We used to have a beardie and raised crickets, we were spending around $25 a week on them so thought it would be a good idea.

Until we started hearing crickets in the utility room.. in the laundry room.. in the kitchen..


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## RachelsaurusRexU

Hahaha yeah, the smell and the escapees are why I'd rather just purchase a few crickets at a time. Mealworms are pretty cheap too, and if they're a pain and not terribly nutritious, I guess I'd just as soon purchase them in small quantities at a time too. So I guess the ones I'm considering are wax worms, dubia roaches and sow bugs. 

I'd LOVE to do the soldier fly larva myself, but I really don't want escapees and flies in my house. Those would be excellent for an outdoor setup with chickens though. They're amazing conposters and very nutritious. I might try them outdoors for the chickens this spring. I did try maggots for them this past spring, but the rotting food in their bin stunk to high heaven and they really skeeved me out.


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## swolek

Look into phoenix worms, too. I have no idea how easy they are to raise but they're healthy and very palatable. I even got my dart frog to eat some small ones (an amazing feat, they're picky with foods).


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## RachelsaurusRexU

That's what I buy for him normally and he LOVES them. Funny, I was cleaning his cage tonight and underneath the very bottom layer of paper in the tray were a TON of larvae! I guess I've been accidentally breeding them! Kinda weird, though...because I haven't seen any flies. I'm going to look into a proper setup. 

I ended up deciding against wax worms after reading an article about escapees and homes becoming infested. Screw that!


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## maplewood

Do the roaches or the "lizard beatles" as they are known in my house. (if anyone tells my husband those are roaches in my basement I will hunt you down and kill you  ) Any that you don't use for yourself you should be able to sell/barter to any reptile owners in your area. Easy to keep and they don't stink like crickets do.


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## RachelsaurusRexU

Good to know! I ordered my starter colony  Care to share your experience with them? I think they'll skeeve me at first, but I'll get use to them. 

I decided to go with mealies too. Ordered my starter colony and purchased their habitat, as well as a habitat for the Isopods/pill bugs. I'll probably catch my initial stock, hopefully it's not too cold. They and the mealies will live in round critter keepers. The roaches will live in a 5 gallon tank.


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## maplewood

Don't think of them as roaches LOL "lizard bugs"

I think you'll outgrow a 5 gal aquarium rather quickly. I use a large plastic storage tote with small holes drilled in the lid for ventalation and a under the tank heater (reptile supplies) for a heat source. Left over veggies, fruit and cherios for food. My meal worm colony is pretty much the same. They'll eat about anything. The key is making sure they don't get to cold.

Good luck!


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## RachelsaurusRexU

LOL! Thank you. I wasn't sure if I could use a heater under plastic, which is the main reason I chose an aquarium. I'm a little concerned about accidents, but also the fumes from constantly heated plastic with a little Bonsai birdy in the house. I also think it would be cool to watch the....lizard bugs, hehe! Think a 10 gallon would be too small as well? I have a couple of those laying around. I plan to stack egg crate in there so there will be some extra surface area...


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## maplewood

You can do a google search or search just about any reptile forum for roach colony/ habitat. If they are well fed and kept warm they will multiply at an alarming rate LOL There are so many variations and way's to work it. Egg crates or some other surface area is a requirement no matter what size container you keep them in.


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## DaneMama

Jon and I are raising meal worms for the chickens. They're super easy, but do take a long time to establish a rotating colony that is self sustaining. 

We bought 500 meal worms, three shoe box sized containers with lids, and wheat middlings for their substrate/food. 

Put a little substrate in each, the most in with the worms for now. The other two boxes will stay empty until the worms pupate into pupa. Once they pupate you put the pupa in the second container. Then those pupa become beetles. Put the beetles in the third container. 

We put fresh veggie slices for hydration and food for the worms and beetles, pupa hardly need anything while they're dormant (just one slice of potato or something to provide minimal moisture).

The beetles will eventually lay eggs (up to 50 each) so a few weeks after putting them in their own container you have to pull them out or they're going to eat the baby worms. 

A full life cycle has taken about three months. All 500 original worms are now beetles laying eggs. And now we have thousands of baby worms growing. We will keep about 1500 worms as our new colonies and the rest will become chicken treats.


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## RachelsaurusRexU

maplewood said:


> You can do a google search or search just about any reptile forum for roach colony/ habitat. If they are well fed and kept warm they will multiply at an alarming rate LOL There are so many variations and way's to work it. Egg crates or some other surface area is a requirement no matter what size container you keep them in.


Cool, I'll do some more research. I'm not toooo worried about them being so prolific. I'm sure my chickens would be delighted to take care of the extras! Plus, like you said, I could always share with local reptile keepers.


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## RachelsaurusRexU

DaneMama said:


> Jon and I are raising meal worms for the chickens. They're super easy, but do take a long time to establish a rotating colony that is self sustaining.
> 
> We bought 500 meal worms, three shoe box sized containers with lids, and wheat middlings for their substrate/food.
> 
> Put a little substrate in each, the most in with the worms for now. The other two boxes will stay empty until the worms pupate into pupa. Once they pupate you put the pupa in the second container. Then those pupa become beetles. Put the beetles in the third container.
> 
> We put fresh veggie slices for hydration and food for the worms and beetles, pupa hardly need anything while they're dormant (just one slice of potato or something to provide minimal moisture).
> 
> The beetles will eventually lay eggs (up to 50 each) so a few weeks after putting them in their own container you have to pull them out or they're going to eat the baby worms.
> 
> A full life cycle has taken about three months. All 500 original worms are now beetles laying eggs. And now we have thousands of baby worms growing. We will keep about 1500 worms as our new colonies and the rest will become chicken treats.


Hmmmm perhaps I'll do something like this on a smaller scale. What do you do with the beetles?


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## maplewood

RachelsaurusRexU said:


> Hmmmm perhaps I'll do something like this on a smaller scale. What do you do with the beetles?


The beetles die  You're bird might eat them... But they are too crunchy for the lizards here.


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## Tobi

RachelsaurusRexU said:


> Hmmmm perhaps I'll do something like this on a smaller scale. What do you do with the beetles?


They die after 2-3 weeks usually, if they don't die within like 2 weeks, take them out and feed them to whatever you're feeding the worms to if they will have them to prevent them from eating everything.


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## RachelsaurusRexU

I shall feed them to the garbage disposals otherwise known as chickens.


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## Tobi

RachelsaurusRexU said:


> I shall feed them to the garbage disposals otherwise known as chickens.


I truly can't wait until we get ours... i'll feel so much better not letting little bits of lettuce, and tomatoes go to waste... well essentially anything else as well :lol:


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