all in one recipes?

[antdude]

Even if we consider that there are no peer-reviewed articles on its efficiency, wouldn't it be all the more interesting to use it and document how well it works in long term?

Bhatkar has been referenced in hundreds or thousands of articles for over 40 years. If there was any evidence that it was adequate for long-term feeding of ants in captivity, someone would have published the findings by now.

As recent as 2014, the following research was published, indicating that Bhatkar and other synthetic diets tested failed to rear Solenopsis invicta in captivity:

Laboratory fire ant colonies (Solenopsis invicta) fail to grow with Bhatkar diet and three other artificial diets -- J. Gavilanez-Slone • S. D. Porter (2014)

[Vegetable]

Isn't Bhaktar's diet recommended to supply with a dividual protein source, like insects?

I'm culturing mealworms (T.molitor) at the moment but they are not that popular among my ants.

[larynx]

Isn't Bhaktar's diet recommended to supply with a dividual protein source, like insects?

I'm culturing mealworms (T.molitor) at the moment but they are not that popular among my ants.

hissers are pretty easy to raise up, and my solenopsis love them.

so.... does anyone have any home made recipes they would like to share? if so i wud like 2 hear them.

[larynx]

Well the diet described in this document seems to be the magical all in one for most species. (Heck they even mention some fungus growing ants grew their fungus on it, I mean how universal food is that?)
ARTIFICIAL DIET FOR REARING VARIOUS SPECIES OF ANTS: http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/download/56586/54265

To grab out the important bits:
Recipe:
Agar --------- 5g
Water 500cc(ml)
Egg ---------- 1
Honey 62cc(ml)
vitamins ---- 1 capsule

The agar was placed in 250cc(ml) of water, heated to boiling and allowed to cool to room temperature.

The contents of the vitamin-mineral capsule, the honey, 250cc(ml) of water, and the egg were blended with a blender at 2000 rpm for 3 min and folded into the agar.

This was then poured into Petri dishes and allowed to solidify. The media was kept in refrigerator and was cut into 3/4 inch(~1.9cm) squares at feeding time.

this one sounds pretty rounded
im thinking uv trying this one

[larynx]

Well the diet described in this document seems to be the magical all in one for most species. (Heck they even mention some fungus growing ants grew their fungus on it, I mean how universal food is that?)
ARTIFICIAL DIET FOR REARING VARIOUS SPECIES OF ANTS: http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/download/56586/54265

To grab out the important bits:
Recipe:
Agar --------- 5g
Water 500cc(ml)
Egg ---------- 1
Honey 62cc(ml)
vitamins ---- 1 capsule

The agar was placed in 250cc(ml) of water, heated to boiling and allowed to cool to room temperature.

The contents of the vitamin-mineral capsule, the honey, 250cc(ml) of water, and the egg were blended with a blender at 2000 rpm for 3 min and folded into the agar.

This was then poured into Petri dishes and allowed to solidify. The media was kept in refrigerator and was cut into 3/4 inch(~1.9cm) squares at feeding time.

this one sounds pretty rounded
im thinking uv trying this one

For heavens sake read what I wrote after that!

Not only does it state that Bhatkar diet is unsuitable for S.invicta they also say its probably unsuitable for most(all?) species and doesn't work even as proper nutrition *****.

You should not use it. If I could I've remove that comment about it since there are actual results with quantitative testing that show its not working as well as originally thought (Though perhaps it still works for the few fungus growing ants they tested, right?)

for heavens sake, chill out. i did read what you wrote, then quickly disregarded it, as i am looking for recipe "ideas" that i can build my own out of. this will not be used exclusively, it will be used side by side with a natural diet. this recipe will be used in its current form first, then changed to my liking, with the additional help of some of these other recipes that are being posted as well. stop using google to reinvent the wheel, and post some stuff that has worked for "you", so the ideas can be shared, then possibly built upon. i just need ideas from "you" guys, not research papers from 45 years ago. lol

[larynx]

im thinking of separating sugars from proteins, in the Bhaktar diet, then tweaking it with other sources of each to see the results. then i plan on building upon this later next year after experimenting with about 10 colonies this fall, and spring.
all these recipes you guys put up here are going to be relevant in this research in some shape or form. so post as many as you can, especially if you have used it before. thank you guys in advance.

[larynx]

I read somewhere, a recipe that used chocolate whey protein shake mix, sugar, and water as an all in one solution for feeding ants.

this is good info as well. i will definitely be trying whey protein.

[larynx]

thats interesting. gel crickets..... making something in a mold for cool shapes. like cricket shapes or spider shaped, im thinking lol nice.

[antdude]

Maybe you should have prefaced your initial post with the fact that you were not seeking serious or scientific discussion of this topic. Casual observations from non-scientists don't usually make for trustworthy or effective animal diets.

[larynx]

mAyBe....