5 replies to this topic

[P0rcelain]

now, before i give anyone a heart attack, i have not captured any queens yet. i am waiting for some test tubes to arrive in the mail and nuptial flight is barely starting (i have seen some small, black ants having their nuptial flight this early but nothing else. spring only just started, afterall.) i am simply milling over sustainable food options.

 

i saw it mentioned somewhere (i forgot where exactly) that some species of ant will readily consume cat food and get their necessary protein from it. obviously, this is less 'natural' than feeding your ants insects. but i am interested in this possibility and if feeding your ants mostly cat food as their protein has any adverse effects on them. theoretically, honey and cat food is all most omninvorous species would need, but this feels off to me.

 

another interesting thing i have been thinking about is feeding ants boiled egg. has anyone done this? it would be interesting to know.

 

this all especially pertains to my endeavour into the possibility of keeping a semi-claustral queen during the founding stage. i am unsure if it is even worth taking risks like this, especially with ants that may not be common in my area.

[ANTdrew]

In my experience, meats and eggs can be a good secondary protein source. The problem I run into is that these things dry pretty quickly, and ants are then unable/ uninterested to feed from them. If you really want your colony to thrive, provide them a good variety of insects for their protein.

 

I SO wish I could be in Australia now at the start of nuptial flight season!

Edited by ANTdrew, September 23 2019 - 8:58 AM.

[Silq]

I had a discussion with ponerinecat about this the other day. He fed his pogonomyrmex californicus fish food pellets and then I fed my p. californicus dry cat food pellets crushed. Both his and my Pogonomyrmex went to work immediately and foraged them. I tried giving my Camponotus these and they seem to have no interest in them but they have showed 0 interest  in the last few days as they are still full from the honey feeding I gave them a few days ago.

 

I gave some to my xyloni but I haven't checked up on them to see if they took to it. I have a fruit fly culture but it is getting difficult to feed my ants fruit flies as they stick to everything dead or alive.

[ponerinecat]

Seed harvesting ants love them so a good choice for pheidole, and linepithma and monomorium swarm it too. Good idea to crush or wet it first.

[P0rcelain]

interesting. i will keep this in mind. i suppose it means that i will never be at a shortage of things to feed them even when i run out of insects

[futurebird]

You know those "gogurt" style cat treats that are kinda popular now? Well my camponotus discolor and Pogonomyrmex love it!

I agree that it's not a great daily food because it drys out. Putting a little drop on a bit of paper is ideal as you can simply remove it the next day with tweezers. 

 

This will be a regular treat, and when I show the ants to my remote students (they've been begging to see them) I think I'll feed them this cat food since it got a big reaction.