I've only seen the orange pill bugs mentioned once, on a website devoted to Woodlice http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/7649/woodlice/wliceod.htm
As for toxicity, I've never had a problem using them as feeders. I do remember reading someplace that a diet high in them can cause a vitamin shortage, however, I can't recall where I read that and I'm not even too sure anymore which vitamin it is. The problem didn't seem to be worth worrying about since I never use them as a main food item, so I didn't bother remembering all the details. I've fed both sowbugs and pill bugs to chameleons, dart frogs, various geckos and anoles. The Panther and Jacksons chams would pick them first out of a mixed bowl of crickets, mealworms, silkworms and pill bugs. Dendrobate frogs who don't have teeth and normally don't eat anything much bigger than a fruit fly would happily eat several pill bugs or sow bugs that were 4 or 5 times bigger than any fly they'd tackle. And some geckos love them. Pictus, fat-tails and other terrestrial geckos that live in forests or grasslands recognized them, possibly they eat them 'back home'. Arboreals like day geckos didn't seem too impressed, they'd eat the odd one but not really worth it. There was a pair of Grandis though that would eat them, even fight to the point of trying to steal a piece out of the other's mouth. They're easy to raise, though not as prolific as some of the bugs we raise. Some of mine have established themselves in tanks, but I still have to add feeders every few months. There's a pretty good caresheet at http://www.pollywog.co.uk/woodlice.html Newborn pillbugs would be great for premature geckos. I've had good luck using them to get a feeding response from premature leos and pictus. The bugs move fast enough to get the gecko's attention, but don't jump or fly away like crickets and fruit flies. If nothing else, they're cute suckers to keep as pets. :) Hilde -- ~*~*~*~*~*~ "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, white wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!" _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
