How often do I feed my colony

[BlindeGearstring]

I am new to ant keeping and am about to go ant queen hunting. I want to know how often you feed your ants insects and sugar? What should I use for sugar? Should I fee the ants sugar and insects at the same time or different times?

[PTasker15]

Queens(unless semi-claustral) do not need food as they have their own reserves. A new colony should be given a drop of sugar/honey to start them up and some protein.

Watch AntsAustralia videos, especially these three;

How to Catch a Queen Ant
How to Raise a Queen Ant
How to Raise an Ant Colony

[RuinedDrone]

Ants require (like many animals) two basic things from there food.

1. Energy and this is what sugars (carbs) provide
2. Protien for there physical structure (what there organs and bodies are made of)

They also of course need fresh water.

So once the first workers are out then the colony will start needing both protien (for the delevoping brood) and carbs / suger for all the colony to provide energy. Workers still need some protein but as Ants once adult dont grow by shedding there ectoskeleton there requirment for protien is less.

But what this should tell you is you need to feed a growing colony both Protein and Carbs. Depending on species this will determin what type and amount is required.

But for a small colony of 5 -10 workers a drop of suger water and a tiny bit slice of meal worm will be fine every few days (keep swapping out food to stop it drying out and / or going moldy). Ants are "cold" blooded, and in general cold blooded animals require a lot less food than warm blooded. So you do only need to put in tiny bits of food at the start.

As Antcanada recomend when starting out

1. put a queen in a testtube with water at one end, no suger just fresh clean water and make sure the cotton wool you use to device the tube is damp on the side the queen is so they can "drink" from the cotton if they wise
2. once the first workers arrive either place in a few drops of sugar water in the testtube or attach a second test tube. you can make surger water with eaqual amountsof water and sugar. How i do it is boil a kettle, pour a small amount of water in to a glass and then dislve as much suger as it will take. (put in loads and stir for 5 miniutes if all the sugar goes add a little more untill it wont disolve)

At this point the queen (unless semi-claustral) will still be fine with out protien and I would leave her for a week or so with just sugar water and her first few workers.

Once the first worker are activly moving away from the queen (mine did not forage for a good few days after hatching) then add tiny bits of protien like cut up meal worms, but also fresh ham, bacon, chicken, fruit? Look up what the ant specices you catch will eat. Some ants will eat pretty much any thing while others are very specific. but in the early days just provide very small amount and replace often. I dontfeed insects much to mine any more, they are happy on a varity of food out of the fridge, pretty much when i make my lunch time sandwidch i put aside i slither of ham, tomatos, strawberry, egg, etc for them.

[PTasker15]

Ants require (like many animals) two basic things from there food.

1. Energy and this is what sugars (carbs) provide
2. Protien for there physical structure (what there organs and bodies are made of)

They also of course need fresh water.

So once the first workers are out then the colony will start needing both protien (for the delevoping brood) and carbs / suger for all the colony to provide energy. Workers still need some protein but as Ants once adult dont grow by shedding there ectoskeleton there requirment for protien is less.

But what this should tell you is you need to feed a growing colony both Protein and Carbs. Depending on species this will determin what type and amount is required.

But for a small colony of 5 -10 workers a drop of suger water and a tiny bit slice of meal worm will be fine every few days (keep swapping out food to stop it drying out and / or going moldy). Ants are "cold" blooded, and in general cold blooded animals require a lot less food than warm blooded. So you do only need to put in tiny bits of food at the start.

As Antcanada recomend when starting out

1. put a queen in a testtube with water at one end, no suger just fresh clean water and make sure the cotton wool you use to device the tube is damp on the side the queen is so they can "drink" from the cotton if they wise
2. once the first workers arrive either place in a few drops of sugar water in the testtube or attach a second test tube. you can make surger water with eaqual amountsof water and sugar. How i do it is boil a kettle, pour a small amount of water in to a glass and then dislve as much suger as it will take. (put in loads and stir for 5 miniutes if all the sugar goes add a little more untill it wont disolve)

At this point the queen (unless semi-claustral) will still be fine with out protien and I would leave her for a week or so with just sugar water and her first few workers.

Once the first worker are activly moving away from the queen (mine did not forage for a good few days after hatching) then add tiny bits of protien like cut up meal worms, but also fresh ham, bacon, chicken, fruit? Look up what the ant specices you catch will eat. Some ants will eat pretty much any thing while others are very specific. but in the early days just provide very small amount and replace often. I dontfeed insects much to mine any more, they are happy on a varity of food out of the fridge, pretty much when i make my lunch time sandwidch i put aside i slither of ham, tomatos, strawberry, egg, etc for them.

This guy has it down perfect ^^^

[BlindeGearstring]

Thank you :):) this is all very helpful

[BlindeGearstring]

I do have another question now. "once the first workers arrive either place in a few drops of sugar water in the test-tube or attach a second test tube" does this mean take the piece of cotton keeping them in the tube out to put in a drop or leave it on and let it absorb the sugar water? also when it says attach a second test-tube could it mean test tube portal or is that for a week or so after?

[AM1C39]

He means take the cotton off and fastly put the food in, and yes the portal will work.

[BlindeGearstring]

thank you again : ):):)

[RuinedDrone]

While you have just a few workers a single tube and cotton wool works fine, you can quickly pull it out and add in a drop and put in back with out much issue.

However once you have 20+ workers espicaly if its warm and they are active... then you might want a portal, and more space to work. Depending how quick your colony is growing though it may be months before you ahve so many ants that a single tune is not workable.

Not essential by any means but just easier

[aseameba]

It might also be a good option to try a "tubes-and-tubs" setup, where you place the test tube (with the colony) inside a small box, meant for freezing foodstuffs. There it will be easy to replace dry water tubes with new ones and you can also place the food in the box, rather than in the test tube with the ants. The foragers will find it, if they need it. Same thing for sugar-water tubes etc. The box acts as a small outworld. There is no great need to have sand or other digging material in the box. Once the colony gets large enough, you can move it in a proper formicarium and furnish a bigger outworld with sand and other materials.

If the original test tube gets dirty or moldy, you can just place a new tube in the box, and the ants will move there on their own accord if they feel the other tube is too dirty. It might take from a few days to couple of weeks. Then you can just take out the old, dirty tube when it's vacated.

And, of course, you need to have a properly fitting lid over the freezer box to prevent ants from climbing out. You could poke small air holes in the lid, but if you open it (for feeding or cleaning) every few days, you probably won't even need that. Having holes in the lid lets the moisture evaporate from the box, so you should make sure there is always a test tube with plenty of fresh water inside the box.

Once the colony grows too big to fit in one test tube, you can just place another next to the first one, and the ants will use the added space, if the other one is too crowded.