thorny devil

[tomc1992]

are we even allowed to keep thorny devil's in captivitiy i have seen them soo much and never thought of owning one are we allowed to, if so where can we aqquire one from or a couple

[andyscott]

You cant have them in Vic, not sure about other states.
They are very hard to keep though, they only eat ants. So feeding is very difficult.
Cheers Andy.

[dintony]

I don't think so. They are extremely hard to care for in captivity because of their eating requirements.

[tomc1992]

ahh alrighty shoulda had a look at the whole , only eat ants thing ahaha thanks anyway

[Trouble]

I havent heard of that many in captivity... they only eat one type of black ant, and its only found in the middle of Aus!!
Good luck finding if anyone breeds them

[snakecharma]

i have heard of 1-2 people that are keeping them but yes the eating requirments would be very hard to sort out in captivity

cheerz

[Dragontamer]

how hard are the ants to breed? i know they can eat 1000s a day but if you had 4 or 5 established hills. i for one wouldnt mind putting in the extra effort to own such a magnificent creature

[grimbeny]

http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/s...arch-id/924878

[hornet]

Originally Posted by Trouble

I havent heard of that many in captivity... they only eat one type of black ant, and its only found in the middle of Aus!!
Good luck finding if anyone breeds them

Thats a common misconception. In the wild the feed mainly from ants in the genus Iridiomyrmex but will take basicly any small black ants that walk in trails. I know of one private breeder and a mate of mine is the keeper of them at a wildlife park. They normally get fed 6-8 times per day so they are very time consuming.

[mrmikk]

What feeding methods do they use Hornet, and do you know how/where they source the ants? As in, do you know if they breed the ants themselves, or collect elsewhere?

[Jen]

there was an article in the aust rep mag about molochs, not sure which volume tho

[hornet]

my mate, joe at the alice springs desert park who wrote the article, uses the "can it" method. Tin can, plastic mesh lining the sides, cat food smeared in it. Its then placed near an active ant trail where it fills with ants then a lid is placed on and transported to the exibit

[Miss_Croft]

I have never kept thorny devils – but would think they might be able to take some other substitute food like Mazuri Insectivore food. https://www.mazuri.com/Home.asp?Products=2&Opening=2
Or even what the zoos feed echidna’s. They might even take pinhead crickets or flightless fruit flies http://www.timberlinefisheries.com/fruit%20flies.htm.

But right now there is no incentive to determine an effective husbandry method of keeping thorny devils. (There are laws against keeping thorny devils in Australia). I am sure if some were smuggled to the US or Europe – where there are no restriction on keeping Australian reptiles – then people would find a way to keep them. They are very pretty and unique animals and I am sure they would be the jewel in any reptile collection. And like most Australian animals – once the feeding/environment hurdle is cleared they will live and breed well in captivity.

[Miss_Croft]

For those of you who believe reading about an exotic animal will make you want to keep one – STOP READING and go onto a different thread. For those of you who want to learn more about the Australian herps by leveraging all available information – keep on reading.

Here in the US we have horned lizards – they are very similar to the Australian thorny devil as in the wild they predominately only eat one type of ants – harvester ants.

Anyways it is not illegal to keep horned lizards in some states and people have learnt how to keep them as a pet. Here is a forum on the horned lizard – it might help a little if you are thinking about the logistics of keeping thorny devils.

http://forums.kingsnake.com/forum.php?catid=52

A little about keeping them as pets
http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Lizard,%20Horned%20Toad.htm

As mentioned before like many Australian animals there is no incentive to learning how to keep or breeding the Australian animals.

My guess is you will be able to supplement their food with just about any small insect that will crawl up to them (pinhead crickets, flightless fruit flies and even small mealworms. I am sure they will make great pets if the Australian authorities allowed them as house hold pets.

[notechistiger]

Just because one species can adapt to another food source doesn't mean the other can or will. Also, I know a few people that had attempted to supplement their food, and nada. So, as current things stand, your guess would be wrong.