# Fruit Flies vs. Pinheads vs. Springtails



## d-prime (Sep 29, 2008)

I have been using fruit flies for a while along with pin heads, and besides the fact that ffs are easy to culture, i find that pinheads have a lot more protein, and can be gut loaded as opposed to being empty meals covered in powder.


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## somecanadianguy (Jan 9, 2007)

d-prime said:


> I have been using fruit flies for a while along with pin heads, and besides the fact that ffs are easy to culture, i find that pinheads have a lot more protein, and can be gut loaded as opposed to being empty meals covered in powder.



while culturing many differnt insects can be a pain it is by far the best way to insure as balanced of a diet as possible.your best bet for long term results would be to feed as great a varied diet as you can.
crickets are a good food but contain a get deal of chitlen spl? the exoseleton or outer body is a lot of fill too.crickets in canada are commonly very dirty and not kept and rasied in a way that we would do ourselfs.7 or 8 years ago it was so bad out here that i imported both in a private and wholesale for resale way from louisiana.breeding them your self is a good way but if the parents are not clean then the offspring might not be. 

fruit flys have been a staple in feeding frogs and baby chameleons for many years are not just an emypty meal by any stretch,many people have raised many generations of frogs using nothing but fruit flys , an empty meal this would not be possible.
ed, kind of this boards guru on health and nutrition has posted some excelent threads on nutritional values and the importance of varied diets.i would strongly recomend you search a few out, mabey he will jump in here too if his time permits.

a few other food choices u might think about d , firebrants, weevils or bean beatles, termites , spring tails both temperate and tropical, all are easily obtained from canadart as im sure you read there.
cheers d good luck man 
craig


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## kawickstrom (Oct 3, 2008)

So whats your question? As to which ones better?
They all have their pros and cons. I believe in using as much variety as possible. I have FF, Springtails, Bean beetles, and I am looking to add isopods to my collection here as soon as I find somebody local that can sell me some. 
If you are looking for easiset to culture. Bean beetles are the easiest by far. Just dump in some black eyed peas and some beetles give it a couple weeks and just like that you have thousands. And springtails you just put a little food and wait. I havent used pinheads as my two little frogs arent big enough for those. But I feed all other critters with crickets and I cant get them to breed for anything. Just use whatever is easiest for you I guess.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

d-prime said:


> I have been using fruit flies for a while along with pin heads, and besides the fact that ffs are easy to culture, i find that pinheads have a lot more protein, and can be gut loaded as opposed to being empty meals covered in powder.


On analysis pinheads and adult fruit flies have approximately the same amount of protein so I'm not sure how you found the pinheads to have more protein..... (see the nutrition chapter in Reptile Medicine and Surgery, 1996, W.B. Saunders Company). 

I'm also not sure where you got the idea that the ffs are "empty meals covered in powder"... this is not the case... 

Ed


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## Nick_ (Mar 24, 2008)

Ed said:


> On analysis pinheads and adult fruit flies have approximately the same amount of protein so I'm not sure how you found the pinheads to have more protein..... (see the nutrition chapter in Reptile Medicine and Surgery, 1996, W.B. Saunders Company).
> 
> I'm also not sure where you got the idea that the ffs are "empty meals covered in powder"... this is not the case...
> 
> Ed


 Great info. I did not know that they were on par as far as protein content....nice.
For the op, I have thus far used all three, I dont think I would ever only use one food source for any of my critters. I do have to admit that FF's are my favorite so far due to ease of culturing. Would it be to far out there to add multivitamins or perhaps amino acid additives such as selcon to thier media? That would allow you to "gutload" the FF's. As for springtails, I feed my culture the same thing I feed my tads. Which is the spectrum thera A+ and Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef, both have an amazing list of ingredients compared to other fish foods and gutloads. I also feed that to my roach colonies and crickets when I have them.


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## d-prime (Sep 29, 2008)

The information i based the statement on was from a fellow frogger. I just figured that fruit flies feed off of the media mix, as opposed to crickets that eat carrots and brocolli and upon consumption by the frogs, are full of the nutrients in them.


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