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Could you make a video about the top 2 or 3 videos for each type of reptile or amphibian? I have three White’s Tree froglets. They are eating the smallest crickets right now. I did try them with Dubias a couple of times, but they don’t like them….at least not yet. I think they had an aversion to their legs? So what would be best to try next? Waxworms or black fly larvae? Thanks Clint!
I hate crickets and the noise the smell because they die so fast and the fact that they are notorious parasite carriers so I don't use them for my dragon
A bunch of my nutrigrubs pupated into flies. I was pissed at first, until i googled that they’re edible, and tossed them into my leos enclosure. Was hours of fun for the little one! I didn’t even know she could jump before.
My husband once received a box of 500 banded crickets while I was not home. He checked on them and then "closed the box". When I got home I found the box with just enough of a gap for crickets to excape and at least 200 of the 500 roaming around my bedroom. That was an exciting evening....
@@michellebailey6511I lost two crickets the one and only time I ever tried to feed them, I was already on the brink with just those I think I would’ve committed if I had 200 😭😂
I used to feed them to my lizard until they kept escaping. I got all but two. They are still in my room making noise all night, every night. I CANT FIND THEM AND I MIGHT BURN THE HOUSE DOWN
I use powdered oranges to my anole and two bearded dragons. The anole has a ton of them in her bioactive, along with mealworms. They are higher in calcium and softer shelled and a great treat.
I had an "incident" that happened at work a couple months ago where the superworms chewed a hole through the plastic lid of the container they were being held in. It shocked everyone.
I think they are studying them to eat plastic. It may take millions to eat a cup, but just start throwing them into dumps along with bsfl to help with waste control.
Totally on your side with banded crickets, they were the bane of my existence before my emerald tree skinks wiped out the ones in their enclosure who had managed to avoid getting immediately eaten.
I couldn’t sleep for days when I lost 3 of them in my beardie’s enclosure, they would burrow down in the cork holes and obnoxiously chirp all night long. But I can’t find any house crickets in my area, they’re all banded!
I used to have a cage full of Fire-Bellied Toads and a feeder cage of Crickets for them. Between the Crickets and the Toads, I didn't get much sleep for a while. After a bit, though, I grew to enjoy the noise and if it ever got too obnoxious I'd just bang on either cage lid to get them to shut up.
Definitely interested in individual shorts on feeders. Like a quick info dump on how to keep for a long time, breed, and best feeding practices. Might be neat to add in what feeders are good for what animal.
As someone watching from Asia, where silkworms are super common to the point they are often used for kindergarten science projects, it is wild to hear Clint say they are expensive and hard to find lol ++I would love to watch a fruit fly video!! We keep them in my genetics lab, and I'm interested in how to keep them WITHOUT an infestation 😂 (they slip out all the time if you don't dug them, which makes counting a real pain)
Yeah in the UK there's is only one store that stocks them Ridgeway reptiles and you have to spend £40 for delivery other than that I dont think you can legally sell them without some form of license possibly a (AAL license - animal activities license) which is issued based on a random check if your not available when they come knocking you have to re-apply and that costs more money
For flightless fruit flies, we put the culture in the fridge/freezer for a few minutes before feeding to slow their activity down, and then sometimes I put the culture tub into a larger tub or ziplock bag before I open it, so I can capture any jumpers. I don't know if you have "Mosquito Dunks" or "mosquito bits" available in your area, but you can use them to combat many larval insects as well, I know it works with fruit flies and fungus gnats. It's a parasitic bacteria that targets the larvae, it won't harm people or pets. I have put it in my drain trap, added to spray bottles to spray on top of trash and compost, and used it on potted plants indoors to reduce infestations. Oh, and I've used it in a fish tank safely, without harming my shrimp or fish. Not sure if any of that will help, but that's what I have done to reduce fruit fly and fungus gnats infestations, personally.
I'd love to see how fruitfly cultures can be done. I've wanted to keep dart frogs for a long time but the fly culturing process intimidates me a bit. Thanks for haveing such stinkin rad content Clint!
Same. Coming from planted aquariums, keeping the enclosure would be simple for me, But I don’t like the idea of having to keep rolling fruit fly cultures for 10-15 years.
Get a small potato, put it on the dish with cling film wrapped around the top of said dish, pierce a small hole theere and microwave the potato untill its soft. Mash the potato, skin and all, put some bakers yeast in there and splash of beer if you have (vinegar if no beer availble) untill it forms a thick goop. Put it into a jar and put some crumpled up paper or something else for the flys to climb. Dump some fruitflys there and screw the cap on the jar. Just make sure you have hole in the jar top and put a bit of fabric between lid and jar so the flys cannot escape. Lasts couple of weeks before you need to redo the procedure.
Hideki's instructions would work quite well but I will tell you from personal, recent experience that the beer recipe is quite smelly. There are a handful of recipes you can find online but the basic process is the same. Make food/substrate, put on the bottom of a ventilated cup (I use deli cups with fabric as I worry fruit flies are tiny enough to fit through some vent holes), put in a loose bunch of newspaper strips or preferably wood wool/excelsior (increases area for flies to climb so you can have more in one cup and better conditions for the flies), add flies. You'll want to keep them from getting super cold or super hot (no direct sunlight, winter basements, etc). When the food is depleted, make more and move the flies, preferably splitting them so you have more cultures. Chilling the flies in the fridge for a few minutes helps prevent escapees while transferring but I always have a few escape. I may just be bad at that though.
@@elliotgreason1364 beer is there to make them healthier. Beer have quite a lot of vutamins and micronutrients which is in turn healthier for the animals you feed them to.
it's really not difficult, just kinda gross. I hate plastic waste so I was cleaning and reusing the containers when I used to keep them, and I would suggest not doing that and just reusing plastic take out cups or something instead so you can toss them. mine didn't smell too bad, I used instant mashed potatoes, nutritional yeast, hot water and a bit of cornmeal to prevent mold. sometimes I would mix in a homemade ferment/beer, or instant yeast, and then sprinkle cinnamon on top, which also prevents mold and makes the smell waaay better. for climbing space I used coffee filters. if you do want to clean and reuse containers I found the best way was to freeze for a few hours so everything comes out in one chunk.
I purposely let my BSL metamorphose in flies once. My mantis loved them. It got so out of hand that I just put my toad directly into the containter the flies were in and let him do some population control LOL. I was so hoping you would mention the flies too! I'm curious how nutritious they are compared to the larvae.
Some other feeders that were sadly not mentioned but can also be found: Butterworms/Chilean mothe larvae/Chilecomadia moorei Lobster roaches/Naupheta cinerea Bottle fly larvae/Lucilia sericata Not an insect but still a feeder: earthworms
The most cited complaint about crickets - constant chirping - is one thing I love about them! It's probably the only thing. I did find a couple of interesting videos that suggest ways to keep them alive longer and make their enclosure smell better. Worth a try, I suppose. They are, after all, cheap and easily obtained.
@@littlewigglemonster7691 I actually live in Canada. They've been legalized last November and just beginning to be sent over here. Currently insanely expensive but the prices are expected to go down significantly over the next few years. Atm it's about $140 for 50 adults
@@melskunk iirc they were on a list with a bunch of bugs that could possibly be invasive but the government didn't look into it too much. When an organization mentioned that they couldn't possibly become invasive they legalized them. I might be wrong though, going off of memory atm
Locusts/grasshoppers are easy to find in the UK, two feeders not mentioned in your video but regularly available here are Africanbeetle larvae and eartworms (specifically bred as feeders not wild caught)
Clint: Insect feeders Me: Cheap pet insects I'm fairly sure you could raise some of these as pets and not feed them to anything right? Plus I'd love just about any non-pest roach species as a pet tbh. They're so cute.
Another huge downsite of crickets is that most crickets are omnivores and have absolutely no issue with trying to eat your pet if that pet is in a situation where it can't really do something about the cricket (like e.g. shedding/ molting); they also have sharp mandibles to actually succeed in that task so crickets really are only viable if you can be sure that they WILL get eaten basically immediately.
My rescue beardie is scared of crickets, probably for this reason. Previous owner just dumped in a week's worth and called it good, so poor guy was fighting for his own veggies, as well as keeping them from trying to eat him...
I have NEVER had an issue with crickets being anything but docile (with reptiles). It's so strange to hear people talking about their aggressive behavior. But at least now I'm alert about the matter. After seeing one eat another alive, however, I can say for certain that they are probably dangerous to small spiders and even weak tarantulas. However, I do have an adult bearded dragon, and they are pretty tough. They can eat adult mice (but they shouldn't). They are not sensitive or tender after shedding, either. But I can definitely see crickets being dangerous if she's brumating.
@@avonavians2860 I've also never observed them being aggressive either (I've seen them get on my leopard gecko but that is as they're scattering about when I put them in the terrarium). It of course helps that the crickets don't compete for any vegetables in the enclosure
Omgosh! The first couple of minutes felt like I was back in college biology! It was amazing and terrifying at the same time. If I ever have another reptile, what they nutritionally need will definitely be one of the things that help me decide what that reptile might be. Thank you for your amazing content - as always. I'm pretty into it. 😁
First off; I don't own any pets but I find this channel so fascinating that I would watch a vid about bugs 'n' stuff. Clint you are a wealth of knowledge and I love learning about all the taxonomy and misnomers about them. Secondly; the vidography of these insects is so edifying. I have found a new appreciation for the smol crawlers and hoppers and flyers. That is all, carry on.
If you get superworms or mealworms right after they molt and they are white, they are far more digestible, and this is rather easy if you raise a whole bunch of them in a big container to be sustainable for 1 pet. Same with the pupae, get them when they first form and are white and soft, the animals love them.
I tried several storebought mealworms (UGH, I hate those things and am NOPE at worms overall, and she agrees with me: UGH) and crickets (everything you said, plus I just don't trust the little jerks) for my wild-caught Carolina mantis. She likes moths, but after a few successes it was like there were NO moths and I love moths and felt like I was feeding her a kitten! So I caught and tried a wild hopper. Yes, I totally feel you about the wild-caught-food and possible dangers, but we're pretty rural with no attempt by anyone to do formal pest-spraying, and she was living out there herself and probably ate dozens til she came to stay here. I wouldn't suggest doing it with a captive-bred exotic or anything! She goes right for them, and she's just done her final molt with lovely results. I catch a hopper with a minnow net, fridge-stun it and snip off the hopping legs after one somehow kicked itself and her off the ceiling. Drop it into her house. She gobbles them, and on the rare occasional she waits a little I'm not really scared they can hurt her, particularly since she's done molting. Nor am I super distressed by the idea of one getting loose somehow in my house--it's a hopper. Well, that can't hop anymore, heh. (Nonhopper? Nopper?) But I'm excited to learn that you can buy "clean" hoppers bred for feeders, as I worry what I'll do if she lives until it's near winter--so TLDR: Thank you for this video!
One downside to dubia: frass can be an allergen to some so cleaning storage can be problematic or at least inconvenient. I just started using for my jumping spider and have to come up with a better system as I have sensitivity to them. Have to find the best spot in house to keep them away from me haha
Hahaha I just have to mention how I love that you organized them phylogenetically, just because! I do the same thing for any organism(s) I'm looking at or thinking of, cuz why not :)
yesss phylogeny trees are actually such great ways to organise info for nature videos! they just make intuitive sense and are very easy to follow (when done right).
Perfect timing for this video! Today is an expo to load up on feeders. Hornworms are always on my list. There used to be a supplier of BFSL and they were very reasonably priced so my baby bearded dragon practically lived on those for the first three months. Listening to your story about catching grasshoppers makes me smile. I always remind my spouse that he was given plenty of warnings that I was a "bug girl" while dating. One of our best dates was driving through the middle of nowhere Kansas so he could visit a specific structure for university. While he did his homework I was busy catching grasshoppers.
Two points I'd like to bring up with crickets. Crickets are the mice/rat of the bug world in my opinion. Meaning that, like live rodents, they fight back. I had a leopard gecko lose her eye to a cricket bite even though it was a normal, supervised feeding time. That alone made me go to roaches as my primary feeder. Second, as some spider/tarantula enthusiasts know, they are more likely to hold parasites if they aren't kept in very clean environments. Since that transfers to the spider and there's no medication or treatment for them, the spider is likely to die in a couple months or less if it's severe. It's not as bad in reptiles, since there is treatment, but you have to really trust your cricket breeder to keep their area clean if you don't want a risk of parasites.
That's terrible! However, they definitely aren't as bad as mice/rats. They have a serious advantage over reptiles. I can't believe they don't kill snakes more often. Rats can prey on adult birds and rabbits. I'd imagine crickets are more dangerous to geckos than bearded dragons, though, since they can crush crickets to crumbs in seconds. I think the idea that crickets are "filthier" than other feeders is anecdotal. But crickets are probably more cannibalistic than dubia roaches, which might cause the spread of their diseases. I also think that healthy reptiles rarely get sick from invertebrate diseases.
All the moth species: adorable!!!! The drosophila maggots... hell no 😖 Fruitflies and maggots are just giving me the heebie jeebies, having them spawn in big numbers where I live and trying my best every summer to keep them out of the house. I could never ever willingly keep a cup of them anywhere near my living area lol
Recently discovered redrunners, they are like Dubia Roaches, slightly less hardy but they still don't die as fast as crickets and such do, plus you get like 50 of them for the same amount of money as like 8 dubia roaches, my Leopard Gecko absolutely moves them too.
Most of your videos are on topics that I wouldn't normally find interesting on my own but seeing how passionate you are about these critters makes me want to know what makes them so special. I would love to see a video on fruitflies. If you think they're interesting, then I think they're interesting.
Hello! Thanks for the video. Someday, could you do a video on Giant Green Ameivas? I have seen them captive bred at my local reptile store and they’re so neat. I’d love to learn more
Crickets are wayyyy less stinky when kept in a bioactive set up :) they also live wayyyy longer( like their whole natural life span) since there isn’t a buildup of ammonia
Other downsides of mealworms and super worms are they burrow and, if allowed to turn into beetles, can be dangerous to molting/freshly molted inverts. Great video as always!
I second Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches being perceived as pets not food! The zoo I work for has a colony of MHCs for animal ambassadors, and they are certainly a very interesting animal to see enter the classroom, super handle able and have a surprise factor that make them a great ambassador! And it's crazy how petting a MHC feels no different than petting your fingernail!
Remains me of the days of Vet bioscience at glasgow Uni. hearing clint explain things. Also the usefulness of diagrams to explain things to others new to a topic like this.
Some feeders I've seen recently that I'm surprised were not mentioned in this video are also Butterworms, they're not as well known but super easy to digest and very nutricional. I'd love to see a newer video of you covering lesser-known/rare feeder insects. :) But super educational and entertaining videos, thank you for what you do!
Thank you for the informative video, no one was able to quite explain the pro's and cons of a lot of feeders, but I appreciated you breaking it down. I'll recommend this video to anyone that has questions about a healthy diets for feeding.
It is so interesting when I hear that grasshoppers are hard to get. Here in Germany they are the main feeder insect (besides crickets) It is hard to get (small) roaches though. I also feed a lot of different isopods. Soldier fly larvae and silk worms are super hard to come by and for hornworms I have to go to a reptile expo in Hamm where a Danish couple sells them.
I love when it comes down to picking the right feeder for your pets and most of the time your pets will love it. Also can you please do a review on butterfly Agamas.
As a kid I had a leopard gecko and he would often not eat at all, making it very frustrating for a young pet owner. Watching this video I'm now realizing the complete lack of info and resources I had back then as the only people my parents thought to ask was the pet store. Eventually I just gave him away because it was too stressful for me. That's the only reptile I've ever owned and I'm saddened to think that I would've gotten much more into the hobby if I hadn't had such a negative first experience. I'm looking to give it another go as an adult and it's thanks to all the great content y'all create, so thank you for what you do.
Very informative! I'm a huge fan of silkworms and buy them very often. I've tried breeding them with little luck. They are bit challenging than some other feeders to keep alive in my opinion.
The spreadsheet (and Clint's suggestion to pause if needed for more time) gave my inner science freak such immediate joy. Thank you for making this! Super helpful. 👍
Just another not insect feeder invert is porcellionides pruinosus, I use them as feeders for very small scorpions and read records of them being offered to micro geckos… they start out very small, can’t climb smooth plastic, are easy to keep and breed and move allot.
I just used the discount code and saved a little over 3 bucks on feeders for my leopard gecko. The prices for the grubs were fairly cheap compared to the Dubia. Our gecko got several things and we know she’s going to love all of them!! She’ll eat anything and she’s kinda dumb but we love her!! Thank you for the educational video!!
Didn't even know I could buy online and have it be cheaper than my local source, thanks! Though the link for some reason didn't work for me but it's no biggie love the content!
@@ClintsReptiles I already bought lol but I'm sure all the others will appreciate it my good sir thank you for the prompt response and resolution of this problem!
Thanks for recommending a good feeder website. I'll check it out sometime! It's hard to find dubia roaches at my local pet stores nowadays. Keep up the good educational content 👌
Banded crickets also have defensive spikes that can unexpectedly prick you when you grab a handful of them. I pinch the hind legs off before feeding adults to my geckos
very cool! came here after feeding my gecko a wild hornworm and wanting to learn more... its been a day or so and he's fine. had three more that were in queue to be fed, now diverted
Clint, I love your videos. I love how much I learn from them and I enjoy learning more about the scientific side of owning herps. Herpetology, Entomology, Botany, and more is so cool when it relates back to caring for our critters!
Hey Clint there's a 3rd popular cricket species which I don't know the common english name for but it's gryllus assimilis and they are literally like the perfect cricket. They are the largest of these 3, they are pretty slow and not very jumpy and are pretty quiet. They are in my experience just straight up superior to house crickets. Maybe next time you go shopping try to get your hands hands on some of these :)
Awesome video, Clint! Thank you! I took the plunge last year and started a dubia colony to have an on-hand food source for my two leopard geckos. Started with ~20 adults, and now I've got at least 200 roaches. The ONLY downside is that sometimes it's hard to find just the right size of nymph for feeding, while also making sure not to feed off too many, since you want some to grow up and breed. When my colony needs a grow-out break, I substitute superworms, which I looooove. They are so easy.
Excellent info Clint not negative and he just tells it! Straight to the point. I breed insects from Black Soldier Fly and Worms! I agree the crickets are noisy. I love breeding Dubia Roaches easy over crickets! Sorry not to speak soft but they're too loud 📢.
Hornworms are amazing for bearded dragons. I bought the big tub of Repashy hornworm food to feed them and when the worms get really big I put them in the fridge for a day, and then take it out in the morning to bring them back to life. This has helped me keep a sustainable amount of worms for my beardie.
Thanks for this one, Clint. Keeping two kinds of insectivorous snakes, I’ve tried am about to try all of these save the fruit flied, but your info has helped round out my knowledge. I have found that hornworms can quickly grow past my pet’s ability to eat them, and then it becomes a “Well, I guess I have a new pet.” situation.
Clint!🐞 This is a Hemifantabulous Video!🦗 I love the part about the Pheenoduiladas and 🪲the Sizemorephic Gelulada feeders! You're so Awesomathaligoric 🪳Extravaganza!!🕷 oh please pardon my poor spelling for some of these rare feeders. I did my best-ahcatagorphic!
No Clint youre not a weirdo for liking roaches, they are awesome animals and like you said just have a bad rep, please keep up with theese wonderfull videos
My trick for handling crickets... hold a small deli sauce cup in the top of the bag, lift the bag up and shake the amount you want in, knock the rest back into the bottom, slide your fingers over the cup to trap them in and pinch the bag off with forceps. Keep your fingers over the cup, position over the enclosure and then pull your fingers back and shake them into the enclosure.
Over 11 MINUTES of BONUS content, exclusively for our Stinkin' Rad Fans on Patreon! Patreon is a great way to support Clint's Reptiles AND get awesome extras! www.patreon.com/posts/video-patreon-if-71752708
hey clint just fyi the discount code isn't working
Could you make a video about the top 2 or 3 videos for each type of reptile or amphibian? I have three White’s Tree froglets. They are eating the smallest crickets right now. I did try them with Dubias a couple of times, but they don’t like them….at least not yet. I think they had an aversion to their legs? So what would be best to try next? Waxworms or black fly larvae? Thanks Clint!
Bees. I get a lot of bees that naturally die. I also kill some to do alcohol mite tests.
Tell us about the crickets these mf's are starting to put in the food!!! I don't eat damn crickets!!!!
@@thresher214 3rd w we ew a we a wwwsw×w÷d÷sees ee a we÷÷@@@a s@@a
i think I've never seen clint be this openly negative about an animal as he was when talking about the crickets 😂
check out his video from 4 years ago on green iguanas. I still crack up when I rewatch it! ruclips.net/video/RzK8Lzl11tU/видео.html
@@GlitteryBugs Do not forget the Nile monitor! That's possibly my favourite video of Clint's.
Roaches are the best.
As a reptile owner who buys 300+ crickets a week ive never hated any animal as much as I hate crickets
I hate crickets and the noise the smell because they die so fast and the fact that they are notorious parasite carriers so I don't use them for my dragon
It would be nice to have a full phylogeny of all the insect orders, although that might turn into a 2 hour movie.
would be a fun 2 hours though
Yessss great idea
Complete pancrustacea phylogeny part 1 of 527
More like an entire week
I'd watch it. Lol.
I had to rewind several times & listen to that adorable HISS!!❤️
A bunch of my nutrigrubs pupated into flies. I was pissed at first, until i googled that they’re edible, and tossed them into my leos enclosure. Was hours of fun for the little one! I didn’t even know she could jump before.
I have a banded cricket loose in my house at the moment. And I have to admit, I have never been closer to committing war crimes
My husband once received a box of 500 banded crickets while I was not home. He checked on them and then "closed the box". When I got home I found the box with just enough of a gap for crickets to excape and at least 200 of the 500 roaming around my bedroom. That was an exciting evening....
@@michellebailey6511I lost two crickets the one and only time I ever tried to feed them, I was already on the brink with just those I think I would’ve committed if I had 200 😭😂
I used to feed them to my lizard until they kept escaping. I got all but two. They are still in my room making noise all night, every night. I CANT FIND THEM AND I MIGHT BURN THE HOUSE DOWN
Clint: "They eat nightshades"
Me, thinking of all my past tomato plants: "ohhh, that's why that name was familiar"
A phyologeny of the isopods would be great! It would be one of the most niche of all niche videos and I would 100% be here for it lol
Isopods are great
I use powdered oranges to my anole and two bearded dragons. The anole has a ton of them in her bioactive, along with mealworms. They are higher in calcium and softer shelled and a great treat.
I had an "incident" that happened at work a couple months ago where the superworms chewed a hole through the plastic lid of the container they were being held in. It shocked everyone.
I think they are studying them to eat plastic. It may take millions to eat a cup, but just start throwing them into dumps along with bsfl to help with waste control.
Totally on your side with banded crickets, they were the bane of my existence before my emerald tree skinks wiped out the ones in their enclosure who had managed to avoid getting immediately eaten.
I couldn’t sleep for days when I lost 3 of them in my beardie’s enclosure, they would burrow down in the cork holes and obnoxiously chirp all night long. But I can’t find any house crickets in my area, they’re all banded!
20 minutes of crickets chirping, balanced against 20 minutes of Clint. I suspect this was a practical joke that Clint pulled on us.
I used to have a cage full of Fire-Bellied Toads and a feeder cage of Crickets for them.
Between the Crickets and the Toads, I didn't get much sleep for a while.
After a bit, though, I grew to enjoy the noise and if it ever got too obnoxious I'd just bang on either cage lid to get them to shut up.
Definitely interested in individual shorts on feeders. Like a quick info dump on how to keep for a long time, breed, and best feeding practices. Might be neat to add in what feeders are good for what animal.
I absolutely agree about a vid on which feeders are best for each animal!
As a fellow biologist, I just adore Clint's humor at the beginning of this video explaining phylogeny. 😄 ❤️
As someone watching from Asia, where silkworms are super common to the point they are often used for kindergarten science projects, it is wild to hear Clint say they are expensive and hard to find lol
++I would love to watch a fruit fly video!! We keep them in my genetics lab, and I'm interested in how to keep them WITHOUT an infestation 😂 (they slip out all the time if you don't dug them, which makes counting a real pain)
Yeah in the UK there's is only one store that stocks them Ridgeway reptiles and you have to spend £40 for delivery other than that I dont think you can legally sell them without some form of license possibly a (AAL license - animal activities license) which is issued based on a random check if your not available when they come knocking you have to re-apply and that costs more money
Meanwhile in the US kindergarteners will sometimes have monarch butterflies in their classrooms, rather than silkworms.
Where I live they are illegal to import :)
🥺 I wish I could work in a Genetics Lab
For flightless fruit flies, we put the culture in the fridge/freezer for a few minutes before feeding to slow their activity down, and then sometimes I put the culture tub into a larger tub or ziplock bag before I open it, so I can capture any jumpers.
I don't know if you have "Mosquito Dunks" or "mosquito bits" available in your area, but you can use them to combat many larval insects as well, I know it works with fruit flies and fungus gnats. It's a parasitic bacteria that targets the larvae, it won't harm people or pets. I have put it in my drain trap, added to spray bottles to spray on top of trash and compost, and used it on potted plants indoors to reduce infestations. Oh, and I've used it in a fish tank safely, without harming my shrimp or fish.
Not sure if any of that will help, but that's what I have done to reduce fruit fly and fungus gnats infestations, personally.
I'd love to see how fruitfly cultures can be done. I've wanted to keep dart frogs for a long time but the fly culturing process intimidates me a bit. Thanks for haveing such stinkin rad content Clint!
Same. Coming from planted aquariums, keeping the enclosure would be simple for me, But I don’t like the idea of having to keep rolling fruit fly cultures for 10-15 years.
Get a small potato, put it on the dish with cling film wrapped around the top of said dish, pierce a small hole theere and microwave the potato untill its soft.
Mash the potato, skin and all, put some bakers yeast in there and splash of beer if you have (vinegar if no beer availble) untill it forms a thick goop. Put it into a jar and put some crumpled up paper or something else for the flys to climb. Dump some fruitflys there and screw the cap on the jar. Just make sure you have hole in the jar top and put a bit of fabric between lid and jar so the flys cannot escape.
Lasts couple of weeks before you need to redo the procedure.
Hideki's instructions would work quite well but I will tell you from personal, recent experience that the beer recipe is quite smelly. There are a handful of recipes you can find online but the basic process is the same. Make food/substrate, put on the bottom of a ventilated cup (I use deli cups with fabric as I worry fruit flies are tiny enough to fit through some vent holes), put in a loose bunch of newspaper strips or preferably wood wool/excelsior (increases area for flies to climb so you can have more in one cup and better conditions for the flies), add flies. You'll want to keep them from getting super cold or super hot (no direct sunlight, winter basements, etc). When the food is depleted, make more and move the flies, preferably splitting them so you have more cultures. Chilling the flies in the fridge for a few minutes helps prevent escapees while transferring but I always have a few escape. I may just be bad at that though.
@@elliotgreason1364 beer is there to make them healthier. Beer have quite a lot of vutamins and micronutrients which is in turn healthier for the animals you feed them to.
it's really not difficult, just kinda gross. I hate plastic waste so I was cleaning and reusing the containers when I used to keep them, and I would suggest not doing that and just reusing plastic take out cups or something instead so you can toss them. mine didn't smell too bad, I used instant mashed potatoes, nutritional yeast, hot water and a bit of cornmeal to prevent mold. sometimes I would mix in a homemade ferment/beer, or instant yeast, and then sprinkle cinnamon on top, which also prevents mold and makes the smell waaay better. for climbing space I used coffee filters. if you do want to clean and reuse containers I found the best way was to freeze for a few hours so everything comes out in one chunk.
When I was a child, I wanted to be an entomologist so bad, and still like all that stuff, it makes me happy to see such informative videos!
I purposely let my BSL metamorphose in flies once. My mantis loved them. It got so out of hand that I just put my toad directly into the containter the flies were in and let him do some population control LOL. I was so hoping you would mention the flies too! I'm curious how nutritious they are compared to the larvae.
Some other feeders that were sadly not mentioned but can also be found:
Butterworms/Chilean mothe larvae/Chilecomadia moorei
Lobster roaches/Naupheta cinerea
Bottle fly larvae/Lucilia sericata
Not an insect but still a feeder: earthworms
Also phasmids. Often kept as pets, but can also be feeders.
And isopods are crustaceans, but they are feeders and clean up crew.
Lobster roaches have the bad habit of breeding at room temperature....
@@periplanetamissionary so do people
The most cited complaint about crickets - constant chirping - is one thing I love about them! It's probably the only thing. I did find a couple of interesting videos that suggest ways to keep them alive longer and make their enclosure smell better. Worth a try, I suppose. They are, after all, cheap and easily obtained.
Discoid roaches are amazing. They've recently been legalised in locations where dubias are illegal. They're super similar too
Canada : 😢
@@littlewigglemonster7691 I actually live in Canada. They've been legalized last November and just beginning to be sent over here. Currently insanely expensive but the prices are expected to go down significantly over the next few years. Atm it's about $140 for 50 adults
@@lemonlizard1 oh for real!? Dope great to know thanks man
@@lemonlizard1 ooo! Are they legal by omission or intention?
@@melskunk iirc they were on a list with a bunch of bugs that could possibly be invasive but the government didn't look into it too much. When an organization mentioned that they couldn't possibly become invasive they legalized them. I might be wrong though, going off of memory atm
Locusts/grasshoppers are easy to find in the UK, two feeders not mentioned in your video but regularly available here are Africanbeetle larvae and eartworms (specifically bred as feeders not wild caught)
Clint: Insect feeders
Me: Cheap pet insects
I'm fairly sure you could raise some of these as pets and not feed them to anything right? Plus I'd love just about any non-pest roach species as a pet tbh. They're so cute.
Of course you can! Pretty much all of them can just be kept as pets.
I LOVE having cricket sounds and frog sounds and birdcalls surrounding me, it's so calming.
Another huge downsite of crickets is that most crickets are omnivores and have absolutely no issue with trying to eat your pet if that pet is in a situation where it can't really do something about the cricket (like e.g. shedding/ molting); they also have sharp mandibles to actually succeed in that task so crickets really are only viable if you can be sure that they WILL get eaten basically immediately.
My rescue beardie is scared of crickets, probably for this reason. Previous owner just dumped in a week's worth and called it good, so poor guy was fighting for his own veggies, as well as keeping them from trying to eat him...
I have NEVER had an issue with crickets being anything but docile (with reptiles). It's so strange to hear people talking about their aggressive behavior. But at least now I'm alert about the matter.
After seeing one eat another alive, however, I can say for certain that they are probably dangerous to small spiders and even weak tarantulas.
However, I do have an adult bearded dragon, and they are pretty tough. They can eat adult mice (but they shouldn't). They are not sensitive or tender after shedding, either. But I can definitely see crickets being dangerous if she's brumating.
@@avonavians2860 I've also never observed them being aggressive either (I've seen them get on my leopard gecko but that is as they're scattering about when I put them in the terrarium). It of course helps that the crickets don't compete for any vegetables in the enclosure
Omgosh! The first couple of minutes felt like I was back in college biology! It was amazing and terrifying at the same time.
If I ever have another reptile, what they nutritionally need will definitely be one of the things that help me decide what that reptile might be.
Thank you for your amazing content - as always.
I'm pretty into it. 😁
I would love to see a care video for all of these feeders.
Same!
The adult black solider flies makes a great enrichment item too
First off; I don't own any pets but I find this channel so fascinating that I would watch a vid about bugs 'n' stuff. Clint you are a wealth of knowledge and I love learning about all the taxonomy and misnomers about them.
Secondly; the vidography of these insects is so edifying. I have found a new appreciation for the smol crawlers and hoppers and flyers.
That is all, carry on.
love the phylogenetic stuff
Love this . Would love to hear someone talk about captive bred grasshoppers. I don't think I knew that was an option even
If you get superworms or mealworms right after they molt and they are white, they are far more digestible, and this is rather easy if you raise a whole bunch of them in a big container to be sustainable for 1 pet. Same with the pupae, get them when they first form and are white and soft, the animals love them.
Clint, I was so excited when I heard who was sponsoring this episode! They are the guys who run my local reptile store where I get all my feeders.
I tried several storebought mealworms (UGH, I hate those things and am NOPE at worms overall, and she agrees with me: UGH) and crickets (everything you said, plus I just don't trust the little jerks) for my wild-caught Carolina mantis. She likes moths, but after a few successes it was like there were NO moths and I love moths and felt like I was feeding her a kitten!
So I caught and tried a wild hopper.
Yes, I totally feel you about the wild-caught-food and possible dangers, but we're pretty rural with no attempt by anyone to do formal pest-spraying, and she was living out there herself and probably ate dozens til she came to stay here. I wouldn't suggest doing it with a captive-bred exotic or anything!
She goes right for them, and she's just done her final molt with lovely results. I catch a hopper with a minnow net, fridge-stun it and snip off the hopping legs after one somehow kicked itself and her off the ceiling. Drop it into her house. She gobbles them, and on the rare occasional she waits a little I'm not really scared they can hurt her, particularly since she's done molting. Nor am I super distressed by the idea of one getting loose somehow in my house--it's a hopper. Well, that can't hop anymore, heh. (Nonhopper? Nopper?)
But I'm excited to learn that you can buy "clean" hoppers bred for feeders, as I worry what I'll do if she lives until it's near winter--so TLDR: Thank you for this video!
Will you breed her? My two females have already been bred and both produced an egg case.
Wow! This video mostly just made me want to adopt a Hornworm and let it turn into a Tobacco Hawk Moth! That thing is awesome!
One downside to dubia: frass can be an allergen to some so cleaning storage can be problematic or at least inconvenient.
I just started using for my jumping spider and have to come up with a better system as I have sensitivity to them. Have to find the best spot in house to keep them away from me haha
And sometimes people develop an allergy to peanut butter and similar if they're allergic to roaches... because of contamination.
Hahaha I just have to mention how I love that you organized them phylogenetically, just because! I do the same thing for any organism(s) I'm looking at or thinking of, cuz why not :)
I love your phylogeny content so very much! Thank you for taking the time to compile this knowledge and explain it to us ❣️ you're stinkin rad, Clint.
yesss phylogeny trees are actually such great ways to organise info for nature videos! they just make intuitive sense and are very easy to follow (when done right).
Perfect timing for this video! Today is an expo to load up on feeders. Hornworms are always on my list. There used to be a supplier of BFSL and they were very reasonably priced so my baby bearded dragon practically lived on those for the first three months.
Listening to your story about catching grasshoppers makes me smile. I always remind my spouse that he was given plenty of warnings that I was a "bug girl" while dating. One of our best dates was driving through the middle of nowhere Kansas so he could visit a specific structure for university. While he did his homework I was busy catching grasshoppers.
I really enjoyed this. I would also like seeing a video on feeder fish and one on feeder rodents, birds, etc
Two points I'd like to bring up with crickets. Crickets are the mice/rat of the bug world in my opinion. Meaning that, like live rodents, they fight back. I had a leopard gecko lose her eye to a cricket bite even though it was a normal, supervised feeding time. That alone made me go to roaches as my primary feeder.
Second, as some spider/tarantula enthusiasts know, they are more likely to hold parasites if they aren't kept in very clean environments. Since that transfers to the spider and there's no medication or treatment for them, the spider is likely to die in a couple months or less if it's severe. It's not as bad in reptiles, since there is treatment, but you have to really trust your cricket breeder to keep their area clean if you don't want a risk of parasites.
That's terrible!
However, they definitely aren't as bad as mice/rats. They have a serious advantage over reptiles.
I can't believe they don't kill snakes more often. Rats can prey on adult birds and rabbits.
I'd imagine crickets are more dangerous to geckos than bearded dragons, though, since they can crush crickets to crumbs in seconds.
I think the idea that crickets are "filthier" than other feeders is anecdotal. But crickets are probably more cannibalistic than dubia roaches, which might cause the spread of their diseases.
I also think that healthy reptiles rarely get sick from invertebrate diseases.
All the moth species: adorable!!!!
The drosophila maggots... hell no 😖
Fruitflies and maggots are just giving me the heebie jeebies, having them spawn in big numbers where I live and trying my best every summer to keep them out of the house.
I could never ever willingly keep a cup of them anywhere near my living area lol
oh same haha, maggot infestations are the best way to give you nightmares
I love that Clint has the same disdain for crickets as me 😇
The video I never knew that I needed... and yes, I'm into this kind of thing!!
Recently discovered redrunners, they are like Dubia Roaches, slightly less hardy but they still don't die as fast as crickets and such do, plus you get like 50 of them for the same amount of money as like 8 dubia roaches, my Leopard Gecko absolutely moves them too.
That first couple minutes had my head spinning. Really interesting info, thanks for sharing!
Most of your videos are on topics that I wouldn't normally find interesting on my own but seeing how passionate you are about these critters makes me want to know what makes them so special. I would love to see a video on fruitflies. If you think they're interesting, then I think they're interesting.
Hello! Thanks for the video. Someday, could you do a video on Giant Green Ameivas? I have seen them captive bred at my local reptile store and they’re so neat. I’d love to learn more
Crickets are wayyyy less stinky when kept in a bioactive set up :) they also live wayyyy longer( like their whole natural life span) since there isn’t a buildup of ammonia
I love Clints' videos. I sometimes get lost trying to understand everything he says but Clint makes it fun to get lost.
Other downsides of mealworms and super worms are they burrow and, if allowed to turn into beetles, can be dangerous to molting/freshly molted inverts.
Great video as always!
The beetles also produce gross tasting chemicals that most lizards won't eat. Luckily, it's not toxic.
This is quite possibly the best feeder insect video on the internet.
I second Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches being perceived as pets not food! The zoo I work for has a colony of MHCs for animal ambassadors, and they are certainly a very interesting animal to see enter the classroom, super handle able and have a surprise factor that make them a great ambassador! And it's crazy how petting a MHC feels no different than petting your fingernail!
I have a bio active colony of Dubia roaches for my pets and I have yet to get used to them but I do appreciate them for what they provide as feeders
Remains me of the days of Vet bioscience at glasgow Uni. hearing clint explain things. Also the usefulness of diagrams to explain things to others new to a topic like this.
Some feeders I've seen recently that I'm surprised were not mentioned in this video are also Butterworms, they're not as well known but super easy to digest and very nutricional. I'd love to see a newer video of you covering lesser-known/rare feeder insects. :) But super educational and entertaining videos, thank you for what you do!
Thank you for the informative video, no one was able to quite explain the pro's and cons of a lot of feeders, but I appreciated you breaking it down. I'll recommend this video to anyone that has questions about a healthy diets for feeding.
It is so interesting when I hear that grasshoppers are hard to get. Here in Germany they are the main feeder insect (besides crickets) It is hard to get (small) roaches though. I also feed a lot of different isopods. Soldier fly larvae and silk worms are super hard to come by and for hornworms I have to go to a reptile expo in Hamm where a Danish couple sells them.
Wow! Grasshoppers are BEAUTIFUL!
I loved this! I'd like to see more about the phylogeny and care of specific feeders like fruit flies and roaches
I love when it comes down to picking the right feeder for your pets and most of the time your pets will love it. Also can you please do a review on butterfly Agamas.
I LOVE educational videos like this. Even more so than the pet videos.
As a kid I had a leopard gecko and he would often not eat at all, making it very frustrating for a young pet owner. Watching this video I'm now realizing the complete lack of info and resources I had back then as the only people my parents thought to ask was the pet store. Eventually I just gave him away because it was too stressful for me. That's the only reptile I've ever owned and I'm saddened to think that I would've gotten much more into the hobby if I hadn't had such a negative first experience. I'm looking to give it another go as an adult and it's thanks to all the great content y'all create, so thank you for what you do.
Very informative! I'm a huge fan of silkworms and buy them very often. I've tried breeding them with little luck. They are bit challenging than some other feeders to keep alive in my opinion.
The spreadsheet (and Clint's suggestion to pause if needed for more time) gave my inner science freak such immediate joy. Thank you for making this! Super helpful. 👍
Just another not insect feeder invert is porcellionides pruinosus, I use them as feeders for very small scorpions and read records of them being offered to micro geckos…
they start out very small, can’t climb smooth plastic, are easy to keep and breed and move allot.
I am Polish and I live in Poland, there are a lot of grasshoppers in Poland and I love catching them
I love the dubia to because they’re easy to catch and can’t climb the plastic sides of the tub I keep them in and they’re good for my chameleon!
Amazing!!!!! I never knew that these feeders existed. WOW! GOOD VIDEO!
I just used the discount code and saved a little over 3 bucks on feeders for my leopard gecko. The prices for the grubs were fairly cheap compared to the Dubia. Our gecko got several things and we know she’s going to love all of them!! She’ll eat anything and she’s kinda dumb but we love her!!
Thank you for the educational video!!
Seriously EXCELLENT video filled with tons of closed ups and charts! TY SOO much! RAD!!!
Didn't even know I could buy online and have it be cheaper than my local source, thanks! Though the link for some reason didn't work for me but it's no biggie love the content!
It should be working now.
@@ClintsReptiles I already bought lol but I'm sure all the others will appreciate it my good sir thank you for the prompt response and resolution of this problem!
Easily one of the most helpful videos I've come across as a reptile owner. Thanks!
Thanks for recommending a good feeder website. I'll check it out sometime! It's hard to find dubia roaches at my local pet stores nowadays. Keep up the good educational content 👌
Banded crickets also have defensive spikes that can unexpectedly prick you when you grab a handful of them. I pinch the hind legs off before feeding adults to my geckos
very cool! came here after feeding my gecko a wild hornworm and wanting to learn more... its been a day or so and he's fine. had three more that were in queue to be fed, now diverted
Another amazing video Clint. Tbh I would keep Madagascar hissing cockroaches as pets as well. They are really cool in my opinion.
beetles are the coolest. i love them so much
Clint, I love your videos. I love how much I learn from them and I enjoy learning more about the scientific side of owning herps. Herpetology, Entomology, Botany, and more is so cool when it relates back to caring for our critters!
Thank you for the video! I loved the phylogeny as well as the difference between mealworms and superworms.
Thanks for the video and discount code. I just used it for my first ever order with Dubia Roaches.
Hey Clint there's a 3rd popular cricket species which I don't know the common english name for but it's gryllus assimilis and they are literally like the perfect cricket. They are the largest of these 3, they are pretty slow and not very jumpy and are pretty quiet. They are in my experience just straight up superior to house crickets. Maybe next time you go shopping try to get your hands hands on some of these :)
I always love the bloopers at the end 😃
Awesome video, Clint! Thank you!
I took the plunge last year and started a dubia colony to have an on-hand food source for my two leopard geckos. Started with ~20 adults, and now I've got at least 200 roaches. The ONLY downside is that sometimes it's hard to find just the right size of nymph for feeding, while also making sure not to feed off too many, since you want some to grow up and breed. When my colony needs a grow-out break, I substitute superworms, which I looooove. They are so easy.
I'm looking forward to the "how to catch, breed, and start your own colony of local grasshoppers" video coming soon.
Thoroughly informative. Thank you!! I have a much better understanding of what to feed my crew and when.
This video and that chart at the end was exactly was I needed
Love how it was organized!
This video was great and so informative! It's nice having so much information about feeders all packed into one video.
As someone with tinnitus I had to turn the volume way up to even hear the banded cricket call. Thats funky
Only clint can make a video about feeder insects and keep my attention all the way through
Thank you so much. You have been and always are wonderful.
Excellent info Clint not negative and he just tells it! Straight to the point. I breed insects from Black Soldier Fly and Worms! I agree the crickets are noisy. I love breeding Dubia Roaches easy over crickets! Sorry not to speak soft but they're too loud 📢.
Please do a video on feeders for aquatic pets
Than you. Fascinating as usual Dr Clint.
Thanks a lot ! I didn't know you can keep bsfl in the fridge. This is very useful to know, because I found they don't live long at room temperature
Hornworms are amazing for bearded dragons. I bought the big tub of Repashy hornworm food to feed them and when the worms get really big I put them in the fridge for a day, and then take it out in the morning to bring them back to life. This has helped me keep a sustainable amount of worms for my beardie.
Thanks for this one, Clint. Keeping two kinds of insectivorous snakes, I’ve tried am about to try all of these save the fruit flied, but your info has helped round out my knowledge. I have found that hornworms can quickly grow past my pet’s ability to eat them, and then it becomes a “Well, I guess I have a new pet.” situation.
Clint!🐞 This is a Hemifantabulous Video!🦗 I love the part about the Pheenoduiladas and 🪲the Sizemorephic Gelulada feeders! You're so Awesomathaligoric 🪳Extravaganza!!🕷 oh please pardon my poor spelling for some of these rare feeders. I did my best-ahcatagorphic!
No Clint youre not a weirdo for liking roaches, they are awesome animals and like you said just have a bad rep, please keep up with theese wonderfull videos
Clint over here dropping some knowledge!
My trick for handling crickets... hold a small deli sauce cup in the top of the bag, lift the bag up and shake the amount you want in, knock the rest back into the bottom, slide your fingers over the cup to trap them in and pinch the bag off with forceps. Keep your fingers over the cup, position over the enclosure and then pull your fingers back and shake them into the enclosure.