Unconventional feeders

Hello everyone, I have some idea's and need help! Will cut to the chase below:
I am beginning to breed Super Worms, Meal Worms and Banded crickets. I have had very good success breeding supers/mealies, never tried crickets so that is a first for me.

I am looking at breeding the following:
-Grasshoppers
-Mantids
-Horn Worms

And would love some ideas about insects not commonly for sale, that are unconventional and would still make great feeders and are easy-moderately easy to breed.

Requirements for the "looking to breed" and "idea" categories:
-Must be legal in Ontario, Canada
-Must be able to find breeding stock at a fair price and without much hassle
-Must be easy to moderate difficulty to breed
-Must be a viable feeder, minimal risk to animals being fed and good output from the breeder bugs, low to moderate maintenance.

Any help appreciated, Thanks!

Crickets are easy but super stinky in my opinion
Hissing cockroaches are easy

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Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

Crickets are easy but super stinky in my opinion
Hissing cockroaches are easy

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All exotic roaches are illegal in Canada Plus me and the wife have already dealt with a German roach infestation.. not fun, even if the tropical species are unable to infest or very low risk the wife wont permit it and I don't blame her. I agree with her completely there lolSo unfortunately roaches are out.

Exotic Mantids, Exotic Stick insects, Exotic butterflies, Exotic millipedes are others are out as well. Illegal in Canada.

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Originally Posted by MikeYPG

All exotic roaches are illegal in Canada Plus me and the wife have already dealt with a German roach infestation.. not fun, even if the tropical species are unable to infest or very low risk the wife wont permit it and I don't blame her. I agree with her completely there lolSo unfortunately roaches are out.

Exotic Mantids, Exotic Stick insects, Exotic butterflies, Exotic millipedes are others are out as well. Illegal in Canada.

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Hmm with those restrictions, the only feeder that springs to mind would be silk worms. However, they are not all that easy to breed, the eggs take quite a while to hatch and you need to be able to order mulberry leaves, as that is all that they eat. That being said, they do make excellent, nutritious feeders. They are one of the only worms low in fat and can be a constant part of an animal's diet.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeYPG

All exotic roaches are illegal in Canada Plus me and the wife have already dealt with a German roach infestation.. not fun, even if the tropical species are unable to infest or very low risk the wife wont permit it and I don't blame her. I agree with her completely there lolSo unfortunately roaches are out.

Exotic Mantids, Exotic Stick insects, Exotic butterflies, Exotic millipedes are others are out as well. Illegal in Canada.

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I don't pretend to know the laws in Canada, but to set the record straight, hissing cockroaches are not a species that infests. In Canada it is unlikely that these guys would live for more than a couple days outside of a breeding tub. They require humidity and heat. I detest cockroaches also but these guys are different.

I know you are decided against cockroaches (and I'm sure having a German cockroach infestation would scar anyone for life), but as JodanOrNoDan mentioned, there are species of cockroaches that are far less off putting than they sound. Dubia and discoids are others that cannot climb and don't infest. I find typical roaches and water bugs absolutely horrifying, but I do raise Discoids( Dubia are illegal here in Fl) and green banana roaches (that don't even look roach-y). I hope that doesn't come off as me disregarding your original post, as I totally get that roaches are a definite no for you guys right now. And it is possible that those species are illegal in Canada, but roaches do make fantastic feeders and are very easy to raise, so maybe somewhere down the line they may be worth looking into.


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To back up EmilyandArlo on going with roaches:

I had a German roach problem pretty bad in the kitchen of my last apartment a couple years back - I would wake up, flip the light on in the kitchen and there would be 50+ that would scatter under all the appliances. It literally kept me up at night, I was terrified of them getting in my bedroom and crawling in my ears at night (watched to many youtube videos of cockroach ear extractions). I got so paranoid that when moving day came, I got rid of 80% of the things I had, dismantled all of my electronics (as I had heard that they liked warm places and chewing on electrical elements so I completely took my tv, computer and laptop apart), got brand new boxes because I new that they loved to hang out and breed in cardboard so no used boxes and stored the remainder of my things that I didn't need immediately in a storage unit that was subsequently bombed numerous times before the items made their way into my new home. Most would consider this manic but I just wanted to be thorough as I didn't want a repeat in the new place (my current dwelling) and I can say with confidence - 2 years roach free.

Well....roach free if you don't count the new Dubia colony I just got ;) Dubias are on another level for me as far as the roach scene goes - they're big, clumsy and not too fast moving, which is in parallel to Germans and the females are actually kinda cute and fascinating to watch. The males are a little harder for me to handle as they look like the big American roaches that come up from the sewers around here and crunch under your boots when you're walking around at night but even they are growing on me - I don't even really put them in the same category as Germans anymore, though technically they are still roaches, as they're just fun to have. But I can tell you, if another German roach scuttled it's way across my floor I would FLIP OUT. I can have Dubia crawl all over my hands and arms but if a German even looks at me I call in the heavy artillery (ie. my partner) to annihilate the little thing. I can't bring myself to smoosh - it makes me cringe.

Of course, contending with a partner that is zero-tolerance roach is a whole other ball game. Good luck with whatever you decide!

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Originally Posted by EmilyandArlo

..... you need to be able to order mulberry leaves, as that is all that they eat.

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Not to threadjack this or anything, but I never knew that.....and I happen to have a mulberry tree/bush in my backyard. Sounds like a business idea :D