Falling in Love with Roaches

[CasqueAbove]

Couldn't read everything as there were way too many long, drawn out posts but I have seen this theme of natural/wild vs. artificial/captive play out often on these forums and want to share my 2 cents on this, for what it's worth:

Information about natural/wild conditions is invaluable and I believe forms the basis of all that we try to provide for our captive animals. In some specific cases and areas, natural/wild conditions are the absolute best that we can hope to achieve. This should make sense. All living things have evolved their DNA to fit within their "natural" environment.

In some cases, deviating from these natural conditions can have harmful, even fatal consequences for an organism, like trying to grow carnivorous plants in a nutrient-rich medium.

However, in some other cases, I believe deviating from these conditions can be beneficial for 2 general reasons:

1. Technology. Humans living in wild, natural conditions would not live to be 80+ years old, on average. Technology has allowed us to improve on these conditions, develop "unnatural" medical treatments, etc. to prolong our lifespan. No fish eats fish flakes or pellets in the wild (at least to my knowledge ) but these have proven to be a more healthy and safe source of nutrition for many (not all) aquarium species.

2. Our goals as keepers and nature's/evolution's goals are not necessarily the same. Our know if goal as keepers is to keep our animals healthy so they can live as long as possible. Nature/evolution's goal is to allow organisms to adapt so they can live long enough to reproduce for the continuation of their species. In other words, nature wants organisms to be able to reasonably reproduce, but it doesn't want them to become too strong or live too long - this would throw ecological balance out of whack.

Conclusion: It is *extremely* important to know as much as possible about natural/wild conditions but it is not necessarily the end-all be-all for all situations and should be taken with some grain of salt when applied to captive care of organisms.

I also question when they compare longevity as well. It is difficult to say for wild, as predication skews the results.

I do not know if they can accurately gauge age by just catching a wild one. But it would not surprise me.

 

[kinyonga]

Roaches and Bug Burger...
https://www.store.repashy.com/can-feeder-insect-diets-contribute-to-gout-in-reptiles.html

 

[jamest0o0]

I present the experience and research from the wild.
I just say they do not do itnin the wild to eat so much of so big food. So, to gove them is NOT natural.
Your “without any issue yet” is based on what? Evidence of absence...? What analyses have you done to state that? Not attacking, just curious what concretely are you talking about?

My comment wasn't intended to prove a point, just stating where I've been coming from and what I've been doing.

My parsons eats a large amount of wild insects during summer, he goes to the dirt to hunt isopods and others and loves bees/flying insects. Would be very cool to have a steady supply of flying insects. I've had a small population of BSFL reproduce in my atrium viv before. Along with bromeliad flies(like smaller house flies). Hoping to recreate that a bit outside during summer.

What has me wondering about the uric acid, parsons/mellers have to be eating a decent bit of purine rich foods. They seem to quickly go after hummingbirds, lizards, etc. I'm sure they would cross them in the wild quite often? No?

 

[PetNcs]

My comment wasn't intended to prove a point, just stating where I've been coming from and what I've been doing.

My parsons eats a large amount of wild insects during summer, he goes to the dirt to hunt isopods and others and loves bees/flying insects. Would be very cool to have a steady supply of flying insects. I've had a small population of BSFL reproduce in my atrium viv before. Along with bromeliad flies(like smaller house flies). Hoping to recreate that a bit outside during summer.

What has me wondering about the uric acid, parsons/mellers have to be eating a decent bit of purine rich foods. They seem to quickly go after hummingbirds, lizards, etc. I'm sure they would cross them in the wild quite often? No?

not really
There are no jummoongbirds in Africa and rheir paralell, sunbirds are confoned usually to higher altitudes
There are not many lizards climbing trees so high: the geckos are mostly nocturnal, agamids too big (if not juvenile) skinks secretive.
But, noone has seriously resesrched this.
Speaking about poop samples, they reveal Hige amounts of small insects esten bY these rwo soecies in the wild.

 

[JoXie411]

geckos are mostly nocturnal

They are actually crepuscular

 

[Sammy Grigio]

This summer, I am going to start a small bee colony and use them as feeders for my guy.....and also pillage them for their honey. Big, fat, juicy bumble bees. What do you guys think of that ??

 

[Redman]

I am right there with you. I collect wild bumbles and my cams absolutely love them.

 

[kinyonga]

I learned something today...
"Crepuscular animals are those that are active primarily during twilight. This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daylight or the hours of darkness, respectively." According to Wikipedia.

"While nocturnality is the ancestral condition for geckos, and daytime waking is the normal state for most other lizards, the monkey-tailed skink is crepuscular -- its waking hours are dawn and dusk. The largest skink in the world, the monkey-tailed has good eyesight, which helps the lizard find food in low light."....crepuscular...active at twilight and dawn?
https://www.cuteness.com/article/kinds-lizards-nocturnal

 

[Redman]

I used to keep Monkey Tails. Amazing animals. I hope to again when I have the right space to do it right. They are losing their natural habitat very quickly, and I would love to be part of a conservation program to breed them and send them back if there are areas set aside for them.

Yeah, totally off topic, I know...