Gut-loading House Flies

When I was a kid I used to feed my anoles by going into the back yard, gathering a big pile of dog crap, and then every so often I would run up on it w/ a butterfly net and catch like 20+ of those black house flies. I thought about doing this to give a little variety to my chams and give them something challenging to hunt. The only draw back is the idea of the flies being gutloaded on dog crap.

To get the flies in the anoles cage, I used to let the flies fly to the top of the net. Twist the net so they couldnt get out. Pop it in the fridge for a few minutes. And then drop em in the cage. The cold flies were easier for the anoles to catch, and I never had a problem with them flying away when I put the lid back on.

Anyone see why this wouldn't work for my Chams? And also does anyone have a suggestion on how to gut load them?

Thanks for the info!

Jamesvomit said:

When I was a kid I used to feed my anoles by going into the back yard, gathering a big pile of dog crap, and then every so often I would run up on it w/ a butterfly net and catch like 20+ of those black house flies. I thought about doing this to give a little variety to my chams and give them something challenging to hunt. The only draw back is the idea of the flies being gutloaded on dog crap.

To get the flies in the anoles cage, I used to let the flies fly to the top of the net. Twist the net so they couldnt get out. Pop it in the fridge for a few minutes. And then drop em in the cage. The cold flies were easier for the anoles to catch, and I never had a problem with them flying away when I put the lid back on.

Anyone see why this wouldn't work for my Chams? And also does anyone have a suggestion on how to gut load them?

Thanks for the info!

Click to expand...

Unless you breed the wild flies yourself to get CB flies, its probably best you just buy fly pupae for them. Those flies have not been eating rotting meat, feces, and other nasty things, and when they hatch out you can feed them yourself. You can also put the pupae in the fridge to postpone their hatching and have flies for months if you buy enough pupae. I buy 200 pupae, pop em in the fridge, and they last me about a month or so.

You can buy BB flies (larger) or Houseflies (cheaper)

a good gutload for your flies would be

powdered milk/buttermilk
powdered bee pollen
honey
and some people add reptile multivitamin.

You have to make sure everything is in a powder because thats the only way the flies can eat it, but when you add the honey it will make a paste.

For water throw in a wet napkin, piece of a sponge, or woodchips soaked in water, which is the prefered watering method.

Yup ... Farm raised flies are cheap.
Wild ones hang around trash cans, dead animals and poop.

-Brad