While beetles are considered very easy pets to care for, our beginner recommendations include sun beetles, flower beetles, and death feigning beetles.
The majority of beetle larvae feast on decaying wood and rotting leaves. Often, these decayed materials are incorporated into a type of soil named ‘flake soil’, which can be purchased or made yourself. As adults, beetles feast on sap and decaying fruit in the wild. However, most adult beetles in captivity are fed on fruit jellies used for reptiles, or branded beetle jelly.
Yes, it’s safe to buy live beetles from us. We ship exclusively within the UK via ‘Royal Mail Next-Day Before 1pm Guaranteed’ service, ensuring your pets spend only minimal time in transit. We’ll send out a shipping confirmation email when they’re on the way. If there are any issues and your animals arrive ill or deceased, we offer refunds for injuries and illnesses within a 7 day window after arrival.*
The wait is over! It’s time to unbox your new live beetle from its temporary transit container and get it into its home. Ensure you’ve prepared your pet’s setup ahead of time – you’ll want to get it settled in as soon as possible.
Beetles are considered easy pets to care for. In fact, if you keep other pets that eat live food, you’ve likely already experienced keeping mealworms, morioworms, and pachnoda grubs, all of which are beetles in larvae form. With that said, keeping live-food beetles and pet beetles is an entirely different process. Beetle larvae / grubs will need a large container full of flake-soil, kept sufficiently moist. Adult beetles will need an enclosure with places to hide, burrow, climb, and generally explore. Beetle jelly will ensure they stay fed and hydrated.
Caring and growing beetle larvae is fun, rewarding process. As adults, beetles are fun, quirky personalities, although you may not want to handle every species. As inexpensive, low-maintenance pets, it’s hard to see any down-sides of owning these fascinating animals.
