Calci Gents

[kingofnobbys]

What do they eat ?

Do they smell ?

Can they be safely kept in the fridge so most don't become flies before the pet lizards get to eat them ?

 

[Shotta]

Nothing until hatched/morph im pretty sure

They don't really smell

Calci gents cant be kept in the fridge (well they can but will die off), it's best to use them in a few days

 

[kingofnobbys]

ok .... thanks .

I think 2 new hatchling beardies and a couple of adult water skinks will be hard pressed to eat 2500 in a few weeks or how ever long it takes them morph to flies , and my adult lizards wont be interested in such a small food item.

Can they be frozen in small batches and still offered as a quality dead insect ?

 

[Shotta]

Yes they can be frozen and fed dead ones.,you could always get gents(maggots) and coat them in calcium powder before feeding(gents can stay in the fridge longer than their counterpart) i am currently working on culturing some myself from houseflys and black soldier flys

 

[kingofnobbys]

I guess I might wind up freezing most of them and using them as fishing bait (wonder how whiting, bream and yellowtail will take to them ?).

I've never used calci-gents as lizard food , though a bought some gents once and discovered most them had pupated and it was a PITB to separate the gents from the sawdust and found my water skink and beardies (who were juveniles ATT) wouldn't touch them.
Hoping since calci-gents are bit bigger than gents, the lizards might find them more appealing and attractive as a food (if they do, I'll make them a regular staple along with the mealworms and small crickets for the water skink, and supers and med-large crickets for the beardies, especially since silkworms seem hard to find advertised locally on Gumtree and the classifieds this summer).

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Yes they can be frozen and fed dead ones.,you could always get gents(maggots) and coat them in calcium powder before feeding(gents can stay in the fridge longer than their counterpart) i am currently working on culturing some myself from houseflys and black soldier flys

Is it worth a quick blanch in boiling water prior to snap freezing them (like silkworms). I've tried freezing mealworms and the water skink still ate them when freshly thawed but they went off QUICK once thawed and I'm not sure how goodness in them is preserved on freezing and then thawing.
Never tried freezing silkworms though I've heard of herpers doing this when they have a bumper crop of big silkworms.

 

[Shotta]

yes you can, you can also feed gents to adult lizards like beardies or bluetongues..just mix them in with their Veggies.also keep in mind they are pretty small around 1-2 cms long so they may not last as long as you'd think