#feeder insect

[b0chelly]

Special delivery for a special girl! Primrose has become a pet hole lately, she really loves her new hide, and though I miss seeing her it’s her right to be a hermit! She gets mad props for nabbing her roach sideways, #girlboss.

[sunfish-exotics]

This is not a very exciting pic, but I thought I’d share a bit about how I get leopard gecko hatchlings eating well on their own for anyone having trouble with that. I used to stress a lot about babies not eating, and I also used to spend a lot of time assist feeding baby leos. After figuring out this method I have not had to assist feed a single leo hatchling! What you’ll need: -a small deli cup & lid -some appetizing feeders (I recommend roaches or crickets) So after you get your feeders dusted, pop them in the deli cup. Then you put the baby leo in the deli cup, put the lid on it, and put them back in their enclosure. Then ya leave for 15-30 minutes. Usually in that time the baby will have eaten all of the feeders offered. The reason this works so well is because hatchling leopard geckos are super skittish, even involving food! If they see a feeder or a feeder touches them, they freak out and run to the other end of the enclosure and don’t always figure out its edible. At this point they typically don’t understand food and water bowls either. So if you just open the enclosure, drop in the feeders, and expect them to eat while you’re watching them, they’re probably not going to eat. Putting them in a smaller space usually helps them figure out that food is food! I only use this method for the first week or so of feeding, usually after that they start eating out of a bowl or gain the confidence to hunt in their actual enclosure. I’ll post a pic of the babies in half an hour to see if they ate everything :) Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions or comments!

[fisherfurbearer]

Now for the dubia! I started this colony a few weeks ago and moved them into their permanent home a couple days back. They have a lot of room to roam now, and tons of leaves to crinkle around. It's ridiculous, I open the closet and they RUSTLE and crinkle the leaves like crazy, its a sea of ever-shifting groundcover.

Weird noises aside they seem to enjoy the new digs. It's completely bioactive with springtails and buffalo beetles for cleaners, and lots of modified ABG mix, leaf litter, nut pods, and cork bark.

Compared to the goblins I like these okay. They're very pretty as adults and their casual pace is easy to work with. They're difficult to feed to the Ts since nymphs don't move much and burrow quickly, but they're leagues better than crickets and much more efficient than goblins, so I'll get used to it. Over time they'll probably grow on me but for now I still prefer my ugly gorblin kids.

[i-m-snek]

Even the feeder roaches for Sparx are treated well here!

[fisherfurbearer]

Speaking of red goblins, besides the recent not-gorblin intruders, I’ve actually been hard at work making their brand new enclosure. I made the ventilation myself out of wood and window screen. It has a lot of flaws but I’m happy with it. The interior itself is much cleaner and healthier for them, and the humidity gradient should be much more ideal. Almost all of the roaches have been transfered, and I have about 300-500 at least, including nymphs. They’ve been doing a lot better than I thought, with tons of nymphs running around all over the place. The summer warmth and new digs will likely help them even more. c:

[fisherfurbearer]

Here's something I haven't shown in some time. The red goblin colony has been doing great, after like five enclosure renovations since last fall we've been stable and healthy for over several months now. These are some A+ roaches, they have a lot of personality and charm for such funky little feeders. They may be gecko/invert food but they're fun to keep and this colony will be around for a long time yet.

[tser]

This is just so silly and adorable.

My dubia roaches are in a bioactive enclosure with lots of cork to climb and hide in.

I set that dish on top, completely clean and empty. Now it is their favorite place for roach piles, so they get to keep it. 

(Their food dishes are at the bottom of the tub on the right side, full of delicious noms!)

Dubia Roaches (Blaptica dubia)

[tser]

Today’s fresh roach food is radish greens from my garden, arugula, carrot, cucumber, and a homemade veggie gel. I messed up on it and it didn’t gel very well, but they love it anyway and get some every day (sweet potato, cucumber, bok choy, butternut squash, corn, apple, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, orange, and I don’t even remember what else, with agar agar).

Swarmed and scattered as soon as I put it in! 

It will be gone by morning.