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Yeah, the colony will decrease abit from those that died moving, the few days (in the post) without food, the stress of moving and acustoming to how much protein they are getting daily. I'm able to control the size with protein, just abit worried the workers are feeding themselves enough as well as the brood. And to paulhdear- I put fresh crickets (but dead) in boiling water for about 30 seconds then put them in the feeding area whole.
Thanks SniDe. I kill crickets by freezing (then store them that way), but my ants seem reluctant to break up whole crickets. Do you have any experience of feeding meat or other insect-alternatives? Do your feeding rates resemble donBilbo's?
I feed my polyrhachis with crickets and other insects (flyes etc) too. But only fresh insects , my colony do not like any honey water or honey , also they do not like sugar , very interesting. Sometimes I put there a bit of fresh meat and they are licking it , then I am getting it back (do not want that smell #-o )
Skippy you mean the workers never drink/eat honey or sugar? Mine have started to now, in increasing numbers- how do the workers survive without sugar substances?
palhdear- I've put 7 crickets in today, put in 5 yesterday, will try and get 10 in tomorrow, I will see if they are happy on 10 a day, and then increase gradually. Going to be difficult to get hold of insects over Xmas, luckily I bought an extra pack of locusts, which are big and meaty! Your problems with feeding broken up insects could be to do with the freezing? my p.dives are loving crickets more than anything else at the moment, not tried them frozen though. Have you tried maggots or worms? I haven't tried any meat like beef or anything on this species, though if I remember rightly Miszt said on another thread he fed his angus prime steak once :P Might be worth experimenting with different proteins, maybe try some protein jelly if they dont like crickets. Keep us posted!
Hi SNiDE - thanks for the comments. I don't think freezing has much effect on insects, except that they will very slowly dry out in the freezer. The main problem seems to be that the ants can't 'break into' whole crickets. I haven't tried maggots or worms - maybe I will try worms (easy and free!). For meat, mine won't eat beef or pork, but they love cooked chicken (maybe it's a religious thing.....). I cut it very finely, and they carry it away piece by piece.
I thought about making some jelly - maybe a mix of crushed insects, gelatin, a little meat. Does anyone have a "secret recipe"? Would you also add a little sugar or honey?
I think the most important thing I have learned is that I am not feeding enough - no surprise that my colony is not growing!
Polyrhacis dives don't eat protein jelly, I've tried it with mine and they can't eat mealworms, though they were hungry they weren't able to penetrate them, and that is feeding them fresh never frozen mealworms. My Lasius niger had the same problem of not being able to eat mealworms.
Be where in what you are saying. It could depend from colony to colony in what they like to eat or not, even from the same species.
Mealworms are to hard, you need to cut them in two. (i do that with all the insects i give my ants.)
@Snide
They are licking sugar-cube as for energy , but they are not drinking honey water ;) or any other kind of water. They probably drink small drops of water early morning from leafs and vegetation there , or in some parts of nest condensated on glass. Sugar as energy they´re getting also from Bhatkar mixture what I am making for ants sometimes. Do not be worry I wrote bigger article about feeding ants :o for Cen.Eur. keepers , but not in EN yet :) , so I´ve got some experiences about it :) :^o
Haha ok mate, just curious. Today my ants have been less active, cleaned the basin out of all the dead ants, have had probably about 200 dead workers including winged drones since I recieved them on friday, is this normal of a colony of 1000ish? They are still moving nest. I have a feeling something is not right today, though i can't think what it might be, they are drinking honey and eating insects. I'm freezing my crickets and locusts now as they wont die, or those that do die rot too quickly to be sterilised and put in whole.
200 dead workers??? omg , in what type of basin you´re keeping them? Can you show some photos? They are moving , because they probably do not like where they are. It is exotic specie , but they love not-wet nests. Maybe is so wet soil there , or no dry material to make some nest for them. But 200 ... when you´re normally feed them and they have not really small gasters , i do not know when is an problem then :(
edit:
ohh I found pictures on forum. Hmm , there is not soil in aquarium? So then is probably problem contra what I wrote firstly. Is not there too dry? - do not look on technical things what you put there. I think You have to get <5cm ground there, and put there some small vegetation into.