Fruit Flies

[roger]

I was wandering aroung the local Petsmart a few days ago when I nocticed they were carrying fruit fly cultures. I bought one with the idea of feeding the flies to my pair of CFBs. The day after I brought them home I released some in the terrarium with my CFBs but they did not show much interest. Some of the #$%^ing flies scaled the sides of the tank and almost escaped so I dropped them in the water of my eastern newts where they were dispatched jaws-fashion by one of the females. Since I was happy that I had not wasted money on something my newts do not want, I let some more flies go on the floating cork bark where the two male eastern newts chill out. One of the flys promptly committed suicide by crawling onto a newts head and balancing on his mouth! The newt did a nonchalant yawn , and no more fly. After that the pair of easterns hunted down all of the flies on the bark and are now staring expectantly at me as I type.

Does anyone else on the board feed their animals fruit-flies? How do you keep the little red-eyed creeps from escaping a terrestrial set-up? In my eastern newt's aquarium I simply moved the bark so it was surrounded by water. This left the flies in a sort of Jurassic Bark where they could not elude the newts.

 

[edward]

If you use lids on the tanks, you can place a layer of window screening under the lid and this will contain most of the flies. Another method is to place the container into the fridge until the flies become torpid and add to cage (this works best with aquatic species). Some terrestrial species such as redback salamanders will eat freshly dead fruit flies so they can be frozen and then fed out. In terrestrial set-ups I often place a small piece of orange on a petri-dish which convinces the flies to stay on the bottom of the tank where the salamanders can get them.
Ed

 

[pin-pin]

I have a small empty tub (maybe 1 pint) with a bit of calcium powder sprinkled into it. I dump the flies in there, put the lid on, give it a couple of good shakes (not stirred.) Then I put them into my toad tank and the flies stay on the ground because they're covered with powder. They also are easier to spot by the toad.

 

[alan]

Drosophila are good for newly morphed terrestrial newts. However, they are (relatively) deficient in calcium, so dusting with calcium carbonate powder (and possibly vitamin powder too), is a good idea, if they are going to form a major part of the diet.

 

[sergé]

I feed them a lot to all juveniles in their first stages, but..I only use the small species with shrunken wings...they don't escape so hard and also don't run always right to the highest places as the big fruit flies do.
I also feed the larvae. But the flies I always dust with calcium vitamin powder before feeding them.
When the animals grow bigger I start with small crickets. The good thing about fruit flies is that the newly metamorphosed newts get used to 'fast moving food preys' and will easily take crickets later in their life. And crickets can be easily gut loaded with for instance dog- or cat food or carrots and so on. Which makes them high quality food items.

 

[peter]

Are there any good places to buy fruit flies online? I'd like to try them for my animals.

 

[edward]

Try here, Erin is very good with her cultures and resolving any problems.


Ed

 

[edward]

Forgot the link http://www.edsflymeatinc.com/

 

[peter]

Thanks Ed, I'll check that out.

 

[sergé]

When you have a group you can keep them going on for years! Check the websites on poison dart frogs for instance.
I keep them on an culture made of banana, flower, dry yeast and some kitchen acid (which you use for salads, don't know the english name). But in stead of flower and banana you can also use a variety of other things. Do it yourself, it saves you a lot of money.

 

[clarence]

I think Kitchen Acid is probably Vinegar