thats a great post. I agree too that they are great to keep for their own sake.
I have some set up with an arboeal Abronia and he seems to care less about them. I did it to see if he was interested and alos to have them established in the cage. I set them up with some Uroplatus as well with out so far noticing them being bothered.
On Jan 21, 2005, at 4:26 PM, Hilde wrote:
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
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