Raising feeder insects

[animalover]

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Quote:
They're not very common where I live. In fact, my yard is pretty devoid of bugs. Some have asked me why not raise you regular run of the mill roaches, but of course, that's a stupid idea. If one escaped I'd be infested. If one of these escaped, it would be dead in a week.

 

[Roo on Harley]

Crickets here.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Quote:
Blech. Worst insect on the world! Smelly, noisy, jumpy, and a low protein percent.

 

[Roo on Harley]

Quote:
Blech. Worst insect on the world! Smelly, noisy, jumpy, and a low protein percent.

I agree there are better and for me,grasshoppers and junebugs are in abundance.
I also use these to fish with lol.
Here are a few factoids about crickets from Manataka American Indian Council.
100 grams of cricket contains: 121 calories, 12.9 grams of protein, 5.5 g. of fat, 5.1 g. of
carbohydrates, 75.8 mg. calcium, 185.3 mg. of phosphorous, 9.5 mg. of iron, 0.36 mg. of
thiamin, 1.09 mg. of riboflavin, and 3.10 mg. of niacin.
http://www.manataka.org/page160.html

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Blech. Worst insect on the world! Smelly, noisy, jumpy, and a low protein percent.

I agree there are better and for me,grasshoppers and junebugs are in abundance.
I also use these to fish with lol.
Here are a few factoids about crickets from Manataka American Indian Council.
100 grams of cricket contains: 121 calories, 12.9 grams of protein, 5.5 g. of fat, 5.1 g. of
carbohydrates, 75.8 mg. calcium, 185.3 mg. of phosphorous, 9.5 mg. of iron, 0.36 mg. of
thiamin, 1.09 mg. of riboflavin, and 3.10 mg. of niacin.
http://www.manataka.org/page160.html

don't they also have lots of calcium because of the chitin? I used to feed those and Ghost shrimp to my baby Red Eared Sliders.

 

[einhard]

Quote:
Roo, I love the line in your sig in the context of this fascinating insect thread. I had almost talked myself into the roaches when I saw "You Eat What Your Chickens Eat."

Okay, how long does it take for the ick factor to wear off? I guess I need to bone up on some Andrew Zimmern...

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
Roo, I love the line in your sig in the context of this fascinating insect thread. I had almost talked myself into the roaches when I saw "You Eat What Your Chickens Eat."

Okay, how long does it take for the ick factor to wear off? I guess I need to bone up on some Andrew Zimmern...

The ick factor of raising them goes away pretty quickly, the ick factor of feeding them too, the ick factor of handling them takes a little longer. I still wear gloves (the thin ones you get in the first aid section of the store) when I harvest them to feed to the chickens. I raise roaches, they are very easy w/ minimal care.

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
This reply is a bit late, but I have the answer to your question. Generally, you can keep as much roaches you can in a single enclosure until you see signs of cannibilism/stress. Sings of this are - eaten/clipped antennae, chewed wings, eating the recently molted, eaten/dropped egg cases, and aggressiveness. (Males will fight if you have too many) Also the smell can indicate overcrowding. As far as feeding goes, I ONLY feed off adult males and male nymphs. The females are too valuable to feed off, one female equals 200 babies. One male can fertilize 10 females in it's lifetime, so start with the ratio 1:10 and feed off the males (I do 2 dozen a week or so) until you have roughly one male per 10 females. You can do 1:5 though. I don't like too many males since they simply compete with food, and sometimes eat newborn babies.

So how big a colony, or how many would I need to feed off a couple of dozen a day?
I need to go back and look at your pics of the diff in the male and female nymphs. The adults are no brainers, but I need to be able to spot the young males for feeding better / quicker.

 

[Kassaundra]

The girls just got their sunday dinner, I've been feeding off my extra males to them on Sunday's. I wear a bright blue medical type glove to pick up the roaches, and to hand them out, I put them in a 2 ltr bottle w/ the top cut off for transport from the colony to the girls run, and I swear they know what they are about to get when they see the blue glove. They are always interested in what I might be bringing them when I go anywhere near the runs, but if I am wearing the blue glove they actually dance!