when is too young to separate siblings M & F ?

[NBGwen]

Don't need much space to raise silkworms , I have my big, small , and baby silkworms in tubs of various sizes in a 30L tub when my grandson (6yr old) visits, but usually just sitting in the lid of the 30L tub on the coffee table - is handy for me there and I don't really care if the lounge room looks cluttered.

Really? I would honestly love to raise silkworms because I know they are an excellent feeder and don't sink like crickets, but I have no idea how to go about it. I've tried reading up on it, but people make it so complicated. Would you mind sharing your set up with me?

 

[kingofnobbys]

Don't need much space to raise silkworms , I have my big, small , and baby silkworms in tubs of various sizes in a 30L tub when my grandson (6yr old) visits, but usually just sitting in the lid of the 30L tub on the coffee table - is handy for me there and I don't really care if the lounge room looks cluttered.

Really? I would honestly love to raise silkworms because I know they are an excellent feeder and don't sink like crickets, but I have no idea how to go about it. I've tried reading up on it, but people make it so complicated. Would you mind sharing your set up with me?

This is how I do it .... viewtopic.php?f=76&t=222193 seems to work OK.

I restrict myself to no more than 200 silkworms when buying.

Got maybe 1000 hatching right now, so expect to need to upsize to from a 4.5L tub to 10L soon.

 

[SHBailey]

Peppa looks like she enjoyed the bath, even if she didn't poop this time.

I guess we've been pretty lucky that the local pet stores usually have crickets and roaches in stock, and we haven't had to resort to mail ordering so far, because shipping live bugs to Alaska, and getting them into the house before they freeze to death (for probably at least 6 months out of the year), is problematic, not to mention the issue of paying as much or more for shipping as the stuff itself is worth for just about anything that gets shipped up here.

I've got Repashy Grub Pie to use for emergencies now too. Our beardie won't touch the kibbles (doesn't seem to recognize them as food), but he seems to like the taste of the grub pie. I've also discovered that it seems to make a pretty good laxative (for ours at least), so it might be a good idea to order some for Peppa if you haven't already tried it with her for that purpose. :wink:

 

[kingofnobbys]

The 1000x "medium" crickets order from LiveFoods (in Queensland) showed up on Thursday , came in two 6 egg cartons in a calico bag in a box , only a few DOA.
Noted they also do BSF maggots (worth knowing).
Also noted they have an 8 channel wireless digital thermometer hygrometer unit.

The food they had in the egg cartons was almost sandlike and very dusty.

Got 12 tubs of crickets out of the batch.

I have a credit with my regular supplier Frog Arcade (they are low on larger sizes of crickets for the next 2 or 3 weeks , so this should work well.)

 

[kingofnobbys]

July School break here, so we scored our 6 yr old grandson for 3 nights and 4 days , and he's very boisterous and noisy , fortunately it was sunny for the last 3 days and he got to play outside in the back yard (perfect time to feed the BTS and beardies. Only one who's a disturbed by his noiseyness is Toothless (he wasn't too happy about the lad being close while I was feeding him and was giving him "the stare").
He went home yesterday and the lizards have been enjoying the peace and quiet.

Weights pretty steady this week.

Toothless pooed overnight/ early this morning and still came in up 4g at 508g.
Peppa pooed on Thursday and her weight is steady.

 

[SHBailey]

Well, at least they don't seem to have gotten too terribly stressed out about the noisy grandchild -- no weight loss or constipation. :wink:

 

[kingofnobbys]

Either I have an imposter , or something must be wrong with Toothless (my livewire) the last few days : as he's become extra smoogy and been loving long snuggles from me after his silkworm and crickets and greens and also when I move him under his loghide when I am ready to go to bed.

2 hour snuggle on daddy this afternoon .... was lovely.

I'm used to this with Peppa and the big old BTs. This is a nice change with Toothless who normally wants down after 5 - 10 mins.

 

[SHBailey]

Since it's the middle of your winter (am I right about that?), do you think maybe he's getting ideas about brumating? Or maybe not, since there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with his appetite. Maybe he's just realized that a warm human is a nice thing to cuddle up with on a cold winter day.

Our beardie usually gets wiggly after a fairly short cuddle in the morning or in the middle of the day (even if he was previously doing his "get me out of this little glass box" dance in his tank just before we took him out), but we can often get away with a much longer snuggle at bedtime when he's nice and sleepy, just as long as the lights in the room aren't bright enough to keep him awake.
TV watching and beardie cuddling go well together. :love5:

 

[kingofnobbys]

Since it's the middle of your winter (am I right about that?), do you think maybe he's getting ideas about brumating? Or maybe not, since there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with his appetite. Maybe he's just realized that a warm human is a nice thing to cuddle up with on a cold winter day.

<<< I think he's finally coming around .... all my lizards love snuggles off daddy and mommy, just him took a while longer than the rest to come around , he's still pretty energetic as are the others (despite it being mid winter here = I blame the house being airconed 24/7 and never cooler than 22oC even on the coldest night)..

Our beardie usually gets wiggly after a fairly short cuddle in the morning or in the middle of the day (even if he was previously doing his "get me out of this little glass box" dance in his tank just before we took him out), but we can often get away with a much longer snuggle at bedtime when he's nice and sleepy, just as long as the lights in the room aren't bright enough to keep him awake.
TV watching and beardie cuddling go well together. :love5:

They are all smart enough to climb off me , ask me to deposit them on the floor and head to their tanks and wait there when they are ready to go back in.... just like Lucky and Wriggles used to put themselves back to bed when they were done snuggling and ready for sleep.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Peppa spotted the sun was coming in the window so wanted off and spent a couple hours looking out the window this afternoon instead of having a daddy snuggle after her diner of crickets and a large silkworm.

This was one of Puff's and Rex's fav spots too.

 

[SHBailey]

So did you train them to put themselves to bed like that or did they train themselves?

A nice warm sunbeam or a nice warm human are probably both good for digestion.

 

[kingofnobbys]

So did you train them to put themselves to bed like that or did they train themselves?

<<< they just started doing it, and got rewarded by daddy with some petting and this reinforced the behavior.



A nice warm sunbeam or a nice warm human are probably both good for digestion.

You probably noticed the home DIYS renovator symptoms .... been like that for near 20 years , never did get around to laying tiles along the inside of the front entry door and front window frame . One day maybe I'll finish off the job.

 

[SHBailey]

Nothing unusual to me -- our kitchen floor needs some serious "professional"(?) help, The cheap self sticking linoleum tile that I put on there myself 18 years ago was a bad idea, but every time I start thinking about all the expense and all the hassles of trying to pick out suitable tile or other material, figure out if my husband will have the time and the know how to do it without ruining his health (allergies, etc) now that I'm no longer up to helping in any significant way with such a project, move all the cabinets, refrigerator and stove, etc etc etc, I end up talking him into putting it off for another year. Meanwhile, we got some fairly cheap rubber mat tiles that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and put a "band-aid" on the "high traffic areas" to prevent further damage. :roll:

But it just now occurred to me that the stuff might be a little more comfortable than the cold hard linoleum floor for a reptile to run around on... I'll have to give that some more thought. :?

 

[kingofnobbys]

Nothing unusual to me -- our kitchen floor needs some serious "professional"(?) help, The cheap self sticking linoleum tile that I put on there myself 18 years ago was a bad idea, but every time I start thinking about all the expense and all the hassles of trying to pick out suitable tile or other material, figure out if my husband will have the time and the know how to do it without ruining his health (allergies, etc) now that I'm no longer up to helping in any significant way with such a project, move all the cabinets, refrigerator and stove, etc etc etc, I end up talking him into putting it off for another year. Meanwhile, we got some fairly cheap rubber mat tiles that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and put a "band-aid" on the "high traffic areas" to prevent further damage. :roll:

But it just now occurred to me that the stuff might be a little more comfortable than the cold hard linoleum floor for a reptile to run around on... I'll have to give that some more thought. :?

Yep been there done that one too - I did that almost as soon as we bought the place , pulled up the horrible old lino in the kitchen and dining area , put down self adhesive lino squares which were fine until they'd had a few washes and started coming off ....

Went crazy with a 10L tin of dulux low gloss white wall paint in the laundry, kitchen , bathroom too.
Got sick of white and threw up wall paper .... got bored with the pattern and color of the wall paper and through up random groove pine wall paneling in all the bedrooms , the lounge and dining rooms and kitchen (it's still up there - great stuff - tough and very durable and never fades)
Retiled the splashbacks in the kitchen and laundry and the floor and walls in the bathroom (myself).
Done heaps over the years
including recladding the house, new gutters, new kitchen, all new windows and doors, put up a 2 car garage, insulating the exterior walls (while I had the old cladding off) and the ceilings.
Only got in professional help for the stuff that needed two men.

 

[SHBailey]

Sounds like you've got a lot of "sweat equity" wrapped up in making your house comfy for your family and your critters.

My husband and I have been talking about painting and replacing the wood paneling (NOT a professional job; it was there when I bought it) in our house ever since we got married 18 years ago, and the wood paneling is still there and the walls are still white (bo-o-oring), and it's getting less and less likely that we're ever going to get around to it, although he has some big plans for the yard...

I've come to the conclusion that a house is always a work in progress -- if you ever get it exactly the way you want it, you better take a picture and save it because it's not going to stay that way for very long. :roll: