The need to breed

[instar]

Hello Aps,
A very wise freind has brought to mind a subject thats important to all keepers of lizards, frogs, turtles.
There are at present, rather few major suplliers (commercial) of insects
to supply both our hobby, and bird keepers etc.
As a result of growing intrest in this hobby, there are seasonal shortages.
This is a result of a boosted demand for cb insects during the hatching periods from oct onward.
This happens yearly and often these major suppliers cant keep up and they become scarce.
We need to encourage more herpers to breed insects at home, anywhere you have space, this way as a community, we supply each other when commercial insects are scarce. We do each other a favour, One herper breeds rats the other insects, they trade, trade is good.
Please do your part for our hobby and meet other herpers into the bargain, never short of food for your animals again.
Buy from freinds, save money and know what your getting!
Just a thought for the day. Time to start is now. If you already breed your own, why not expand to supply your freinds, its quite easy. Put a notice of any home bred insects in the for sale forum, they go like hotcakes!

 

[Reptilegirl]

thats a great idea inny... i've got SFR and crickets that i'm trying to breed at the moment.. and i like to start breeding worms too... but i'm not sure what kind yet... also been thinking about breeding mice... but i'd have to get them past mum first.
Megz

 

[instar]

Lol well done reptile girl ! Breed em in mums wardrobe shell never know! :wink: :lol:

 

[Scale_Addiction]

we need a big-ass rat breeder on the northside,

i gave it a go, but sucked at rats.

i breed mice now, but not even enough to feed my gear.

 

[freerider]

I would love to, but everytime i buy bulk bugs half die and the rest get eaten before they even get a chance to become toey, let alone breed!!!

 

[instar]

Secret is keep em dry! Shhhh! :wink:

 

[BROWNS]

Well just set crickets up for breeding and a post by Nome recently has the perfect recipee to breed them well....Have woodies powering and hopefully breeding but have to look into more detail.We get native woodies under mlch etc around the place and compared to the woodies available which all my gex love they go even harder when i stick a few bush woodies in there....i'm lucky i have a great rodent supplier at good prices and hate breeding them myself.

I think it's a top idead instar as pinkies there's always a shortage of around hatching time and the hot wether kills off a lot of breeders stock sometimes so be well prepared beforehand.Great for the hobby as it's not a commercial thing and if any money were to be made or exchanged i'm sure it would go back into food for the herps....

A little off topic but relating to a recent thread i received some crickets and woodies from AnimalAttraction through Pisces and 3 days to get here i think,i didn't open them for a day and transferred them all last night and all had good numbers and not one dead so i was very happy with that as that hasn't been the case in the past.

 

[instar]

Cool Andy. What we need is a insect breeding members forum for each state, Shipping insects interstate can be disasterous, we all need local supplies. Gradually names could be added for each state who breeds what and where they are. You could search by locality then.
P.s Nomes idea was bonza! gonna give it a go myself i think.

 

[alexr]

everytime i buy bulk bugs half die

Yeah - I picked up 1000 sfr two weeks ago and at least half are dead. Very frustrating...

Once I get mine going I should have more than enough for my one beardie - and would be happy to share any excess (good thinking Inny!)...

The only thing that I can think that went wrong was high levels of moisture. If anyone has any other tips (yep. read the herp shops care sheet) let me know.

(btw, what is the optimum density of roaches that you should aim towards? surly even roaches need room to breath or rather breed)

 

[instar]

I think just not so dense that cleaning is made hard, if it looks like alot of adults, split into two containers evenly. DRy Dry Dry !

 

[Nome]

I hope crix breeding works for you guys, it was a lot of trial and error to work out what worked best. I had them kept reasonably warm as they were in a heated herp room when I did them well last winter/spring, I was living in a colder part of QLD. If it's too cold, they don't seem to lay much, keeping them above 20 degrees worked much better. You could just pop the tub on top of a snake enclosure. I haven't started up another here yet as it's winter the spiders aren't eating much, but it's on my neverending list of things to do in the next month :lol: .

We found here with the SFR's they were dying from the cold. It doesn't get very cold where we are as we are coastal NSW, but were still losing a lot every night. Since we popped the tub on top of a snake enclosure, we aren't losing any anymore.

 

[steve6610]

i'm lucky i have a great rodent supplier at good prices

thanks browns, it's our pleasure, anything to come up and see your collection of ripper jungles,
i'm currently breeding sfr and maybe in the near future i might be able to supply some, but we do breed rats and mice and can ship them to you,

we need a big-ass rat breeder on the northside,

hi azztech, not from northside, but we can freight frozen to you, and as your in qld we can send them by bus over night, and for under 20kgs it only costs about $30.00 freight, i sent some to tremain this way and he recieved them still frozen hard,

cheers,
steve........

 

[OuZo]

What was Nomi's idea or where was it! I'd like to breed crix but heard it was really hard so went for the SFR's instead :lol:

On the subject, I used to have a really good caresheet on breeding diff types of insects for food...has anyone seen something like this cos I lost it and haven't been able to find it again. If I can find it I'll put it up.

 

[trader]

What was Nomi's idea or where was it

G'day Zoe!

http://www.aussiepythons.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=12094

 

[instar]

Heres a page Zoey

http://www.users.bigpond.com/snake.man/Lizards/lizardfood.htm

and another

http://www.easyinsects.co.uk/livefood/locusts/

If your intrested in trying locust, I beleive Rob porter Qld was getting into them. Might be a million times more nutritious Sdaji!

 

[Sdaji]

Might be a million times more nutritious Sdaji!

ten kilograms of protein, twenty kilograms of vitamins and eight kilograms of minerals in every 2 gram locust hey? :lol:

 

[Nome]

Heres a page Zoey

http://www.users.bigpond.com/snake.man/Lizards/lizardfood.htm

This one sounds like a really similar setup than I used, except I had a bad time with the laying mix using anything than sand. Using peat moss or similar grew mould because you have to keep the laying substrate moist and warm.

If your intrested in trying locust, I beleive Rob porter Qld was getting into them.

Is there contact details for him? I'd be really really interested in getting some, the pet store tells us pisces doesn't do locusts.

 

[instar]

Last contact I have for him Nome :wink:

Livefoods Unlimited,
Robert Porter, Owner
Suppliers of quality live and frozen animal foods.
Rodents and Insects
Phone: 07 5533 8375
Email: [email protected]

Prices quoted me

Hi Dan

The best way might be to send them in a couple of poster tubes which would cost about $13 postage and packing plus the cost of insects as follows

small 30c each
medium 50c each
large 70c each

I could pack between 40-100 total depending on sizes e.g. 20 large, 30 medium & 50 small would total $57.00.

Regards
Rob

LOL John! :lol: There a bit like DR who's tardis mate, bigger on the inside !

 

[Nome]

Cool, thanks heaps for that Inny, will have to get onto it. I'm finding the crickets way too small for my larger spiders.

 

[instar]

Cool, mouse pinkies too big? just curious