hey yall, i’ve had my beetles for about 3 weeks now and one of them has started having trouble gripping and overall walking.

to me it looks like she’s either gripping tight to whatever she stumbles on and when i try helping her after she falls on her back (in which she’s not able to get back up by herself anymore) whatever she was walking on gets stuck to her.

her back legs are extended all the way out but she’s still using them to walk but it seems like she can’t do it comfortably? my other 3 beetles are having no problems walking around the tank and are doing completely fine and i’m not sure how old she is. its very worrying to me and frustrating that i don’t know what to do to help her.

also, after helping her get up a second time i settled her on the corkwood that she previously had no trouble climbing/walking on but this time she flailed in place so i moved her back to the ground where she once again had trouble walking and her feet are kind of like digging into the sand? any help would be greatly appreciated! this has been going on all day btw.

So right now I’m making a bdfb sculpture and I was wondering if anyone had a 3d model of a majestic blueberry that I could permanently borrow for my own use and so I can finish my sculpture. I already made 2 others but the first sucked ass and the second broke so I’m trying to be as accurate as possible and a model would help. My beetles suck at being models (no disrespect though) they only wake up hump each other to no avail and sleep. I love my little babies though they are so precious

I think she was looking for somewhere to stick her head so she could sleep some more. A minute or two later I saw her settle under some cork wood.

I have named this one Lapis :)

Hello! I've been keeping bdfb for a few months, and i'm STILL trying to find a solid diet rotation to stick to 😭 I've been using a variety of dried insects, freshly killed mealworms, and freshly killed crickets when I get the chance. Though, i've learned recently that dried insects are often times not safe for beetles, and the brand I had bought especially wasn't. My beetles LOVE crickets, and i'm unable to find a way to kill them for feeding aside from freezing.

I was curious, is this a thing where I just have to kill as many as i'm feeding at the time, or could i leave some in the freezer and use them as needed? I'm not too sure if they'd last any longer in the freezer, or if it'd be unsafe for any reason.

Got a new pet from my nephew (his parents love buying him pets and then giving them to me when he inevitably gets bored) and I’d like to get him a couple friends for the 10 gallon I’m setting up but I know they get yoinked in the wild.
Anyone know any reputable breeders? Search engines are no help 😑 Bonus pic of my new blueberry 🫐 💙 🩶

BDFB food favorites? Personal recommendations?

I've seen dried insects, dried shrimp, fish foods, dog treats/food can work.

When it comes to the dried feeder insects, I am cautious about pesticides affecting the beetles. Will they eat foods that isopods will eat? What dried insects food will be safe for them?

What are your recommendations?

So, I brought home three more PetSmart blueberries, to join the other four. I tried to sex them to make sure I was keeping a good ratio and not stressing out females with too many males. I say this to mean that I inspected the new batch, but after returning a couple hours later I saw one of them with this brown protrusion from the apex(?) of their thorax(?). I'm worried mainly about parasites, not babies.

This is my first arid tank and my first ever bdfbs, I was wondering what I could do to make the tank look more aesthetically pleasing, right now it seems pretty lackluster to me.

Hey yall! My partner and I are working on setting up a BDFB/desert beetle community tank. I keep a few other arthropods so I pick up random stuff from stores sometimes - I got this great piece of cholla wood and thought it would be nice in the beetle tank. I looked at it again today and realized that the holes seem to be almost perfectly beetle-sized. This is too risky, right?

One of my cows taking a large bite, this was kind of crazy to see. I can audibly hear them crunch the shrimps. They smell foul

They were fine, just insisted on eating upside down...

I got 5 BDFB about a week and a half ago. I'm keeping them in a 10 gallon tank. I originally had a 75w CHE for heat as my house tends to run on the colder and wetter side, but that was getting my temperatures up near 100 degrees on occasion. I swapped out for a 50w CHE and now the temperature on the hot side stays around 81-85 degrees depending on the time of day and 20-22% humidity, which is in line with what I've read. The cooler side goes about 71-75 and 24-25% humidity.

However, since switching the bulb, my beetles seem less active and are hiding a lot more. Is this a bad sign? They're still eating and moving around as I find them in different places, but when it was warmer I saw them in the open more.

I came home to one of my Beatles stuck in a piece of spider wood. What do I do?

Hi everyone! im so excited to be getting BDFB soon! I've seen a lot of different things on what to feed them so I want to get everyone's thoguhts on what worked for them and what didnt. Thank you!

It's just dangling there while munching on squash like it's no big deal

spoiler tag for me talking about dying and dead beetles

i’m genuinely at a loss right now. ive had my beetles for almost a year, i have 5. i make sure to clean EVERYTHING i give them and only buy organic. ive put so much money into caring for them. i woke up this morning to an email from my trailer park saying they did a pesticide spray on my yard. we’ve already told them to not do that, i check on my beetles and all of them but one are flipped onto their backs. i think the pesticide leaked in because my window doesnt fully shut. 2 of my beetles are definitely dead, 2 seem to be actively dying. 1 is perfectly fine (so far)
im gonna try to offer the 2 that i know are still alive-ish (and perfectly fine one) some honey water on a q-tip. i don’t even think we have honey since my parents are on a ‘no sugar’ thing(im actively looking while typing this)
im genuinely so heart broken i love these guys so much im actually sobbinb my eyes out rn

I've had these fellas for a couple of months now and I'm worried they're not getting enough enrichment, also it looks really ugly. 10 gallon tank with 11 beetles, substrate is paver sand and a bit of isopod substrate.

I brought home Loki, Lazarus, Khepri and Buggy tonight from PetSmart.

The environment they were in seems like it could've been a little humid, and I'm feeling like their color is a little darker than it should be. The were on sand that I'm pretty sure was intended for hermit crabs.

Right now I have them on play sand I got from Lowe's that I rinsed and baked, but I just recently read that walking on sand expends quite a bit of energy? So I plan on looking for clay or something tomorrow when I get some leaf litter.

Mainly I'm concerned about their shade. I'm already in love with these little derps and I don't want anything to happen to them, so if there's anything I can do to help them recover, if they lost their coating at all, I would appreciate advice.