northwest power mix-best fruit fly media ever.

[frogparty]

Its kind of a pain in the ###### to make, but this media puts out an amazing amount of flies, and unlike some other medias Ive tried, is equally good for HYDEI IN ADDITION TO MELANOGASTER

1 cup unsulfured molasses

1 cup nutritional yeast

1 cup corn meal

1 cup white vinegar

2 cups flax seed

1 table spoon mold inhibitor (methyl paraben)

1 tablespoon chollera

1 tablespoon spirulina

1 large (2lb)container applesauce-no added sugar

2 large containers quick oats

combine all ingredients except for flax. fill empty applesauce jar 2x with water and use that water to boil flax seed, once boiled, add all other ingredients, use whats needed and freeze the rest.

This makes a ton of media, but its the best Ive ever used, and production is absolutely insane. I have to imagine that nutritional value is also far superior to the basic potato flake recipies as well.

 

[Colorcham427]

what are 2 large containers of quick oats? weight? brand? thanks for info! welcome to forum!

 

[frogparty]

I will have to look to get specifics....cant remember right now, SORRY. Since I havent had to make any for quite a while my memory fails me, but I will check my notes!!! With only a dozen dart frogs to feed the media lasts me FOREVER

 

[frogparty]

quaker, 42 oz quick oats.

I would probably 1/2 this recipie for mantis specific fly culturing needs, since the window for using hydei is so limited, but they are THE dart frog staple, and my frogs are pigs, so I culture a lot of flies

heres a vid posted by my friend and outstanding frog breeder Darren Meyer showing how much hydei love the mix

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=329165197097487&set=vb.100000120293056&type=2&theater

 

[massaman]

thats alot of oatmeal and applesauce though and prices now a days are atrocious for all that stuff!

 

[Colorcham427]

thanks for taking your time my friend, very considerate of you! hope you enjoy this wonderful forum.

I must say, adding a few of these items into the mix is a great idea since I raise panther chameleons and dart frogs. I have also been told using baby cereal is a great mix of nutrients.

Kind regards

 

[frogparty]

thats alot of oatmeal and applesauce though and prices now a days are atrocious for all that stuff!

Yeah, but I think it makes well over 100 plus cultures easily. You can easily half or quarter the recipie if you wish to. The source for this recipients a large scale frog breeder who needs a lot of flies, and this lasts him a month, lol

 

[patrickfraser]

I make a fresh culture every time. In the time it would take to thaw what's frozen, I could easily kick out 5 or more fresh ones. I'm just saying.

I use a basic potato flakes recipe. The fruit flies don't seem to mind. I do swear to adding Brewer's yeast. My recipe said it was optional, but with comparing the cultures with/without I will pay the extra money (NOW $22 a jar!) It has a lot of other added ingredients than the basic Brewer's yeast and costs more, but it's a price I must pay for FAT fruit flies. My nymphs love them fatties.

 

[frogparty]

Different for frog breeders I guess, since we have to vitamin supplement in addition to providing a high quality feeder in the first place, so any media that potentially provides a healthier, more nutritious fly is appreciated

Usually I just use the Repashy superfly mix, because results are good and its so quick, but for breeders that I really want to put the weight on, this is the recipie

 

[frogparty]

I bet I also have a lot more cultures going at any one time than most mantid people as well

 

[Small Pet Feeders]

While this formula does have some good notes, I think it's a bit overkill. The price of all these different nutrients would outweigh the benefits of raising a supreme quality fruit fly (if that's indeed what you get from this recipe). Think about it, these things aren't exactly God's Greatest Invention. They're basic organisms, that are pretty dang small in mass. How many fruit flies would your mantis have to eat before reaping any of the benefits from this $300 recipe? By that point, you should buy a $5 jar of multivitamin and $5 jar of calcium and just dust your crickets.

heck, you'd probably get more nutrients by dusting the flies with some of these nutrients rather than feeding it to them.

-Dave

SPF

 

[warpdrive]

wow, $300 for oatmeal and applesauce? I'm not too sure where you buy your food but that's crazy!

I live in Brooklyn NY and the price of a 1lb jar of applesauce cost me $3.49 at a local newstand, candystore or bodaga (what ever you want to call them). (I almost never buy it but I had a problem eating and thought this would be easy to swallow.) I'm sure that if I got it at my local grocery store (that I work in no less) the price would even be cheaper.

my point is that while it may not be needed to fully gutload a feeder for a mantid, the point of making such a mix is to have far MORE flys to feed from each producing culture. if you're not having problems with getting enough flys from your culturs then don't try this. yet if you feel the need to see if this is an improvment and maybe if you are having problems wiith FF reproducing, then this might be worth a try to someone.

me personaly, I spend enough time making wet and dry gutloads, feeding and cleaning my animals, and so forth. so normally I wouldn't try this.

but I may just get a few nymphs soon and it's not like I'm not going to spent about $20 on some dry potato flake mix anyway...so I might just try this out.

thanks for the info.

 

[frogparty]

In the frog hobby we deal with a lot of nutrient deficiencies due to improper supplementation and poor nutrition that cause froglets to have limb deformities. Providing flies with a more diverse nutritional load than just potato flakes has been shown to have an increase in breeding behavior, larger clutches, and healthier froglets. Probably not as easily observed in this hobby, but I bet a more complete nutritional profile provides bigger and more ootheca production

 

[warpdrive]

In the frog hobby we deal with a lot of nutrient deficiencies due to improper supplementation and poor nutrition that cause froglets to have limb deformities. Providing flies with a more diverse nutritional load than just potato flakes has been shown to have an increase in breeding behavior, larger clutches, and healthier froglets. Probably not as easily observed in this hobby, but I bet a more complete nutritional profile provides bigger and more ootheca production

it's the same with many reptiles as well. I'm forced to gutload my feeders anyway for them so my mantids will get the added nutriants regardless if needed or not. the one thing that I can say with my limited time with mantids is that I didn't seem to have many of the problems that other newbies do and I'm sure it's a result of what my feeders are eating.

I also agree that if anything it can't hurt and the added calories if anything could help with larger ooths. I just can't say for sure as the only breeding that I personally ever had was with ghosts....other then the 1 or 2 blank (never hached) ooths, the lowest count was 12 babies. the highest count was 25.

I have no idea how good or bad that is, others will have to chime in.

Harry

 

[frogparty]

I know that we feed adult flies a pretty good feed, and if dusted with pollen even better, but for the first 3 or more instars mantids are getting a pretty poor diet profile if fed with flies from just potato flake, sugar and some yeast.

I don't make this mix often, but remember, this recipie makes well over 100 large cultures, each of which will put out 1000s of flies

For a great PRE made mix I use repashy superfly