pamnsam94
Established Member
I'm sad to say that I lost one of my LTC male quads today.
He was the father of the 14 eleven week old babies I'm now raising. This was the male, mentioned in another post, that got a gular edema just two days after I fed him dubia roaches from a newly acquired shipment, a foolish mistake and major oversight. I should have known better. Do not make the same mistake that I did by feeding insects to your animals the day you receive them, especially to montanes. You never know what the supplier may have fed the insects. It turns out the roaches I fed to this adult male had been fed dog food (too much vitamin D3 and preformed vitamin A, although I believe the D3 was the primary problem). He never once had any signs of edema until that incident. I believe permanent organ damage was done as the edema never went away completely. On some days, the edema was hardly noticeable, and overall he was healthy enough to display to the female (the mother of the 14 babies). He lived for a few months after I fed him those roaches. Ultimately though, I believe he died to organ failure or major organ malfunction. Now, my breeding group is down to 1.2. If his babies continue to do well, at least his genes will be preserved. Like my other adults, he had a great temperament. He readily took a meal from my fingers. The one male I have left has 5 horns (I'm interested to see if he'll pass on that trait) and although he has bred multiple times, I have yet to get his babies to hatch. However, that was before I started using a small amount of preformed vitamin A with the females he bred with. If I ever have a chance to get more WC adults (or any adults), I plan on being as cautious with them as I am with the babies and the 3 remaining adults I have. I won't risk feeding them insects that may have been fed with vitamin fortified feeds.
He was the father of the 14 eleven week old babies I'm now raising. This was the male, mentioned in another post, that got a gular edema just two days after I fed him dubia roaches from a newly acquired shipment, a foolish mistake and major oversight. I should have known better. Do not make the same mistake that I did by feeding insects to your animals the day you receive them, especially to montanes. You never know what the supplier may have fed the insects. It turns out the roaches I fed to this adult male had been fed dog food (too much vitamin D3 and preformed vitamin A, although I believe the D3 was the primary problem). He never once had any signs of edema until that incident. I believe permanent organ damage was done as the edema never went away completely. On some days, the edema was hardly noticeable, and overall he was healthy enough to display to the female (the mother of the 14 babies). He lived for a few months after I fed him those roaches. Ultimately though, I believe he died to organ failure or major organ malfunction. Now, my breeding group is down to 1.2. If his babies continue to do well, at least his genes will be preserved. Like my other adults, he had a great temperament. He readily took a meal from my fingers. The one male I have left has 5 horns (I'm interested to see if he'll pass on that trait) and although he has bred multiple times, I have yet to get his babies to hatch. However, that was before I started using a small amount of preformed vitamin A with the females he bred with. If I ever have a chance to get more WC adults (or any adults), I plan on being as cautious with them as I am with the babies and the 3 remaining adults I have. I won't risk feeding them insects that may have been fed with vitamin fortified feeds.
