Cat food for Dynastes

J

JCK206

Pupa
I have heard of Dog food supplements for Dynastes larva. Can I and could I use high quality dry cat food instead? This dry cat food (Instinct) has a 50% protein content. Would I need to crush it up? Would I just lay it on top of the soil. I do know that it will mold fairly quick so I don't think mixing would be a good thing. Advice or suggestions???

Thanks,

Jeff

 
never really tried it yet but, i think you can just put the whole chunk in the substrate.

After 5 days take it out to prevent mold.

 
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So I would think that I should just lay it on top of the substrate and they will eventually find it? I don't think I should bury it because.of the mold issue and wouldn't want to have to dig thru the substrate and disturb them?

 
JCK206 said:
So I would think that I should just lay it on top of the substrate and they will eventually find it? I don't think I should bury it because.of the mold issue and wouldn't want to have to dig thru the substrate and disturb them?
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You could try and see if they eventually find it. I bury the dog and "reptile food" in the substrate. Mold is not that big of a deal since they'll supposedly feed on that too...just keep track of how long it's been in there. I chuck the food after like...3 weeks since it's probably completely decayed and has very little nutrtional value by then.

 
I ferment my substrate with crunched dog food thrown in sometimes... And after a while, when it is finished with the process, it will not mold
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. Try it out one day
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. Just... make sure to grind it to a powder... I got this idea from Alan but I had used other supplements the same way before
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Umm... I'm also testing some vitamins with dog food and hope to get good results
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Ryan Minard said:
I ferment my substrate with crunched dog food thrown in sometimes... And after a while, when it is finished with the process, it will not mold
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. Try it out one day
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. Just... make sure to grind it to a powder... I got this idea from Alan but I had used other supplements the same way before
default_smile.png
.

Umm... I'm also testing some vitamins with dog food and hope to get good results
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.
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Hi guys I thought I would throw in my two cents on this topic, a popular dog food used here in the UK to feed larvae is "bakers complete" as it has good nutritional value and takes longer to go moldy than other brands of dog food commonly used here, I am not sure if you get it in the USA etc. Small amounts of white mold are generally harmless and will not deter the larvae but some grey,green molds can be harmful and will deter your larvae from eating the substrate and should be removed, it is advised in most books that placing the dogfood at the bottom of the container for easy access to the larvae and this is also the method I use myself, but it is true this can lead to you having to disturb your larvae should the dogfood become moldy. the trick is to add just enough dog food that it will all be eaten before it becomes moldy I use 10grams per litre of substrate and I crush the dogfood into a powder for easy consumption.

 
"Bakers Complete" is made by Purina and seem to be made/marketed specifically for the UK market, none of my beetle rearing friends in Europe are able to find the stuff in their countries. Purina are a pretty big petfood company so I am fairly sure there will be a very similar semi-moist dog food available in the US.

There are risks when adding "extras" like this to rearing substrate. Too much can lead to an explosion of grain mites in the culture or encourage the growth of excessive mould. Dry dog buiscuits are very palatable to larvae such as Eudicella, the problem with these is after 3 days your dog buiscuit is surrounded by a ball of dense fungal growth the size of your fist which binds the substrate into a solid lump. Beetle larvae will eat some fungal growth, but not all, and not huge amounts. After a series of trial here I settled on Bakers because it does not mould to any great extent, so it will sit in the bottom of the tank for several weeks without problems.

I would be cautious over feeding large amounts of "extra" to larvae. With some species it gets consumed fairly quickly once the larvae "get the taste for it", with others it gets ignored or consumed over a long period. Extra protein is useful but the larva of many dead wood species will not come across large amounts of it on a regular basis. Having said that, I have fed Bakers to the larvae of Goliathus, Dynastes, Megasoma, Mechnorrhina and Eudicella without too many problems.

If you are considering addtional feeding then test it out slowly. I like lumps of Bakers because it is "solid" and the lumps re usually fairly easy to locate and handle and remove if needed - if you mix stuff in powdered form through a tank then you risk loosing an entire tank of substrate if you get problems with mites or mould.

 
Ryan Minard said:
Has no one else (other than Lucanus) tried the mixing method? It really works
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I tried it 20 years ago and it didn't work nearly as well. Many people have written about mixing it in over the last fifteen years because they didn't read the explanation of use. Still, if you find it works and you don't have trouble with nematodes and mites that's great. Beetle rearing is an art.

 
Orin said:
I tried it 20 years ago and it didn't work nearly as well. Many people have written about mixing it in over the last fifteen years because they didn't read the explanation of use. Still, if you find it works and you don't have trouble with nematodes and mites that's great. Beetle rearing is an art.
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Well it can get messed up but not if it is done right... And it can't be too much. It must go through fermentation with dog food for it to work.

 
i have tried it many times with my dhh L3. Results were very good, only bad thing about it is you have to check pretty much every day because if it doesnt eat it right away, the mites will get to it and once you get it all over your substrate you pretty much have to switch out the whole thing and hope they dont get on your larvae.

I placed them in the bottom 4 corners of the container, they usually have no problem finding it.

 
Mashku said:
I think, protein are not nessesary for Dynastidae, use good rotten wood, or better flake soil !
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It is not about necessity but practicality and the desire to rear very large, healthy beetles. If you have access to commercially produced and fortified flake soil it is certainly less of a factor.
 
Also, it is not about the protein only. Protein isolates of whey and soybean have been tried and not only are they far more expensive, they do not work as well for many species and do not work at all for most flower beetles. The problem with dog food is it is a great tool but it is often misused. Wildly swinging a hammer all over the place can cause all sorts of problems but nobody claims it won't work to pound in nails.

 
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