Hello Everyone;
One of the joys of keeping Tetramorium ants is their eagerness to take almost anything you feed them, mine especially like chicken bones. I usually give them a thigh bone that I've cut in half (I use pruning shears) with the bits of meat and grizzle still attached after I've removed most of the meat. They'll swarm that thing for at least three or four days and it usually takes them a week to hollow out the marrow from the inside. A large colony will easily keep ahead of any mold, making it easier for me to go away on vacation, knowing my ants will be busy cleaning that bone right down to the sparkle! Once cleaned, that shiny bone is very easy trash to remove when I get home. If I've left them a peanut or cashew as well, it'll mostly be gone too if I've been gone for a couple of weeks. Being slow to mold, nuts are a great long-term food for ants.
I usually give the rest of my colonies some version of chicken bones through the season, but especially when I go away. Sometimes it's just a small piece with marrow, or the knuckle at the end depending on the size of the colony and what else I've left for them to eat. I've given each of my large Tetramorium colonies a chicken bone, even in their winter storage, because they never really stop their activity, it's just at a much slower pace. The chicken bone stays good for a long time; it's like being in the refrigerator. My ants like chicken almost as much as me.
Can you hear me.....CHICKEN BONES!
RPT
