Stick insect nutritional value anyone?

[Truffs1178]

Does anyone know whether stick insects are nutritious or not? I get loads from breeding and don't know what to do with them all.

[JeffreH]

You probably won't find any kind of true nutritional studies on phasmids; but for what its worth (which probably isn't of much value), they are within the same superorder (Dictyoptera)as cockroaches and mantids.

As long as the insect did not come into contact with -cides and as long as it was fed a non-toxic plant diet you should be just fine feeding them off. I wouldn't go overboard, but if your herps will take them go ahead and feed a few.

[Truffs1178]

All the species are fed bramble. That's not toxic is it? I guess not since you get black berries from them.

[JeffreH]

I'm really not sure - They are in the Rosaceae family so its hard to say as there is a variety of both safe and non-safe plants in this group. Insects can specialize on leaves so toxicity can't be inferred from their feeding behavior. Do you know if any other animals like deer, rabbit, etc feed on the plants?

Fruiting plants are not always safe to feed - much of the Solanaceae family for example contains highly toxic leaves yet highly nutritional fruit (i.e. Tomato plants). You'll need to try to identify the specific species of plant and look into it... if I have time I'll ask our plant guy in the department who specializes in secondary plant metabolites.

[Truffs1178]

Do you think my african bullfrog would like giant african land snails or would the shell be a problem? I have heard and seen frogs eat normal snails before though. I thought you might have bred them on the past.

[Truffs1178]

If they can eat snails then that would be good because I read snails shells have lots of calcium in them.

[JeffreH]

Sorry Jack, I'm really not sure. I know gastropods can be notorious carriers of parasites but I'd assume then would be okay to feed so long as they were not in contact with any -cides, etc. I've never actually reared them or tried to feed them off...

[Truffs1178]

Decided not to feed them anyway. They can cause meningitis in humans so I don't know what they could do to frogs.

[badkelpie]

I can't remember what it is, but there is a certain type of leaf that some people feed to stick insects that is toxic. But if kept on bramble (blackberry, raspberry) leaves, they are safe.

Bramble plants are non toxic. You can make tea from raspberry leaves, and my rabbits could live on the stuff.

[Truffs1178]

That's just what I thought. The toxic leaf is the new leaves on bramble(the ones that still have hairs) contain a toxic chemical which kills baby stick insects but I only give mine full grown leaves.