3 replies to this topic

[evanmancini2011]

I want to give my Crematogaster colony a unique food, does anyone have suggestions of unique foods that your ants like?

Thank you for your time!

Evan Mancini

[ANTdrew]

Crickets, mealworms, dubia roaches, and fruit flies for protein, and Sunburst for carbs is all the uniqueness they need. If you want to give them a treat, catch some termites with a wet piece of cardboard under a log where they live.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

My side of bell foods to use are:

fish flakes, specifically this brand in a 3oz size. I like fish flakes because they leave behind no trash/refuse. But they do stank the room a bit anytime you open the jar.

 

I also use stupidly fancy gardening seeds like these(not too often), really kind of just for the fun of it because i can get seeds for them you don't find on the people food bulk options. And i just like to get them as much variety of the wild as i can.
NOTE: shake and feel the pouch to get an idea of seed size, many types will be too big for the ants.

 

I also use well washed organic berries to provide both sugar and seeds, as the pogonomyrmex I keep will harvest the seeds from all kinds of berries. It is neat to watch them mine seeds out of blueberries and other things.

 

And lastly i also use pet food/pet snacks, but like a stupid costly high end version of that stuff i did not and would not pay for just for the ants alone. My friend with income tried it on his cats and they turned their nose up so i got a few bricks of it in my freezer now. This stuff is near people food grade, its like a meat based baby food slurry in "smooth" or "ground" consistency. They go freaking nuts for this stuff:

 

I shave a bit of frozen off the block and let it thaw in a feeding dish

 

And then sometimes whatever pet treat stuff he has too, like some of the dried salmon flakes pet snacks. They just do up their cats with all organic kind of high end stuff so i feel safe passing it along to the ants. Couple years on so far, all has been good on that line.
Probably wouldn't do the same with just some typical Purina, Fancy Feast whatever stuff though. But anyone who does spend that kind of money on the higher end stuff for their cat/dog, i'd suggest they can likely share it with their ants too.

[rptraut]

Hello evanmancini2011;

 

I think the most unique aspect of the things I feed my ants is that they're mostly meat products.    I feed insects as well to small and founding colonies, but larger colonies get  a meat diet consisting of things like cooked chicken and turkey dark meat and cooked chicken liver, raw ground pork, canned dog food (the cheap dollar store stuff in the yellow can), salmon, cooked egg yolk.   I've written in more detail here   Feeding Time at the Zoo - General Ant Keeping - Ants & Myrmecology Forum    about how I prepare these foods.   Less trash is one of the big advantages of feeding meat products instead of insects.   

 

I haven't been keeping Crematogaster ants very long, but in that short time I've been impressed with the wide variety of foods they'll take.   Very much like my Tetramorium colonies.

 

I did start feeding my ants something even more unique last season.   As I was working in one of my bee hives, I found some drone brood comb.   Drone bees are males and are important for fertilizing a new queen but do little toward the normal functioning of the hive.   They wouldn't be missed so I put them in the freezer, and I've been feeding them to my ants in their diet rotation.   

 

 

 

 

 

Drone brood cells are easily recognized by their larger size.    Drones have large eyes and bodies and are much larger than workers.

 

 

 

 

 

It's like every drone pupa comes in it's own wax package, keeping it fresh and protecting it from drying out.    My ants seem to prefer pupae that are quite mature, showing colour up to the point when they're about to emerge.   I usually only feed the thorax portion, the abdomen doesn't seem quite as desirable, I'm saving those for my Tetramorium colonies.

RPT