Possibly dumb question

[Vert340]

So recently I started using flying feeders for my T-Hoe cham and he loves it. So I want to if its possible to make flying feeders his staple. I am feeding him blue bottle flies since I can use those to get him those good gutloaded nutrients since BBF can be gutloaded. I am also giving him BSF larva and am feeding him the BSF that end up coming out of the larva survivors.

So this is where I have a question. I know that BSF larva are great for calcium, but are actual BSF themselves a good or decent source of calcium too?

Because if they are then I'm ready to ditch smelly crickets (as soon as my cricket crack gets used up) as a staple and start using flying feeders as a staple.

Any input is appreciated!

 

[AnamCara]

If you did a bunch of bees wasps and moths in variety maybe. Bsf won't do-- my understanding is that most of the nutrients in the larvea is used to pupate and hatch.

I feed roaches, silks and bsfl as "staples"

 

[Mrjamwin]

Even if the BSF's were nutrient sufficient your cham would probably get bored with them after awhile and therefore it would be to your advantage to have a variety of feeders. That way your Cham stays properly fed,

 

[Vert340]

Even if the BSF's were nutrient sufficient your cham would probably get bored with them after awhile and therefore it would be to your advantage to have a variety of feeders. That way your Cham stays properly fed,

Well for the BSF I was really just caring about them being a good source of calcium. The nutrients are what the BBF are for since those are flies you can gutload. It's been almost a whole month of feeding him gutloaded BBF and BSF now and he hasn't gotten bored. Which is why i brought it up in the 1st place, he's one of those that goes on hunger strikes often but flies seem to just solve that. I supoose I'll keep BBF as a staple and stick with crickets too then.

 

[Vert340]

If you did a bunch of bees wasps and moths in variety maybe. Bsf won't do-- my understanding is that most of the nutrients in the larvea is used to pupate and hatch.

I feed roaches, silks and bsfl as "staples"

Ah thats a shame! I was hoping that BSF would be similar to their larva in nutrition so that i could use em for calcium in my chameleons diet. Makes sense that it all gets used up tho.

Do you grow your own silks or buy em? I want to use em as a staple eventually in the future and it seems that i gotta a growing thing wity em because they are very pricey online haha.

 

[AnamCara]

Ch

Ah thats a shame! I was hoping that BSF would be similar to their larva in nutrition so that i could use em for calcium in my chameleons diet. Makes sense that it all gets used up tho.

Do you grow your own silks or buy em? I want to use em as a staple eventually in the future and it seems that i gotta a growing thing wity em because they are very pricey online haha.

Check out the forums for people who have bred them. I just purchase mine.

 

[Quinnbys]

FYI i did find this study that discusses the nutritional value of BSF over their different life stages. Might be worth a deeper read, it had quite a bit of info: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5552164/

 

[Vert340]

FYI i did find this study that discusses the nutritional value of BSF over their different life stages. Might be worth a deeper read, it had quite a bit of info: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5552164/

Super interesting thanks for the link I'll read up on it later when off work