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Showing posts from March, 2018

Breeding Bean Beetles

One of the small feeders that I like to include for micro geckos, small frogs, or other small insectivores are the bean beetles. Fortunately, these small beetles are extremely easy to breed. The supplies one will need to do so can be seen below: 16 ounce deli cups, screened insect lids for the cups, and black eyed peas or mung beans. You can get cups and lids from neherpsupply I have had some issues with moisture building up if the beans are stacked too high, so I only add a small amount of beans. To move the beetles from an existing culture to the new one, tap the top and sides of the existing culture to knock back the beetles at the top. A small piece of egg crate placed in each culture is helpful in transferring the beetles. Quickly move around 50 beetles into the new culture and close the lid on both the new and old cultures. I like to add 2-3 rounds of adult beetles with a number of days between each addition. You want the culture to end up with a large number of eggs

Saving Money on Reptile Supplies

Keeping reptiles can be an expensive hobby, particularly if you have a large collection. I will do my best here to show you how to get reptiles supplies for good prices and save you some time from searching. UVB Lights: This is one area you need to be very careful with. There are products out there which do not actually produce UVB. I could only recommend you purchase these lights from a reputable source. LLLReptile   usually has better than average pricing and is reliable and trusted as a source. Another good source is light your reptiles . Now, I know I said this post was to save you money, but I put UVB at the top of list with places you probably already heard of because this is not the area to try saving a few bucks and these products need a proven track record and known fakes are out there. Ceramic Heat Bulbs: If you do not need them quickly, you can save about 50% or more by picking these items up direct from China. These are 25 to 100 W models . When you click where it says

Need an Enclosure? Buy or Build?

I've built my own enclosures and I've bought my own enclosures. There is no one answer about which is better as every situation can be unique. If you need a 4x2x1 enclosure: Don't bother building. The Animal Plastics T8 goes for 150$ and is an excellent and durable terrarium. These cages are light weight but made with a very strong plastic and are the best value I've been able to find. Note that some plastics are cheap and has lots of air in them, so not all plastic cages are a good value, but APcages are very good, both strong and light weight. If you need a slightly taller cage, boamaster has a 4x2x19" cage for around 140$ but it is made of melamine and it is very heavy as a result. However, the cage was easily assembled and has worked well for me. The same disadvantage applies to most homemade cages. They are usually made from plywood or melamine. If properly created and sealed, they can be functional and safe, but they will remain extremely heavy. I have

Book Review: The Complete Cricket Breeding Manual by Glenn Kvassay

Glenn has created an in depth guide to cricket breeding at 174 pages. This is way more detailed than what you'll find floating around online. Glenn started breeding crickets to save money while rehabbing Quolls and keeping pet lizards but he found that traditional breeding practices found online took too long so Glenn began creating more efficient methods for breeding feeder crickets. Glenn gives step by step instructions for two systems. One system is designed for small scale production and people who just want to feed a few pet reptiles such as a couple of bearded dragons. The other is for people who want to produce commercially on a large scale or who need to feed a huge collection of reptiles. What I liked about the book: Details were given on creating the right air flow, what types of screening to use and when, and making cleaning, feeding, and water delivery efficient with detailed instructions on making your own feeding and water delivery systems. Tips for dealing wit





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