I've tried to feed them (the moths) to my adult dragonsIf they are too big to use them as feeder, you can continue to feed them and let them pupate, then you get moths
Do you think it won't hurt beardie? I once had moths and Foxy tried to get them out of the faunarium to eat, but I was afraid and did not allow him to do this, so the moths lived happily all their lives.I've tried to feed them (the moths) to my adult dragonsthey wouldn't even look at them lol.
Once upon a time, in those days when I knew nothing about this forum, I read about dragons on one of the forums in my country, it was small and there was a lot of bad advice. But that's not what this is about. There was a topic about why dragons love dubias and don't really like crickets. One member wrote: "It's logical, it's because crickets taste bitter and roaches are sweet!" I didn’t ask him then how he knew this. And then I read your message and immediately remembered this story.for example these moths have hairs, and some species are tasting bitter
Yes, you are absolutely right! When you talked about your childhood, I remembered mine and how my hands could get dirty in the saliva of grasshoppers. That's right, it tasted terrible! How could I forget about this?!It might sound funny and one might guess "hmmm, have they eaten an insect?"* - but: I just know this from some books and research papers in behavioral biology.
Some moths have a bitter-tasting counterpart, a species that looks very similar (= mimicry). Birds who are familiar with eating the well-tasting species were given one of the bitter tasting ones - from then on they avoided any moths looking like that and thus also of the well-tasting species. (Was carried out in experiments with hand-raised crows).
There are a lot of species around that look somewhat similar to a bitter one: Think of all the insects which are round(ish) and red and black with same markings that are more or less dots - they look vaguely similar to ladybird beetles which are bitter tasting.
For the crickets: I never had bought any as they are simply not available here. But - growing up on the countryside - I was catching grasshoppers and crickets (different species than what's used as feeder) regularly, for a variety of reasons (from curiosity to needing it as food for a foster pet to simply letting them out when they were at the window).
If not washing the hands carefully after, and eating something with bare hands, maybe picking berries in the garden: disgusting! It was tasting awfully bitter. Their saliva is bitter, and they excrete it when trying to bite. Would not wonder if that's the same with crickets. Maybe somebody who use them as feeder knows?
* I have never eaten an insect. Not even as a kid. Not out of disgust, but I just don't like to cause suffering for something "funny" and have never liked that. My beardie needs insects, I'm totally fine with him eating them, but I don't need them as food for me and thus wouldn't eat them.
I've heard of that. Wouldn't be an option for me, though - I'm vegetarian (no milk; no whatever body parts of an animal; eggs okay when I can get them from somebody who has chickens running around in their garden but otherwise also not). And I'm fine with that already for decadesBy the way, I heard that research is currently underway on growing forage crickets for use as human food. They contain a lot of protein and many useful microelements. I have read that there have been proposals to make powders from crickets to use as a dietary supplement.
That's of course easier when you use feeders instead (could be transferred without grabbing them), other than e.g. having to catch a stressed cricket or grasshopper at the window to let it out. Or catching them outdoors as food for an animal.When Foxy was little dragon, I used crickets as food but didn't notice them salivating, but I was always very careful with them and they never got stressed, maybe that's the reason.
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