Neonate advice
Make sure you have hydei (flightless) fruit fly cultures ready for after the babies are born. They might not eat the first 24 hours and might sleep most of that as they are recovering from birth. Egg born species tend to eat more quickly and be heartier than live bearing species (like Jackson's). I break of the end of a ripe banana and stand it on end in a shallow petri dish in the baby cage and then dump the fruit flies on it. If the banana is ripe then the flies will tend to stay on it and the light color provides good contrast for the babies to see the flies. Be sure to replace the banana often to prevent mold.
1 week old silkworms are also a great feeder. Be aware though that if you order eggs from somewhere they won't hatch for about 10 days after shipping and are then too small for atleast a week to be of any use. I feed silkworms the cooked powder food, but to put them in with the babies I place a decent size mulberry leaf on top of them and then after it has a bunch on it then put it in the baby enclosure.
I had a hard time finding pinheads that weren't 12 cents each (which is ridiculous), and when I did buy some my babies weren't as interested as with the flies. Don't get the melangaster (sp.) fruit flies, also called wingless. They have different behavior than the hydei and tend to swarm the babies and not stay on the fruit. Plus they are so tiny that they are useless.
Put a warm/cool mist humidifier next to your baby enclosure and keep it running 24/7. At night turn it to low warm and during the day (depending on your temps) you can use it on warm or cool. This will keep the humidity up, your babies hydrated, and will also provide them a source of drinking water where it condensates on the screen.
Do NOT use a heat bulb. Use only a UVB bulb. The babies are so small that they have a hard time regulating their body temperature. Make sure that your nighttime temp. is no lower than 68 and your daytime temp is no higher than 76. Adults like more of a range, but for babies I would try to stay within these ranges.
Make sure you immediately separate babies from the mother. Use wet q-tips to clean, stimulate any babies that might have not made it out of their sacs on their own. Although, I think that every single one we helped ended up dying. If they aren't strong enough or responsive enough to get out on their own then there's a good chance they might not make it at all. But I had to atleast try.
Hope everything goes smoothly for you!
