This huge Katydid species (Siliquofera Grandis) is one of the largest and most impressive insect species in the world yet are easy to keep. Unlike some katydids these do not make much noise at all which makes them great pets. They are fascinating to watch and handle and have some really interesting behaviours.
Watch the videos with sound turned up - you'll get useful info about their care etc. But really they're pretty easy to care for we just like to get it perfect.You don't need huge cages like ours; we're breeding them in large numbers. Now it's summer you might be fine without a heat mat too but keep an eye on the temperature.
Before we kept them we had heard they could bite and were a touch nervous handling the big ones, yet it has never happened and we handle all of them a fair bit. Apparently the stories are because if your fingers are covered in apple or other food they will bite thinking you're an apple! Don't grab them to move them, coax them onto your hand or a leaf etc and watch out for huge jumps if they get spooked.
We have recently (2 months now) started keeping young ones of these in the same cage as young heteropteryx dilatata and so far so good. We're not saying that's definitely fine as it's a fairly recent thing.
One thing we really love about them is that they can learn to be tame, they start of as jumpy little things but gradually they learn you're no threat and can be hand fed! They also have the best antennae, many lose them on hatching but grow them back.
We suggest you choose Royal Mail tracked 24 on check out, and please make sure you are in to receive them on Wednesday. We post on Tuesday morning. They will each be in their own small pot, within a larger postal box.
With a box of 4 random fairly young ones there is only 1/8 a chance they will ALL be the same sex. We can't sex them when they are really young, but both sexes are lovely anyway. As these aren't recently hatched we will try to sex them and give you a mix but tbh we may not manage they're hard to sex until nearly adult.
They grow up pretty quickly 3-4 months from hatching but then live a long time as adults - how great is that!
Keep them warm (22-26) and quite humid (70-85%) and don't over-crowd them
Bramble, Beech, oak and chunks of organic apple make up most of their diet for us, sometimes with added fish flakes on the apple
We are not adding a free one to the box of 4 but we are doing all we can to help them arrive safely
you can find extra info at www.katydids.co.uk
The following text includes Amazon affiliate links to some products we use in rearing these beautiful insects.
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Heating Setup: we use these Inkbird thermostats and heat mats such as these attached to the outside of the glass enclosure. We insulate the outside of the cages with this foam roll and even put it over the heating mats but do that at your own risk - it's not advised! We also use these foam strips to modify cages and seal larger gaps around the doors of the cages but find the strips don't last indefinitely.
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We'd raise as many as 10 in this cage or more in this or a much larger colony in this lovely cage. In the past we've built cages using sheets like these.
