How should I acquire pillbugs etc. for feeding?

[Turtlestork]

I have an A. maculatum and of course need to acquire ground dwelling "bugs" to feed him/her. I have heard of others feeding pillbugs and earthworms. How do I go about acquiring pill bugs and earthworms? Should I dig them up, or is there any online sources? Also, what other things can I feed my A. maculatum. I am currently feeding animals I find in my garden. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

TS

 

[tonymontanaflows]

i capture and have bought both worms and pillbugs.
i get nightcrawlers from a local bait shop, red wrigglers from petco, and tried wormman.com once
pillbugs & sowbugs i've purchased online from Ward's

for capturing i do little digging, more flipping and turning of logs,rocks and boards in my backyard. earlier last year in a shady corner of my yard i dug hole filled it with sticks, sweetgum balls, leaves then put a 2ft x 3ft piece a plywood on top. The grass underneath died and i put more leaves and occasionally water the area. all i do is lift the board and i can find pill/sowbugs, worms, slugs,snails, millipedes and other bugs. print free cardboard will work too on grass or not ... last summer we had some extra cardboard from a project left it on our driveway for a few weeks and i found lots of pillbugs in/under it. if you have similar conditions in your tank (leaf litter and hiding spots like rocks,bark) pillbugs will breed

other food check the food item article
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml

 

[Ranid]

With worms it's easy enough to dig them up. If you cant find any, make a patch of dirt wet and put something over it in a day or two take the 'cover' off and if there aren't any worms right there dig and you'll find some. Or buy ~earthworms~ at a local bait/fishing store, but be sure not to get nightcrawlers.

Pill bugs can be found pretty much under anything outside if it's been there long enough. Any bricks or large rocks that have been on the ground a while? Look under there.

You can also buy crickets of various sizes at a local pet store.

 

[Ed]

Terrestrial isopods (sow, woodlice and pill bugs) are pretty easy to culture. You can set them up with some cork bark over moist soil and then feed them some flake fish foods, plant matter and dry leaves and keep the moist at room temperature and they should start to culture in a couple of months. A heavily booming culture can feed a couple of caudates every week or so..

Ed

 

[lims]

Crunchy

I put a woodlouse underwater with my cynops orientalis, he ate it, then 5 seconds later he spat it out again, I think the shell is too hard, but people are saying that newts do eat woodlice? Is a pillbug the same as a woodlouse? It doesnt look like there's much nutrients on a woodlouse though?

 

[Kaysie]

It could be that the texture was not what he was expecting. Mine do this on occasion when I offer food they've not had in a while, such as crickets.

Cynops orientalis probably wouldn't eat pillbugs/woodlouse (they're the same) in the wild. Terrestrial salamanders, like the spotted sal, would dine on these more often.

 

[peterj]

Of the woodlice the Porcellionid/softer ones (like Porcellio scaber aka slaters) are generally easier for herps to take than the Armadillid/heavier shelled ones (like Armadillidium vulgare aka pillbugs).

 

[Ed]

There are some companies that sell cultures of a tropical white isopod that are small and soft. The down side is that they take a long time to really start producing.

I haven't purchased from them so I don't want to post the links here, but if people want to try them send me a e-mail and I'll send you the links.

Ed