Stick insects

[Waxbillman]

hello all

i have recently decided to start breeding indian red stick insects, which i am told are the easiest to culture and will not bite back...

the man who i bought them off says they have good nutritional values and depending on what size the nymphs are, and be feed to most species including finches ans waxbills, though i mainly want them to feed to my Pekin robins

whats do you all think?

it was mentioned to me by Paul that some of the plant material that are recommend to feed on them could be poisonous and so there is a possible chance that the poison runs through their system and passes through to what ever eats it, can anyone say for definate?

once i get a high enough population and start feeding them to my birds i'll let you all know how they got on, if i remember

Matthew

[chris]

Hi Matthew,

privet is poisonous to people, however doesn't bother the birds so i'd assume it will be safe to feed stick insects fed on this. after all i don't see many dead birds from picking off the various hawkmoth caterpillars that feed on privet.

brambles are probably your safest bet, but they'll probably also take raspberry and related plants also if you have any to cut back this time of year. no harm in experimenting with various plants.

Chris

[laurab]

Hi

A little while ago Kristina got a couple of Stick Insects from Paul. We were soon over run with them and I eventually persuaded her to let me feed them to my birds. The Weavers in particular really enjoyed them.

Kristina used to keep privet and bramble stems in with the stickies. :wink:

[Waxbillman]

lol, that excellant Laura

my youngs ens have come today so i feed them up...

Matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Matthew,

Which food plant do you have the easiest and most access to, and will this determine the bulk of the Stick Insects diet?

Paul.:wink:

[Waxbillman]

hello Paul

i don't have either privet or bramble in my garden, but having 15 acres of ex farm land nest to me there plenty of bramble knocking about, so i shall go for using all that

Matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Nice one Matthew,

At least you have a never ending supply of what is most likely to be the safest food plant, but as Chris mentioned other Insects or their larvae feed on Privet and are safe to feed to certain Birds.

But my concern is that every Animal on the Planet has adapted to certain food over a huge period of time, certain Birds can safely feed on Plants that are toxic to others, certain Insects do the same.

What worries me though is feeding an Indian Stick Insect fed on Privet to a Bird that hasn't evolved to deal with the toxins found in this Plant, especially chicks!!:-?

The world of Herpetology (the keeping of Reptiles and Amphibians) is way ahead of that of Aviculture in analysing the properties of certain Livefoods and the needs of particular Animals being offered these Livefoods.

I think we should look further into the requirements of certain Birds that prove hard to breed, or even keep, in captivity in order to progress from where we are now.

Paul.;-)

[vixen]

Hi all, we had 4 Indian stick they eat mainly bramble if you put it into water it will last a lot longer.Matt if you have small ones they have six moults until they are adult then they will lay 3/4 eggs a night they do not need to mate.the eggs look like little black balls with like a small cream colored point these will hatch in about a month then you have you self a good supply don't let them out,
they can be fast( i have hovered up a lot)
Trudy

[Waxbillman]

thanks Trudy

Matthew