How to raise your own livefood. Live  food  is the a highly nutritional food source for birds, fish, frogs and reptiles.  If you catch the insects yourself, you must be absolutely certain that they have not been expose to chemical fertilizers, insecticides or herbicides.  Raising your own live food avoids these problems and at the same time  won't break the bank! Mealworms:            Mealworms are the larvae of the beetle CLICK HERE for detailed instructions on how to raise them. Grasshoppers: Both locust and grass- hoppers are used by aussie aviculturists CLICK HERE  to find out how to keep them.   Crickets: A good source of protein . CLICK HERE for detailed instructions on how to raise them. For more information CLICK HERE White Worms: Buy these from the  Aquarium shop. CLICK HERE  for info on how to culture them. Moths/Flying Insects: If you have the space  CLICK HERE .  Otherwise for a more manageable solution CLICK HERE Woodies: Woodies are actually Cockroaches. CLICK HERE to see how to raise your own colony or CLICK HERE  to see another article. Mice: A Pinky is a  baby mouse. CLICK HERE  for details on how to raise them.  For another site CLICK HERE and if that's not enough then  CLICK HERE Rats: CLICK HERE  for great raty breeding site.  For another site CLICK HERE  Gentles: Gentles is just a nicer way of  saying maggots. CLICK HERE for info from a commercial website. CLICK HERE for more tips. See Warning Note Below Fruit Fly: Here are a couple of Fruit Fly sites. CLICK HERE to see how to establish a colony or CLICK HERE for an article on preparing food for a Fruit Fly culture.  Here is a site with great step by step video clips, CLICK HERE to view . WARNING: Please note that there is some debate over the use of gentles (maggots). Some argue that it can lead to paralysis caused by botulin poisoning. To lesson the risk of this,  you need to put the gentles on a straight diet of bran mixed with water, as they eat downwards into the bran, the meat is cleaned out of their gut.   If you are really concerned about this issue,  I'd recommend that you don't use maggots, alternatively, you may want to open up a discussion on the forum and see if anyone has encountered problems.