June bugs food? for tigers???

I got 2 tiger salamanders and I have lots of junebugs around the house was wondering if they would be good food???? Any thoughts???????????????

I don't know of the nutritional value of June bugs but with their hard exoskeleton and size I think you run a big risk in impaction. Plus you don't know what or where the June bugs come from, they could have been subjected to pesticides, fertilizers, etc. In my mind, cons far outweighs any pros.

Mitch

June bugs have a veary nasty tast to them so most animales wont eat them they try but they will spit back out.

thanks for the info.................I take it the same for garden snails

If you know you have a pesticide free source of them, you can try it, however pesticide free june bugs and may beetle are pretty much nonexistent. Also, they are extremely hard and crunchy, with sharp spines on their legs. Even bats tend to avoid eating them.

As for garden snails, any wild caught snail, be it terrestrial or aquatic, should be avoided as feeders for captive animals as they are big parasite vectors, much in the same way wild caught crickets are.

Nothing beats a fat juicy nightcrawler as a salamander staple. Even these however, can be a risky food source if your yard is treated with pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers.

I have been feeding nightcrawlers that I buy as bait. I put them in water before I feed them to clean em off. So far so good. Only one tiger will eat them the other one dosen't like them at all prefers crickets and wax worms. I fed them both a pinkie about a month ago for the first time. They both inhaled them no problem. Was thinking about giving them a pinkie once or twice a year . I 've been trying to find more kinds of food to feed them.

Excellent. It sounds like you are doing very well with their diets.

All Ambystomids are gape limited predators, meaning they can eat anything that fits in their mouth. because of this, it is very easy to provide a balanced diet. Now, since one of yours is not too keen on worms, but likes crickets, I would suggest gutloading those crickets. Gutloading is surrounded by a bit of contreversy as to it's effectiveness, however myself and quite a few others swear by it.

Other live feeders you can try are:

Cockroaches (ones purchased as live food, not ones caught in your cousin's brother's former roomates bachelor pad....) I prefer lobster roaches thanks to the folks here on the forums...

Phoenix worms

Pillbugs, Sowbugs (from a non chemically treated area)

garden slugs (from a non chemically treated area)

Moths (I trim the wings with sharp scissors a bit to make it easier for terrestrial animals to get to them)

Cabbage worms (from chemical free gardens)
Silkworms (available online)
Cutworms (chemical free yards and gardens)
Cankerworms (chemical free yards and gardens)

Beetle grubs (chemical free yards and gardens0

I wouldn't use June bugs as food. Their hard shells could cause problems with you Salamanders.
I do however use their grubs that I find at night crawling in my yard at night. Heavy summer rains bring them to the surface. Last year was crazy I caught a couple hundred of them over the summer. I hand feed them to my Tiger Salamanders and crush their heads after my salamanders grab them. They have sharp jaws that sometimes give my hand a quick pinch. Im afraid they could hurt my animals. But they are very good food if they come from a pesticide free lawn. There are pictures of them in my profile

ghostsaw said:

I have been feeding nightcrawlers that I buy as bait. I put them in water before I feed them to clean em off. So far so good. Only one tiger will eat them the other one dosen't like them at all prefers crickets and wax worms. I fed them both a pinkie about a month ago for the first time. They both inhaled them no problem. Was thinking about giving them a pinkie once or twice a year . I 've been trying to find more kinds of food to feed them.

Click to expand...

If you haven't seen these two articles from our Caudata Culture section, I think you will find them beneficial in assessing other foods and their nutritional values. A calcium to phosphorus ratio of greater than 1:1 is ideal, which if can't be acheived through the food source, can be aided by either gut loading prey or dusting with a good quality calcium/vitD3 powder directly prior to feeding:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods2.shtml

I have used june bugs as food as a "snack" for Bufo species over the years but they were often passed practically intact so I don't think a whole lot of nutrients were absorbed. End result, I don't use them anymore.

As an additional point, the toads readily devoured them so it goes to show that just because the herp appears to "love" them, it doesn't mean that it's a good food item. Hmm, just like people.