UK food sources and home colonies

[Feebo]

Could any UK residents here put some links in this thread as to where you get your food please? I've only managed to find giant mealworms, mealworms, black crickets, Ethiopian crickets and wax worms so far and I feel like I'm missing something for my Veileds. Does anyone here keep beetles for thier grubs or anything like that? Could you comment please? I breed Ethiopian crickets which are really big and make a realy nice bird like sound and I'm also attempting to get a colony of dubias going. I'd like to add that that shows how much I love my chams because roaches are just plain wrong! YUK! lol
So if anyone in the UK could point me toward a food source I can add to my chams diet I'd be very greateful I just saw Buffallo worms on a site, are they suitable?

 

[Miss Lily]

You've pretty much got it covered - we can't get hornworms over here, but we can get silkworms, although they are really hard to get. I got some eggs that hatched in December and I have loads of silkies now and am hoping to breed them when they finally pupate. Here is a link for you , although you may have to join the bred to order program, but I think it has a waiting list. You are probably better off getting eggs and starting from scratch like I did. I think someone found some on ebay the other day too. http://www.butterworms.co.uk/

You can also get butterworms and calcigrubs/Phoenix worms over here too.

 

[Feebo]

Ah here it is! I knew I'd started a new thread somewhere!! lol Hiya Thganks for replying Cheers for the link, I'll have a look at that. I like the sound of the silk worms so I might have a bash if I can find any eggs! I saw bean weavles for sale the other day, I don't suppose just anything is suitable though.... is it?

 

[Miss Lily]

I have never fed bean weevils, so not sure about those. Mine have/have had locusts, crickets, Dubia, mealworms, Morio worms (super worms in the US), Phoenix worms (calcigrubs) and silkworms. Oh, and silk moths when you can get the worms to pupate! A friend grew cabbages in her garden to encourage Cabbage White butterflies and caterpillars, but I don't know how successful she was with that! Obviously you would need to keep things pesticide free if you wanted to feed off any insects from the garden.

 

[sandrachameleon]

You might find the links in this blog entry helpful:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/171-where-buy-feeders-online.html

 

[Feebo]

Excellent Just ordered some food from one of those.....

 

[Bernie]

I get my locusts from http://www.thelivefoodwarehouse.co.uk/

Never had a delivery arrive late yet, neither with any dead ones.

 

[ben7ani]

good uk website.

www.rickslivefood.co.uk

 

[Feebo]

Exellent I'll check those out Thanks very much! Anyone ever use fruit beetle larvae ? I'm thinking keeping fruit beetles might be a good idea.... I've actually started a different thread on it but it's not been noticed yet...

 

[Feebo]

Beetles anyone?

 

[sandrachameleon]

Beetles anyone?

Most beetles are fine. Avoid those with bright coloured (like red ro yellow) shells.
Bean wevils are too small for adult panthers or similar
Fruit beetle (pachnoda) grubs are fairly high in fat, like most larva, and thus should not be a major part of the diet. Make sure you know what they've been kept in/fed (sometimes they are fed high protein like dog food, and while some tanins (from leaf litter, which they eat) is good a lot is not (too much oak can be a problem)). The beetles smell bad and are not considered a good feeder themselves, just the larva. Or so I have been told.