Black Fly Larvae

[cron14]

Hey all! I'm new to the site and new to beardies as well. I got my little guy nearly a month ago from petsmart (I know) and he was extremely tiny. He was close to 5 inches and only 6 grams. Today he's 7 inches and around 12-15 grams. Anyway, I ordered in bulk black fly larvae for him to eat. They started turning into flies and I actually let them out in my back yard in order to get to the worms. Two got loose in my room and I noticed little foot would hang out on top of his ladder watching them fly by. So I decided to start letting them go in his tank and I've never seen him more active lol. He's pulling out all sorts of ninja moves. Anyway my question is, is it ok to feed beardies these flies so long as they've been contained? I read a couple posts from google of people saying that its alright but I figured the people of this site would know for sure. Thanks for the responses in advance!

 

[Taterbug]

Yep. The flies don't have the high calcium content of the larvae but they are great for enrichment and variety. They don't have mouthparts either so they can't eat anything harmful.

 

[ancapper]

The flies are fine to feed them, they dont eat just breed and die. They do have some crazy moves to cath them don't they

 

[cron14]

I figured they might lose a little calcium. Thanks for the replies guys! Yes it's much more entertaining to watch with him climbing and jumping all over the place. Really starting to enjoy the beardie experience since I also have a pet rock (ball python)

 

[kingofnobbys]

I had a similar experience with Gents (blow fly maggots).... Peppa and Toothless had a ball chasing the blue bottomed blowflies that emerged in their feeder dish from the worms they had totally ignored and the resulting pupae.

You might have more success with Calcigents . Another fabulous feeder for a young beardie is small (mealworm sized) silkworms.

 

[cron14]

Yea thanks king. I was actually looking to order them yesterday but the couple sites I know seem to be sold out