I've a pair of adult Bearded Dragons & a pair of juvenile Green Iguanas. I raise meal worms in a 10 gallon aquarium inside my storage building. The Dragons are in a 55 gallon tank with sand substrate and the Iguanas are in a 33" tall x 29" x 18" bird cage with newspaper substrate. The sand in the former looks great, the paper in the latter is quite unbecoming but both suit my respective needs.
The worms have no real substrate other than corn meal which is also their primary feed along with a few chunks of dog chow.
As of day one or even before I noticed the produce department's scarp bin at the grocery where I work. Since I got the lizards I began rummaging about every day or two. It simply sounds ridiculous to buy more than I need and even more so to buy just what they'll eat in 2 days. A whole head of lettuce or cabbage when I need a leaf or a pound when I need one berry or 4 grapes? I get kale, cabbage, lettuce (red, green and bok choi) by the leaf along with 1-6 grapes, strawberries, broccoli & cauliflower bits, bell pepper (all colors) pieces off bruised or broken fruit insuring a variety of good produce for the worms as well as the lizards. The fruits & veg are the only source of dietary moisture for the worms. Last night I found something new for them all to enjoy. Hidden among all the mushy ones were a pair of nice figs. Anything left over with seeds in it that I'd welcome as growth gets tossed into a 6" deep 2' x 2' "sprouting bin" as will be the case with some of the fig seeds. Some of the bounty is either fed fresh or laid out to dry as flake feed for my molly fish which eat mostly aquatic vegetation in the wild while the remainder simply goes into my pair of compost bins.
Sometimes while digging I find earthworms. Some are as big around as a pencil if not quite as long. A few of these get tossed to the Quack Pack as treats but most I leave to their work of enriching and aerating the soil. If I happen upon a concentrated population of small to medium size they become lizard treats.
There are a pair of catalpa trees in my back yard and soon the caterpillars should be showing up bringing joy and happiness to all. Ducks, geese, lizards and Merlin! Hey, If you can't catch a fish using catalpa worms as bait turn around. You must be facing the wrong way and casting back to shore instead of into the water.
When I worked at the zoo everybody else treated the mice and rats as merely food. I looked at them until they were to become food as animals under my care that deserved no less attention than any other. I gave them all sorts of goodies from fresh fruits & veg to bird seed and nuts. I'd get toilet paper and paper towel rolls for them to gnaw & tunnel in, acorns, pine cones & sticks to chew, cat tails were a favorite both heads and roots.
There was one old gal there whose attitude was best described (at least by me) as "snotty". Whenever I used The Royal "we" in my speech she'd say "We? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?"
One day I was checking the mice & rats and found a fresh litter of baby mice. One was a runt who never grew to much more than 1" at fully grown. Being the soft hearted soul that I am decided he wouldn't become a feeder but rather my little buddy. As soon as he was weaned anytime I knew my job didn't put him in harm's way he was with me. It wasn't long before old snotty asked the question and I had my answer... "Yes. As a matter of fact I do have a mouse in my pocket!"
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