|
Post by Antkeeper on Jul 11, 2015 14:27:19 GMT
How much protein do you feed your ants?
I have a colony of Lasius niger, which I give a few flies, spiders, meal/waxworms and crickets about 2-3 a day. How much is too much or not enough!? I don't want food to rot in their nest area. I leave protein jelly when I am away for longer periods. If I miss a day or two not feeding them protein I don't worry...
|
|
Deleted
Hibernating
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2015 14:34:46 GMT
How much protein do you feed your ants? I have a colony of Lasius niger, which I give a few flies, spiders, meal/waxworms and crickets about 2-3 a day. How much is too much or not enough!? I don't want food to rot in their nest area. I leave protein jelly when I am away for longer periods. If I miss a day or two not feeding them protein I don't worry...
Ants won't eat if they do not wish to/if they don't need it. How much you need to feed them and how often is dictated by two things; they number of larvae and the size of the colony. Larger colonies/larvae numbers need more. A colony of 6 ants needs very little food. My colony of 500 gets fed 2 or 3 times a week with two crickets and a blob of protein jelly. I sometimes give them more if they have eaten everything I give them or if the food starts to dry up or go bad. I'd remove anything they haven't eaten after 3 or 4 days.
|
|
|
Post by Antkeeper on Jul 11, 2015 15:31:01 GMT
What size instar crickets do you recommend Myrm?! I use 2nd so they can carry them back to the nest. Is it worth going bigger so they have to fill their crops in the foraging tank?
|
|
|
Post by Phasenp on Jul 11, 2015 15:42:29 GMT
I feed my Messor colony with 100-150 workers twice a week. That adds up to a mealworm a week. At least for me that means that every time I feed them, they won't leave too much behind to go bad and they still have their seeds.
|
|
|
Post by Thebugman on Jul 11, 2015 16:01:18 GMT
I feed my pheidole a range of different cricket sizes. The smaller crickets are easier to drag back to the nest and be fed on, but the larger ones have more meat which the ants can feed on, so I would have thought the larger crickets have more nutrients than the smaller sizes. My pheidole can get through a box of 2nd brown crickets in a couple of days. Put both sizes in and let the ants choose, I imagine they will choose the crickets they like the best!
|
|