Ant eaters / Thorny Devils

[Simon_Archibald]

Wonder where they get all the ants for the thorny devils. I could donate some of the little children of unwed parents from my house.

This comment from the reptile parks thread got me thinking about feeding captive Thorny Devils. Does anyone who works or volunteers at a Wildlife Park / Zoo have anything to do with them in captivity? I'm just wondering if ants is all they feed them, and if so, where are the supplies coming from?

When we took a group of kids from work to Coffs Harbour, we went to their zoo there. Instead of feeding the echidnas only ants, they made a wet echidna-mix to supplement the diet so they didn't need to feed them thousands of ants a day. Just wondering if this sort of thing could be done with Thorny Devils?

Simon Archibald

 

[Guest]

Hi, my mate has a pair. He has them feeding on ordinary house ants!! which he just breeds himself, and collects from nests around his yard

 

[zoe]

someone said to get a rock with honey on it or something and leave it outside til it gets covered in ants and then put it in the enclosure lol. could work... :?

 

[Daisy]

We can't keep them in NSW can we? Love to have one even if hard to feed.

 

[JeffHardy]

Can't keep them in NSW at the moment. You'd need to satisfy DEC (NPWS) that there is a legitimate captive bred source interstate that can sell to private collectors. Then there would have to be an assessment of the species by the Native Animal Keepers Consultative Committee. They would be Class 2 if they were permitted.

 

[westaussie]

The best way to feed these lizards is to attract the ant with food ( yea a lolly or something ) And wait for the ants to form a trail from the nest to the food source. Molochs tend to feed from these ant trails rather than eating ants at random. Just place the lizard over the trail and let im go for it.

 

[basketcase]

taronga may have them soon

theyve started breeding ants, needing 30 large self sustaining colonies b4 they can consider getting them

 

[ad]

In qld we have a small black ant in the back yard - i dont know how far its range extends south. Danny Brown told me thornys will live on these ants happily. One of his friends was trialling keeping them in captivity - that was a few years ago.
That ant supply should make them easier to keep up here.
Feed them in the style westaussie said. Sit them on the trail.

Has anyone seen them change colour? How rapid is it.

 

[spottedpython]

we have plenty of termite ants nest around this area so it wouldn't be hard to feed them here.

 

[soulweaver]

does any1 know what states you can keep them in? is it just N.T?

 

[spottedpython]

don't think were allowd to keep them in victoria.

 

[Fuscus]

you can keep them in SA with a high specialist licence. Don't know of anyone who actually does though.

 

[BROWNS]

I had no idea we were allowed to kep them...they would be awesome..like a miniature dinosaur...

I'd say it'll be a long while before they are commom in collections if at all....Have there ever been any available anywhere at all?