Fruit Fly Caresheet
We sell Fruit Flies, Springstails, Ispods, Bean Beetles, and all the supplies to raise them. Fruit flies are the staple diet of dart frogs and many other small amphibians and reptiles. They are also very easy to breed. Here is our care guide to do so if you choose to breed them on our own:
Fruit Fly Care Sheet
Fruit flies are the bread and butter of raising dart frogs and small amphibians. They are easy to breed and require only a little bit of practice. The flies will take 10-14 days to produce when a new culture is made, so it's best to make two cultures a week until you get it down. Two in case one doesn't work out. Making cultures weekly is best to promote a steady food supply and prevent a shortage. Waiting 14 days for flies to breed may be too long for a young froglet.
Fruit fly media recipe.
6 cups potato flakes
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup brewer’s yeast or two tablespoons of baker's yeast
Mix 1/2 cup of dry mixture and add 2/3 cup of 50/50 vinegar/water.
There are many other recipes online if you want to try something else. This recipe works best for me, but find out what works best for you.
Supplies you’ll need:
Plastic cups (32 oz)
Vented lids
Media (food either homemade or purchased)
Coffee filters
Flies
Steps to make a culture:
Important tips:
Fruit flies are the bread and butter of raising dart frogs and small amphibians. They are easy to breed and require only a little bit of practice. The flies will take 10-14 days to produce when a new culture is made, so it's best to make two cultures a week until you get it down. Two in case one doesn't work out. Making cultures weekly is best to promote a steady food supply and prevent a shortage. Waiting 14 days for flies to breed may be too long for a young froglet.
Fruit fly media recipe.
6 cups potato flakes
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup brewer’s yeast or two tablespoons of baker's yeast
Mix 1/2 cup of dry mixture and add 2/3 cup of 50/50 vinegar/water.
There are many other recipes online if you want to try something else. This recipe works best for me, but find out what works best for you.
Supplies you’ll need:
Plastic cups (32 oz)
Vented lids
Media (food either homemade or purchased)
Coffee filters
Flies
Steps to make a culture:
- Mix media together with distilled water in the fruit fly cup in a ratio of ⅓ cup media to about ½ cup water. Ideally the mix will be like peanut butter. Add water as needed to get the consistency right
- Insert two coffee filters folded into individual triangles into the media. This will give the flies space to crawl around
- Add about two dozen adult flies
- Put a vented lid on the culture
- It is wise to write a date on the culture as you will want to throw out old cultures as they reach the 4th week in age. This will limit the appearance of grain mites
Important tips:
- Cultures should be stored at temps in the mid 70s. Humidity will help the cultures as well, but too much humidity will make the media watery. Storing the cultures in a plastic tub with a lid helps keep the humidity up
- The flies do not need light
- If a cultures becomes dry you can mist it down a little with distilled water to moisten it up. It will be too dry if the media becomes crumbly
- You need to dump out flies when the culture really starts producing a lot. Even if you don't need the extra flies. Otherwise the culture will “crash” and all the flies inside will die. You can dump excess flies outside
- Always leave some flies in the culture if possible. Ideally the culture will last 3 weeks or more
- Grain mites are tiny white insects present in pretty much all grain based food. They are extremely tiny and tough to see. They will sometimes appear in older fruit fly cultures or even in younger ones. The mites are harmless to frogs and us, but if they get really bad in a culture the mites will reduce the longevity of the culture and decrease the cultures productivity. To limit the chance of a bad infestation be sure to wash your culture holding drawers or tubs once a week or so. Also throw away old cultures or wash and reuse the old containers. Also it's good to consider an anti mite spray on paper towels underneath your stored cultures. Mite sprays are sold as “reptile mite sprays” online and these can be great to spray around your cultures and in your storage containers. Not in the terrarium!
- Good luck and be patient!