When I started breeding geckos, one of the things that worried me most wasn't the care of the animals, but the food.
Because it's one thing to fall in love with a species, but it's another to realize that from then on you'll have to get live insects every single week. At first, I panicked. The shops in my area sold feeder insects, sure, but often at very high prices. And above all, there was a problem I constantly noticed once I got home. I'd open the packages and find dead insects. Lots of dead insects.
Over time, I realized that the problem was almost never the company that produced them. Very often, the bugs arrived at the store in good condition and then sat on the shelves for days or weeks. No one fed them, hydrated them, or really checked their condition, and the result was inevitable.
Like most people, I started looking for alternatives online and tried several suppliers.
Some experiences were positive, but others were much less so. I've received the wrong species, incomplete orders, insects that arrived dead, and shipments that seemed to take forever to arrive. Most importantly, I've found many customer services to be NON-EXISTENT when it comes to requesting help for a package lost by the courier or arrived full of dead insects.
When you raise insectivorous animals, waiting weeks for a resupply or even a response isn't just inconvenient, it's a real problem.
Then, during an exotic animal fair, I came across a simple I.N.E.F. flyer. I didn't think about it too much, I simply decided to place an order and see how it went; I was more than used to it by now.
The order went well. Then came many more! In the years that followed, Insect Novel Ecologic Food became the main supplier for my geckos, and it's almost become a family tradition. My mother even started giving me gift cards to spend on their website for Christmas.
I think this says more than any review.
Not all the insects I use come from a supplier; I prefer to raise some species myself. Paraplecta minutissima, for example, are now an integral part of my farm, and I continue to maintain breeding colonies.
Other insects, however, I prefer to buy ready-made; most of my original cockroach colonies come from I.N.E.F., as do mealworms.
And then there are crickets, the obnoxious crickets. After years of attempts, experiments, and more or less creative curses, I've accepted a simple truth: I prefer to buy them! Much simpler and much less stressful, but above all, infinitely healthier for my mental balance.
Over time, I've realized that finding a good supplier of feeder insects is a bit like finding a good veterinarian: when you find one you trust, you stop constantly looking for alternatives because you know the animals will get what they need, and when animal welfare is the priority, this peace of mind is invaluable.
Today, I raise many of the prey I use, but I continue to rely on professionals for the ones I prefer to buy or whenever I need a good supply in case reproduction slows down slightly.
Because raising insects is useful, knowing when it's best to leave it to a professional is very important.