Can anyone talk to me about stick insects?

[Sleeperandthespindle]

Thinking of getting some. Where's the best place for information? Or do we have a resident mumsnet stick expert? Thanks.

I had them as a child. They multiplied very quickly and started eating each other. We ended up with a huge bloated granddad cornering the floor of the tank with his terrified (half eaten) offspring scaling the walls.

Am not the MN stick insect ambassador, no.
As far as I remember they need a roomy tank and lots of yew? The babies are cute but I was too wimpy to handle the big one. Poor thing.

1. they escape easily so make sure you have a good case for them.
2. we fed them anything leafy, they survived.
3. they survived for ages even after we'd forgotten about them and stopped feeding them.
4. they multiply easily
5. they are super easy to look after
6. don't really need to worry too much if you go on holiday as long as you stock them up with a few branches before they go
7. stick newspaper at the bottom of their enclosure to make cleaning up their eggs and poo easy
8. I've forgotten what they do about drinking/water - don't actually remember giving them any!

That's about all I can remember - as you can probably tell I was not the best person to look after them and therefore have never had pets since, probably for the best for both me and the animals. They were quite fun though!

Most types eat bramble or privet. Some only eat one or the other.

We used to get ours from an epic lady near Nottingham, she had loads of different sorts and other bugs and creepy crawlies and would post them. No idea if she's still in business, I'll have a look.

Here she is: small life supplies - so pleased she's still in business.
www.small-life.co.uk/index.html
Looks like she mostly does cages and info now though.

Ours preferred bramble but would also eat privet. Baby stick insects can't chew leaves that haven't been "started on" by adults - we tore the leaves for the first lot we had so they could eat.

The young stick insects are a bit more work than the adults as the torn leaves need replacing every day or two. Also they have a tendency to get stuck while shedding their "skin" and die, so you're unlikely to have all youngsters reach adulthood. We had quite a few babies lose limbs during the early stages but they managed to regrow them!

The eggs take ages to hatch (3 months ish). They lay loads once they reach adulthood so you end up having to throw a lot away (unless you have a lot of friends who want them!)

We had a couple of baby stick insects appear climbing up the wall! The eggs must have fallen behind the cupboard their enclosure was on an managed to avoid the vacuum cleaner for quite a while.