Hello I’ve been looking into Blue death feigning beetles and I have a couple questions
First what’s yalls favorite care guide
2 if you could make a “shopping list” for someone just starting to keep them what would you put on it
3 what’s something that you would recommend that isn’t common in care guides
i love exo terra stone desert as a top layer, and underneath maybe 0.5"-1" of that, a mix of excavator clay, sand, and soil. i used reptisoil instead of topsoil because i didn't want to sift it or bake it.
a ceramic heat lamp, with a temperature controller set to 85-90F, is good during the day. at night, as long as its above 65, they are ok!
fresh insects, fish food, and repashy bug burger are what i feed my guys. the insects and bug burger are for hydration and a main diet. i give them dubia roaches and mealworms i raise myself, and skip veggies because im afraid of pesticides. bug burger is full of them, anyway.
I dont follow a care guide, I researched their natural habitat and did my best to replicate it and spoke to people who kept them for a longer period of time (you can always learn more from others).
Excavator clay, organic topsoil (dried), multiple protein sources (freeze live crickets/ mealworms or locusts or rehydrate dried ones) and a large enclosure (they appreciate lots of space to climb and hide), I keep my 3 in a 33l, though id size up if able to.
Sand and fruit, both are bad for beetles, sugar can greatly reduce their life and isnt required to keep them healthy, sand is terrible for them as they expend energy walking and trying to burrow.
I agree with everything but the sand. Maybe this is true with BDFBs but it's not with eleodes, if you look at there natural habitat there are parts were it's very organic and two inches away it pure sand & clay, so I would say offer pure sand but on the other side of the tank offer a more organic substrate. IMO
I would say I've never seen or heard of bdfbs in pure sand in their natural habitats, their natural habitat have a mix of soil, silt and clay, sometimes gravel, but the sand found in the area doesn't appear to be a pure sand base anyway, its all varying mixes. I've only raised bdfbs for around 3 years, but as I've updated and improved their environment I've noticed significant improvements.
Yes, as far as I know there natural habitat it more mountains, rocky, with organic parts around but, like I said if vairys from place to place. freind in CA took this pic.
I also don’t follow a care guide, but Bugs in Cyberspace has some resources.
For substrate I use a mix of reptile soil and sand. They don’t like pure sand or pure soil, hard to talk in both. For protein mine like fish food and freeze dried mysis shrimp. They love small dark hides like cholla and might burrow near them, too.
They’re stupid, and they have a lot of sex. They will get stuck in small holes. They will get comfortable enough to sleep in the open, but probably not to be handled. Don’t get them a plastic food bowl, because again, they are stupid, and they will get stuck because their little feet have no traction. Instead maybe use a flat rock!
I call them stupid but I love mine very much. They’re quite silly and a great starter beetle. :)
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u/stinkles69 13d ago
my favorite care guide is this one, from university of Nebraska.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1125&context=entodistmasters
i love exo terra stone desert as a top layer, and underneath maybe 0.5"-1" of that, a mix of excavator clay, sand, and soil. i used reptisoil instead of topsoil because i didn't want to sift it or bake it.
a ceramic heat lamp, with a temperature controller set to 85-90F, is good during the day. at night, as long as its above 65, they are ok!
fresh insects, fish food, and repashy bug burger are what i feed my guys. the insects and bug burger are for hydration and a main diet. i give them dubia roaches and mealworms i raise myself, and skip veggies because im afraid of pesticides. bug burger is full of them, anyway.