Where do you get your feeders?

[New2Blues]

I'm interested to know where every one gets their worms. My store only carries meal worms, super worms, and wax worms. I don't know if they carry snails. Probably not though. I know they have canned snails but what good is that?

I used to order silk worms and horn worms for my beardie but I don't remember the sites now. What about butterworms? Can they have those?

What kind of insects do you feed your skink? I am looking at the food chart but from what I recall from the caresheet it says not to feed crickets and roaches...or at least to avoid them if possible. idk What do you guys feed besides greens, veggies, and fruit? Just to give me an idea of what I need to buy.

Also what are some good feeder sites?

[Spindown]

roaches are great for them! crickets are the no no. I feed roaches, canned snails, live snails (pretty soon), and superworms. They also love those green hornworm things. Sometimes they get a special treat, and get a small fuzzy mouse, either f/t or live, depending on what i have on hand.

I am raising my own roaches. Muuuuuch cheaper than buying at the petstore.

[Linnea]

remember. 40% meat 60% veggies/greens/salad

you need dog food. mustard greens, aragula and veggies (not spinach, potato, iceberg lettuce, rhubarb or avocado). fruits and eggs are treats, insects as well. of course you can feed them some meat that you also eat (chicken etc) as long as its not seasoned or salted. just dont forget that you will need extra calcium powder in any case.


dubia roachest, gut loaded and with calcium, are what is recommended if you wanna feed insects sometimes rather than dogfood. not sure if they are good as a staple, but i recon mixing isnt bad, but its so hard to make them eat enough veggies when fed insects, and you dont want them to lack vitamins and fibres.

crickets and other insects are not suitable as main diets and should be seen mostly as treats(both for mental happiness and motion xD)

i feed grasshoppers, snails from the garden that i 'detoxed' first, zophoba worms, the latter being the most common, as treats mostly. I plan on breeding the garden snails to get some excellent, healthy feeder snails.

i get the insects from a pet store nearby. not many stores have crickets and practically none has roaches, but zophobas are VERY common.
just, dont buy them from just any store. some store them near chemicals when not on sale D:

[New2Blues]

Thanks! I'll have to find out how to detox snails. I know I read it somewhere just have to find where. I don't see many around here but I am sure I can find a couple.

I have a tarantula that can also eat roaches so I think I may just breed the roaches. I may end up with a lot but oh well. Maybe I can sell them. lol

I found a site that I can get worms from too.

[Linnea]

when i say detox i just mean removing the risk of internal parasites and unhealthy pesticides they might have eaten. Even with effort i wont remove the risk entirely.

i do this by keeping them in a plastic terrarium with fresh food every day, and i clean it very properly. i have decided that this summer i will wait 5 weeks until i start feeding these snails hopefully it will redice the risk.

there is also can o snail to buy, some exoterra brand. i think its safe to use and blueys love it.

oh, the reason dog food is better than any insect you will find when it comes to blueys. you can mix it with the veggies so that it will impossible for them to pick the veggies out. you cant do this with insects, and they commonly have poor nutritional value compared to different animal parts mixed into one juicy meat piece.

[New2Blues]

I will feed dog food as well but I also want to feed insects and worms. Just for variety and nutrition. I just thought the can o snails would be less nutritious as regular snails but maybe it's safer...

Thanks!

[Katrina]

Well gutloaded feeders are just as healthy as dog food. Great options include silkworms, hornworms (also known as tomato worms), roaches of all sorts, dewworms (also known as nightcrawlers), snails etc.

I get my feeders from a local guy who brings them in and resells them. I found out about him from a local reptile forum, maybe there is something similar in your area? I don't feed a ton of feeders because I don't find them as convenient, but I do enjoy feeding them on occasion for added variety.

I haven't fed the canned varieties, but others have with good results. The snail shell has most of the calcium in it, so if you are feeding canned snails or many of the other feeders, you will still want to supplement some calcium.