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View Full Version : Bought A New Pet :)


Keflan
01-03-2012, 11:44 AM
I decided to buy myself 2 stick insects. They are pretty epic. Cost me £19.99 for a green foldaway basket, looks like the washing baskets you get, with 2 netted sides and 2 see through plastic sides. A spray can, first set of compost and the insects. You also get some tweezers and magnifying glass.

At the moment they are just chilling. One is on a leaf and the other is just chilling on the side of the house.

Jandrhamster
01-03-2012, 11:55 AM
hehe cool! personally i love snakes and slow worms and lizards etc.

essentiallysue
01-03-2012, 11:55 AM
Aww That's cute. I hope they live well. We have Salamanders that live on our back porch on the plants. We name them and talk to them. They have even had a baby and we've watched him grow up.

Hamtastic
01-03-2012, 12:04 PM
They sound neat! I enjoy reading about other people's experience with pets I'd not otherwise know much about. I spent an evening reading about pet chickens! Please share some photos :)

SnickersTheFirst
01-03-2012, 12:10 PM
That's cool. :) Just a warning, I went to a college open day and they keep stick insects. They ended up with a male and female, they now have 120 stick insects :p

Keflan
01-03-2012, 12:11 PM
Hehe ;P Well I would have a snake or spider but I dont like them lol. I would have to get used to them. My girlfriend wants a Bearded Dragon.

Thats pretty cool about the Salamanders. Unfortunately, where I live we dont really have anything that visits or we can watch grow lol, unless its one of our own pets.

I will post some pictures later of my stick insects.

Well if I end up with 20+ then im sure I can give them back to the pet store lol or find new owners.

Jandrhamster
01-03-2012, 02:01 PM
i cant help it i just love snakes most people really are scared of them but i just love them ive held a grass snake and they are just beautiful scared at first but its alright i think although i dont think il be comfortable with a python because my local pet shop sell a burmese python he is HUGE! and so ugly i didnt realist him at first and there were rats on top of his cage thing so i was looking at the rats and didnt realise the python :/ and he hit the glass so hard he nearly pushed it through that was the most scariest moment in my life sorry if im chit-chatting sorry.

Keflan
01-03-2012, 02:16 PM
When I went into the pet store today, they have a little room full of reptiles and some little lad was buying a baby snake, they dont seem to be so bad but some bite and the outcome could be bad.

There was a bearded dragon trying to get out today. It kept smacking its head on the glass cabinet was pretty funny.

souffle
01-03-2012, 02:24 PM
We used to keep stick insects. They like privet so be sure to locate your nearest hedge!
They do breed like crazy! If you don't want to end up with hundreds you need to collect the eggs and freeze them before disposing of them or they will hatch out and you will be over run with them. They are really interesting to watch though. Pets shops don't really want that many as there is a limited market so only hatch what you want to keep and remember each hatchling will be breeding in a few months!
They do eat a lot and we found keeping the privet twigs in a jar of wet sand kept them fresh longest. They also poo a lot and need cleaned frequently :)
They are easy to handle though if a little tickley!
What type do you have. We had the Indian stick insects which were green with red knees when mature.
I hope you enjoy having them

Keflan
01-03-2012, 02:29 PM
Thanks, yeah so far I have some twigs with leaves dug into the soil at the bottom and have a jar just filled with some water and a big twig coming from a hole in the lid.

How often did you change your twigs and water in the bottle?

Im not sure what type mine are they are brown, I will post a few pics of them later :)

Jandrhamster
01-03-2012, 02:30 PM
My slow worms breed like crazy! But they are so small and just cute when they are born! i really want like more pets but the dog that i said was 'my dog' which yes it is but he lives with my nan and grancha and my grancha said he'll buy me a dog in the summer which of course my mum doesnt know about but she cant say no as its a present really for her and it should be the dog she wants but i think afetr the dog if i get him of course no more pets except for hammies. They are exceptional! and i cannot wait to see piccies!

Keflan
01-03-2012, 02:39 PM
I wanted a Praying Mantid but I got told it'd be best if I started off with a starter pet so I got the stick insects. In the future I would like some Hissing Cockroachs or beetles and I'd like an AntLion they seem pretty good.

KatiePillow
01-03-2012, 02:41 PM
My brother had stick insects when we were younger, an adult and 2 babies (I think we got half a breeding pair off his friend to try and reduce breeding)
One of the babies was really friendly, but I sat on it =[ because I didn't know it was wondering around on the window sill.

Also.. make sure that if they are being looked after somebody while you're on holiday that you remind them not to use bug spray -.- that's how the other two passed.

They were really sweet, and it was always fun to try and see which stick had eyes.. :)

Keflan
01-03-2012, 02:59 PM
Lmao, with my tank/basket I got some tweezers and a magnifying glass as well lol. So I can inspect them close up. It hardly zooms in anyways. I wont get mine out for a week or so, let it get used to its surroundings and me shouting at my PS3 when I die on a game.

Gillzy
01-03-2012, 03:04 PM
I had stick insects when I was younger... I barely remember them... but I do remember a LOT of poo, like souffle said. Lol. I recall going to the hedge at the end of the street and secretly snipping off branches for them lmao. I enjoyed taking them out and watching them, although tended to just try and find them for the most part.

Keflan
01-03-2012, 03:33 PM
How often did you swap your twigs and water over? I was thinking 2-3 days?

Demecat
01-03-2012, 03:37 PM
The twigs when they start to wilt and you need to spray around the cage daily.

newham
01-03-2012, 03:37 PM
I had stick insects are they the thin green ones? Or the spikey brown ones, or the leaf like ones i had all three once easy to breed to the eggs look like little round balls.

Keflan
01-03-2012, 05:42 PM
Well one of my stick insects just spat out some water thing onto the side of the basket? Idk what is it lol

Demecat
01-03-2012, 05:48 PM
I will just say, stick insects and my family don't get along. My brother brought some home from school once ('twas the weekend). They escaped and got everywhere. While I know how to look after them and have looked after them, they are in the same list I put cockroaches and millipedes.. the 'will never own!' one!

Keflan
01-03-2012, 05:52 PM
http://i39.tinypic.com/333ak90.jpg
This one hasnt moved from that spot for about 7-8 hours now. Only time it moved is when it twitched when the other one decided to just climb over it.

http://i39.tinypic.com/jr3c48.jpg
This one is all over the place, climbing over anything in its way, but now they are just both still on the side of the basket.

Flamestriker
01-03-2012, 06:13 PM
My slow worms breed like crazy! But they are so small and just cute when they are born! i really want like more pets but the dog that i said was 'my dog' which yes it is but he lives with my nan and grancha and my grancha said he'll buy me a dog in the summer which of course my mum doesnt know about but she cant say no as its a present really for her and it should be the dog she wants but i think afetr the dog if i get him of course no more pets except for hammies. They are exceptional! and i cannot wait to see piccies!

You breed slow worms? Aww how cute! I love slow worms.

The stick insects are...sticky. No, seriously, they are different and fab. It's nice to see someone looking after them properly, instead of just shoving them in a jar with leaves.

Hamtastic
01-03-2012, 06:41 PM
Neat! I like the leafy green bit of nature :)

Keflan
01-03-2012, 06:52 PM
Yeah, I need to find out what my stick insect has done. It just spat some clear liquid on the side of the tank and idk what it is lol

Demecat
01-03-2012, 06:53 PM
You might want to consider rehousing them.

This is the best terrarium out there for stick insects...

Exo Terra Glass Terrarium 30x30x45cm (http://www.rocketaquatics.co.uk/terra-glass-terrarium-30x30x45cm-p-1914.html?osCsid=d87beo8luu22fs05kq0bnvpf25)

My college kept ours in that. The sticks/leaves were placed in holes pierced into an old butter container. then every day the glass/leaves were sprayed with water.

Hamtastic
01-03-2012, 06:54 PM
According to this wikipedia page:
Stick insect - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stick_insect)

"Some species of phasmid are able to produce a defensive spray when threatened. The spray contains pungent-smelling volatile molecules which the insect gets from its food plant. The spray from one species, Megacrania nigrosulfurea, is even used as a treatment for skin infections by a tribe in Papua New Guinea by virtue of its antibacterial constituents."

I don't know if it's the same kind of spray, but could be it!

Keflan
01-03-2012, 06:58 PM
Thats what I thought but I did some research on it and they said the spray is a black thick type liquid. With this one just now I walked up to it and looked at it and it just like spat at the side of the tank lol.

Malorey
01-03-2012, 09:41 PM
Ahhh, my cousin had tons of those when we were younger. They had been a classroom pet and he ended up getting to take them home for summer.

I was sorta afraid of them though, but I've recently gotten interested in them. ;)

souffle
01-04-2012, 07:33 AM
We had ours in a similar sort of tank that demecat shows. They did on occassion do that green fluid thing I recall. The knees go red when they are mature and they start laying eggs. When they reach the end of their lives, this sounds horrid, but their legs fall off :( They manage till they have too few legs left to get around well. They have an odd smell to them we found!

Jandrhamster
01-04-2012, 09:33 AM
You breed slow worms? Aww how cute! I love slow worms.

The stick insects are...sticky. No, seriously, they are different and fab. It's nice to see someone looking after them properly, instead of just shoving them in a jar with leaves.

Yep :P i actually get too many though >.< but they are really fun to feed even know they eat slugs which are gross. they have gone to hibernate so il breed more when they come back. we put something on top of the grass in the garden and then becuase the thing is made out of metal the heat will actract them i think and then they usually just appear there :) i really recommend them as pets! they are so much fun.