bbfl

[snitz427]

I'm not sure if BSFL will eat fresh foods, I do not attempt to feed them often, however my previous attempts, with Carrot and Dandelion went unwanted. Have you got them to eat Fresh Foods?

I did undertake some study in breeding them myself, and everything I had seen is they will eat decaying waste.

And Ya I seen that as well, I am not sure how to make heads or tails out of that. Its the only thing I had recalled reading about the Ammonia, thats why I asked if that was what you were looking for .

I do remember a DBP about BSFL, and I think she mentioned something but forgot completely what was said. I remember seeing it, and just thinking it didn't apply as I dont feed them anyway, and the DBP, if IIRC, she did specify not to feed them, or maybe that you didn't have to, something along those lines.

Also I forgot to ask, but was curious. Do you recall the article or whatever that showed the flies being darker meaning more calcium? Or did you mean the Larvae? I think thats what the DBP said as well, that "Crawl Outs" or Spikes, had the highest calcium content, but, they have hard shells, as that is the final stage before fly AFAIK. My cham will not eat them when they are hard like that, I was curious the drop in calcium when they became flies and couldn't find anything about it and thus was curious if you meant the flies or the spikes.

All the Flys I have reared are pretty much the same extremely dark black.

Sorry, yes, I meant the darker larva. Mine wont eat the very dark prepupae as they dont move much. They def wont eat the hard pupae.

I don’t feed them often, but when I do they devour any fresh foods. I will sometimes round up a tablespoon worth, rinse them, and throw a bit of gutload or bug burger in the strainer, along with bee pollen... and then feed them off a few mins later. Its not enough time for them to devour the food but I feel like it cant hurt. Most of the time I dont have the time and just feed them on their own or with bee pollen.

Im on the fence about occasionally feeding them, and have a little experiment going currently... I’ve been ordering 2,000 of them at a time from Symton. Some seemed to dry out and not pupate, and i was curious if that was because they were not fed. So i have carrot in one bin and the others are without food.

 

[snitz427]

Ill look for the studies @cyberlocc . There was one that clearly measured the nutritional values of the larva at different ages/development. There’s a ton of information about bsfl because of their booming popularity for compost and a new protein food source.

 

[cyberlocc]

Sorry, yes, I meant the darker larva. Mine wont eat the very dark prepupae as they dont move much. They def wont eat the hard pupae.

I don’t feed them often, but when I do they devour any fresh foods. I will sometimes round up a tablespoon worth, rinse them, and throw a bit of gutload or bug burger in the strainer, along with bee pollen... and then feed them off a few mins later. Its not enough time for them to devour the food but I feel like it cant hurt. Most of the time I dont have the time and just feed them on their own or with bee pollen.

Im on the fence about occasionally feeding them, and have a little experiment going currently... I’ve been ordering 2,000 of them at a time from Symton. Some seemed to dry out and not pupate, and i was curious if that was because they were not fed. So i have carrot in one bin and the others are without food.

What temperature and RH humidity are you keeping them at do you know? Or a guess, IDK, but I probably should lol. As its quite hot and muggy when I pull the container out lol.

 

[snitz427]

What temperature and RH humidity are you keeping them at do you know? Or a guess, IDK, but I probably should lol. As its quite hot and muggy when I pull the container out lol.

RH is usually around 50% in my house. Temps around 70-73. Theyre shipped in sand (more like fine clay granules) which might zap some of that humidity. Some do fine, some dry out. Then tend to group together against a wall of the container.

 

[cyberlocc]

RH is usually around 50% in my house. Temps around 70-73. Theyre shipped in sand (more like fine clay granules) which might zap some of that humidity. Some do fine, some dry out. Then tend to group together against a wall of the container.

I meant more the humidity in the container lol I added sand to mines substrate (they usually dont come with any) and left the old casing in there. However the amount of airflow holes or lack there of, would alter the humidity drastically if there was ever any water added to the bin, or if there wasnt.

Or do you just have the container lidless?