Blue Bottle Fly Larvae (Grubco)

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DragonJosh

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Thought I'd share my experience with Grubco and their fly larvae. They come in a clear shallow plastic container with what appeared like something similar to sawdust as packing. Upon e-mailing them they said it was food grade wheat bran that is safe if our beloved pets accidentally eat some of it. One thing that made me switch to the fly larvae is the following:

No additional feeding
They don't smell
Extended life by storing in a common household refrigerator (they said approximately 36 degrees)
Nutritional overall as staple (need to dust with calcium + multi still)
Easy to contain in a dish
Price, even if I blast through a WHOLE calcium supplement powder container a month (really really unlikely unless you are wasteful) they are cheap!

My beardies love them as once removed from the fridge and into the feeding dish after dusting, they start to really wiggle as they warm up and draw attention. Here is a picture of my male bearded dragon, Apollo, eating straight from the container :D
c6tk0.jpg

Just thought I'd share my experience.
 

DragonJosh

Member
Original Poster
mostlyharmlessnj":3v966zsb said:
Thanks for the info, I may have to give them a try

Let me know if you do! The only complaint I have is trying to clear away any of the wheat bran when removing them from the container as I don't want to waste multi/calcium dust on the wheat bran. So far my method has to use an old sifter I had when I used sand, and it doesn't sift the wheat bran but brings the worms to the "surface" easier to grab. I need to find another sifter, any suggestions anyone?
 

mostlyharmlessnj

Hatchling Member
DragonJosh":1sklh4t7 said:
mostlyharmlessnj":1sklh4t7 said:
Thanks for the info, I may have to give them a try

Let me know if you do! The only complaint I have is trying to clear away any of the wheat bran when removing them from the container as I don't want to waste multi/calcium dust on the wheat bran. So far my method has to use an old sifter I had when I used sand, and it doesn't sift the wheat bran but brings the worms to the "surface" easier to grab. I need to find another sifter, any suggestions anyone?

I just got my order, so I will give them a try tomorrow....
 

mostlyharmlessnj

Hatchling Member
mostlyharmlessnj":w2ooed1i said:
I just got my order, so I will give them a try tomorrow....

Well tried feeding them this morning, the bran they are in is kind of sticky. Wally was not overly impressed with them, but he did eat them. May take some time to get him used to them, but I think the size of them for him might be part of the issue.

The Anoles on the other hand took to them really fast and absolutely loved them. With everything I've fed them so far, I never saw them all come down from their branches and hiding spots to eat, and two of them are currently watching over their food bowl like they are waiting for more!
 

runningguy

Hatchling Member
Intersting that nobody has jumped in here to condemn feeding a BD magots. A year ago the feeling was that since maggots eat rotting flesh, they would be not be good for a BD. I disagree and have fed my BD magots (aka spikes) with no problem. Now my BD is large enough that fly larvae are too small and he would need to eat dozens of them.
 

mostlyharmlessnj

Hatchling Member
runningguy":3fj0z91m said:
Intersting that nobody has jumped in here to condemn feeding a BD magots. A year ago the feeling was that since maggots eat rotting flesh, they would be not be good for a BD. I disagree and have fed my BD magots (aka spikes) with no problem. Now my BD is large enough that fly larvae are too small and he would need to eat dozens of them.

I think the key is knowing what they are raised on. Grubco's do not seem to be raised on rotting foods.
 

DragonJosh

Member
Original Poster
Yes feeding regular "maggots" to beardies is bad since you don't know what exactly they have eaten and are probably on rotten flesh, BUT I do not know of any Insect retailer that sells such a thing. As all the types of fly larvae are fed on different things. Grubco I believe is on fish, and are safe to feed to our pets.

My female who has a big appetite does demolish a bunch of them since they are sorta small, but they are still worth it to me for the reasons I listed in the original post. I'm almost through the second container of 500 and do have some dead ones, but I did receive them two months ago! So that's not bad on the life of them.
 

Kaiser

Juvie Member
These sound appealing (in terms of pricing, and food for my bearded dragon... I'd pass on it, though, ha ha). I'm just curious as to the exact figures concerning the nutritional analysis of this company's larvae, and whether or not they can scientifically be proven as staples for a bearded dragon. I too would also like to know the general size of the larvae, as the website's description doesn't seem to provide that.

Otherwise, definitely keeping these in mind on my list of alternative feeders. Thanks for the information.
 

Shakti75

Member
Grubco DOES list the nutritional info.....http://www.grubco.com/Nutritional_Information.cfm

I'm on my second order of them now, and since Zuma has started eating them, she refuses to eat the phoenix worms anymore. She wants nothing to do with them, lol. She is growing well with the fly larva and gobbles them up quite readily. I have spoken with a rep for grubco, and yes, they are raised on fish, so not rotting meat. I've had absolutely no problems using these as a feeder, supplementing occasionally with crickets and small superworms.
 

Kaiser

Juvie Member
Shakti75":22kyj5y6 said:
Grubco DOES list the nutritional info.....http://www.grubco.com/Nutritional_Information.cfm

I'm on my second order of them now, and since Zuma has started eating them, she refuses to eat the phoenix worms anymore. She wants nothing to do with them, lol. She is growing well with the fly larva and gobbles them up quite readily. I have spoken with a rep for grubco, and yes, they are raised on fish, so not rotting meat. I've had absolutely no problems using these as a feeder, supplementing occasionally with crickets and small superworms.

Oh, thank you for that! I guess I'm not too good at searching for things, ha ha. Anyway, that's really interesting to hear! I will have to try to feed these to my bearded dragon some time and see how he likes it. Do you dust them with calcium, like you would with crickets?
 

Shakti75

Member
Yes, I dust them with calcium same as with crickets, along with dusting them with vitamins once a week also.
 

DragonJosh

Member
Original Poster
Glad to hear I'm not the only one enjoying them (well my beardies...lol)! I'll try to remember to take a picture with a penny for size reference. They are smaller compared to the Repiworms I was using before, but for the price it's still cheaper to feed more. Plus it works out great for small beardies. I dust mine also.
 
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