I was at a swap over the weekend and I caught the tail end of some guy telling my partner that he was the one that discovered the fact that they need follic acid from the ants and that now he just sprinkles the crickets with follic acid and the horned lizards do fine.
BS. BS. BS.
I'm sure he meant formic acid, because that's what everyone thinks. Some vendor selling horned lizards at a show didn't "discover" anything though. these guys are not researchers. They are all cons and liars, selling wild caught lizards from Nevada.
Formic acid is beneficial for many reasons, but it is not the critical component. It's the diet of the ants which feed on seeds high in albuminoid proteins, and the mechanism and ease of digestion of the ants in the horned lizard's stomach which makes the difference. I actually research and write on the subject.
I brought up the subject of an acid supplement several years ago on the horned lizard forum on KS and basically the "experts" said it wasn't possible and that if you are not prepared to feed them ants you shouldn't keep them. Most of them were not that polite about it and most of them suggested no one should keep them anyway which I don't really disagree with. My whole point was not to come up with a short cut but to possibly provide those animals that will be caught, sold and killed at least a chance to survive.
No doubt then you talked to me and a couple of people I know personally from that old forum. We get this question all the time, though we don't really mess with KS anymore. We have our own forums and websites now. No, the answer is that vendors will lie and say you can sprinkle formic acid supplement on crickets. B.S. Ask them where to acquire such a substance meant for dusting onto animal food? It doesn't exist. Formic acid is used in industrial applications to etch metal and glass, etc, and sometimes to spray onto hay to prevent molding, but none of these items are sold, packaged or meant to be used as a supplement dust for herps. They are far too concentrated and are caustic.
We did supposedly have the head of TetraFauna or some other company come to us seeking to develop such a substance. I can't remember which company now, however, myself and the others declined to assist in developing it. It would have given false hope and misdirection to buyers, and it would not have helped horned lizards...not to mention it would have encouraged too many substandard keepers to now purchase them, whereas they might not have before due to cost of obtaining the ants. The proper way to go.
Maybe Tim Cole is talking about Life Studies/Ants Alive with his comments. Indeed, they may know harvester ants, but they don't know horned lizards at all. Though I sell ants, I demonstrate time and again that I would rather not have people capturing or buying wild caught horned lizards. As it was pointed out to me by the head of Nature Zone recently, I have about 400 words on my website in regard to the sale of ants, and about 1000 words detailing why I wouldn't sell ants or why one should not have a horned lizard. I'd rather not have you as a customer if I can encourage you to put a horned lizard back where it belongs, or to not support the wild caught trade in them by buying them at these shows.
Believe me. They are all wild caught, or you would be paying at least $100 each for them given the demand by ignorant purchasers wanting something cute. Nobody captive breeds horned lizards and raises them on harvester ants, and then just sells them for $30 at a show.
I disagree with your logic about suggesting it helps those captives survive with such a supplement (which in fact is suggested as a "substitute", not supplement). It is a short cut that you suggested, no matter the noble sounding the intent, so lets just call it what it is. A short cut.
Such things do not encourage proper husbandry practices, nor help the animals themselves. This is exactly the same as neophytes out there throwing vitamin D3 dust at their herps as a substitute to UVB, so they don't have to buy expensive lighting. D3 is a regulating hormone, and the average person should be messing with it that much if the animal has proper diet and UVB exposure to begin with. They will make their own D3 just like they are supposed to. The average noob out there doesn't even know what the hell D3 is or what it does.
In short, it does bypass the proper physiology of the animal, and this is not proper husbandry.
I've heard conversations where a customer will say something like "I heard these guys only eat ants" and the vendor will say "Oh no, they eat crickets just fine" What he doesn't tell them is that while they do eat crickets they need the ants to survive for any length of time. Another problem is that it may take months and months for them to die without the ants and so by then people rule out the diet as the cause of death. People seem to think that a poor diet will kill an animal quickly so if it takes an animal 6 months or more to starve to death or die from a lack of certain essential nutrients the people don't equate the death with diet.
Right on that point.
