Fruit Fly Larvae as Food?

Miss Lily

Chameleon Enthusiast
The two new fruit fly cultures that I started have exploded with larvae, so now I am wondering if it's safe to feed some of the larvae to Monty? Thought I'd better check first though!
 
I've used them before. Only problem with them is thatyou have to feed a ton of them to make a filling meal of them, but they are O.K.
 
Thanks Justin! I have what looks like thousands of them! I figured that if I fed all the flies out of the pot first I could get to the larvae (I don't like the word 'maggots', lol)! Looks like he might enjoy some of the larger ones so I'll give it a try.
 
sweetheart, fruit fly larva? realy?
the poor little fella is gona starve with such tiny food.

better yet, how are you going to get them out from your fruitfly cup?

I'm finally free from wild fruitflys in my home. (not sharing your morning coffee or tea with the little critters is such a blessing)
I'm sure I'll have more soon as I'm about to have more mantids soon and that means feeding tons of fruitflys again. but no one is going to make me dig into a cup for larva...that's just gross.

anyway, thanks for the laugh.

Harry
 
Haha! I only started the new cultures to see if I could do it! I don't have a full colony of flies so I can let all of them out leaving the larvae easy to get to! Free food for the win, eh?! I don't care if it's gross, if I can get my sweet Monty to eat something else then it's worth a try!
 
free is free, and I wish you luck.

if you're looking for other food items to feed him, mantids are a good choice.
I'm sure that you can make some friends on the UK mantid forum and them get a cheap ooth from something widly popular and inexpencive.
a good example here in the states is the chineese mantis...an ooth can hatch upto 200 little ones that would love your fruitflys for the first 2 weeks or so. then you can slowly feed them houseflys (I'm sure they will also be a favorite food for Monty) and then in another week or two, bluebottles.
such mantids at stages L3 - L4 would make a great sized feeder for Monty and the costs are tiny.

I know that they might never make it as a pet for you, but mantids are something to think about when we are talking about new food.

Harry
 
I would feed mine mantid's when they got bigger but its illegal to kill them out here XD
 
sweetheart, fruit fly larva? realy?
the poor little fella is gona starve with such tiny food.

better yet, how are you going to get them out from your fruitfly cup?

I'm finally free from wild fruitflys in my home. (not sharing your morning coffee or tea with the little critters is such a blessing)
I'm sure I'll have more soon as I'm about to have more mantids soon and that means feeding tons of fruitflys again. but no one is going to make me dig into a cup for larva...that's just gross.

anyway, thanks for the laugh.

Harry

Thanks Harry, it has been a while but I have missed your humor.:) Tiff if you can do it go for it, Monty is worth the yuckie work.
 
ok heres how you get the larvae outbof the culture and get them seperated from the media.

1. put the culture in the fridge long enough to slow things down, probably about 7-10minutes.
2. take the culture out, you will have about less than 30 seconds before the culture starts to warm and become active so quickly open the lid outside and spoon out about a teaspoon of media and replace the lid. take the media and put it in one of those really fine(like tea strainer fine) wire collanders and rinse with 75 * water until all you are left with is larvae, probably less than a third of a teaspoon worth or adjust accordingly. if you dont have one of those strainers, you can just use a large cup of water and stir it around and then carefully pour the water off. make sure to check the temp of the water or the larvae will just die. if your media is home made using vinegar i wouldnt feed the larvae to baby chams. (the reason being is vinegar dissolves calcium) most commercial medias dont use vinegar. jmo.
 
Woot!! Monty is gonna have a juicy feast! XD definetly worth a try for the cute guy! Im also gonna start my own fly breeding to feed Kami :) but can only feed 3rd generation cuz its wild and they dont sell those here XD By the way Xanthoman thanks for the lots of useful info on raising flys! also my silkies arrived at PR!! Another breeding project! Im fired up! :D Heading to the post office to pick them up :cool:
 
Would the larvea kill the baby chams if used a few times with home made media with vinegar? i know you said it dissolves calcium so its not a good idea to do all the time im guessing. Im planning to use repashy superfly media and im sure thats a good one to use. My babies go crazy for the larvea so im glad i read your post.
 
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