A while back I order too many black soldier fly larvas for my bearded dragon and anoles so now I am starting to end up with some of the flies. I normally just throw the flies in with the anoles as another food source, it’s also very entertaining to watch the anoles hunt the flies they go completely crazy chasing after the flies. I am starting to wonder though if the the fly stage of the Hermetia illucens is safe for the anoles consumption. I’m not using the flies as a staple feeder. I have no ambition of breeding them so I’m not entirely sure what to do with the flies if they aren’t safe for them to eat.
Black soldier flies as a feeder
- Thread starter MiaPow
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Maybe there is a tokay in your future?
Lmao why they love to eat flies.
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Eat anything. From gnats to mice and small rats. One just cleaned out a birds nest in our carport. I call them wall sharks. Got a Cuisinart for a mouth.
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SamanthaMarikian
Arachnoknight
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i dont see why they wouldnt be safe for them to eat but if you want i have the link for a whole study on the nutrient values and how digestable they are for leopard geckos Lol. it’s fairly interesting but it’s mostly or entirely on them as larvae i think. One thing they do point out is how they didnt digest the exoskeleton or get much calcium from them and have low amounts of fat soluble vitamins. Idk how much that’d change when they turn into adults. I can see them being really good enrichment feeders as long as you dont give them too many. But the study really goes all out and they did a deeper look into it because some of the geckos in the study really didnt fair well with how they did it which is pretty sad. But at least now we know why ig. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0232496
SamanthaMarikian
Arachnoknight
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I know its on leopard geckos but it’s something SOMEWHAT closer in size and diet vs something like a study done on a monitor or something along those lines with a totally different diet.
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I read somewhere that certain geckos, notably the tokay, have a digestive system quite similar to that of the great cats. Ultra high proteins oriented.
Introduction to the Digestive System of Cats
Information on how the digestive system of cats work.