Meal Worm wifes tails

[playwell]

After reading many threads over this past year on this site, I have heard many people say that meal worms offer no nutritional value with no information to back this up.

Who ever said that meal worms have no nutritional value what so ever, are you just repeating other peoples words?

Do you have facts of this?

I have a person very close to me that breeds a type of Australain bird that will only have a successful clutch if nutritional values are met.
After trying suppliements and other types of live food & many failed clutches in the early years.
When meal worms were added to the diet, every clutch for every year there after have been successful. Meal worms are very hight in protien in nothing else. Maybe everything else.

The only place I have ever heard people say that meal worms are crap is here. So do you know this for sure, what is your proof.

I had Beardies, Water Dragons & Jacky Dragons in my younger years that all had a varied diet of all insects that I caught, but about 25% meal worms being very often part of their diet.

I think that the poor nutritional value is BS, along with the old wifes tail about a meal worms eating their way out of a lizards stomach. None of my animals have ever suffered constipation from them either.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I have never ever had a problem with them at all.

Experienced Bird keepers swear by them, why not the new generation of reptile keepers?

Cheers
Craig

 

[steve6610]

hi craig,
i agree with everything you have said, i also have fed my dragons on them, at times it's all they got for over a week while i was waiting for roaches to arrive, i don't use them much now as i breed my own roaches and have heaps,

cheers,
steve........

 

[Moclobe]

The only thing I know about mealworms is that they are high in fat relative to other insects and that fat-tailed dunnarts will eat them like kids eat lollies

 

[Jonathon]

On a lot of the American herp sites they also say that mealworms have very little nutritional value for most reptiles. I also believe that they can cause intestinal blockages?

 

[peterescue]

you got proof of that Playwell or are you just repeating what other people have told you. :twisted:

They can and have caused gut impaction during their hard chitinous stage.
as long as the diet is balanced should be no problem. They are like sunflower seeds only they move and you know what your experienced birdies say about those.

 

[playwell]

Yes, I know what other people have said.

Does anyone have any actual evidence, As I have used them in the passed without a problem.

I have a spread sheet I would like to attach. but cannot due to this sites issues.

 

[playwell]

The proof is growing up with my mother as an Australian native bird breeder over the past 30 or so years, & Yes I know about the good old sun flower seed.

 

[peterescue]

I have a data sheet somewhere from when I first started Wildlife rehab. I will endeavour to find it but dont hold your breath. While it may not exonerate you I think you will find that if they were without any nutritional value we wouldnt have been using them for the last 10 years.
I get told that regularly by other wildlife cares who surprisingly still use them. Odd old world isnt it.

 

[peterescue]

ps, I know they cause gut impaction. I have lost babies because of them. I will only use them when they are soft.

 

[playwell]

I only used them in their worm stage.

Here is the link to a web sheet. as I cannot seem to post any pics on this site anymore.


http://www.angelfire.com/tx/facehugger/insect.html

 

[playwell]

Looks like the crikets WIN!! :lol:

 

[instar]

I dont use them often, when i do its only the freshmolt ones. never had a problem with them either.
But heres a fact for ya, crickets (lrg) can eat clean through flyscreen, no problem at all! They are monsters! I had to resort to a few layers, changed intermittantly and the whole tub inside a glass aquarium, or else they ate there way out and went off through the house!

 

[reptililian]

It's so easy to start rumours and spread incorect info (not that I'm weighing in on the meal worm debate. My knowledge is too limited). Here goes... reptililian is a total babe, and pythons emit something that sounds strangely like a cat's purr if you rub them gently under the chin!

Spread 'em round guys!!!

 

[OuZo]

Inny are you using aluminium flyscreen? On a website about rearing crix it said they can eat through the fiberglass one or whatever it is (no, not my personal experience aarrrggg! :lol

I remember talking to a member of this site ages ago who told me that they had had a mealworm eat it's way out of a baby beardy's (I think it was) stomach...so I guess there is some truth to it? I personally don't feed them but have considered it and just to be on the safe side I think I'd only feed them occasionally and not to young lizards just in case

PS I heard Reptililian's HOT boys 8)

 

[munkee]

Sorry OuZo As playwell is saying above we need proof before any claims can be made :wink:

 

[OuZo]

That's cool munk, I'm not really fussed either way lol. If the person involved sees the thread they'll respond if they want to

 

[Possum]

Meal Worms

I have an adult Beardie that has a back problem and he can't run fast so he can't chase crix well, I sometimes make the crix cold but they soon warm up and off they go again with my poor old Falcore hobbles around. So he doesn't starve to death I give hime big Meal Worms and he goes to town, he poops and everything OK and he doesn't seem to mind the taste so I say the Mealies are good for adult Beardies! JMO :lol:
He does like Bok Choy too.......it doesn't run away! :wink:

 

[Reptilegirl]

in one of john weigels books "care of australian reptiles in captivity" it says "they are generally considered to be sub optimal in terms of food value and relitively difficult to ingest" and that "the excessive amount of chitin present in mealworms both in larvae and beetles, has been know to cause intestinal blockages in small lizards fed exclusively on them"

and in a book called "caring for australian native birds" by heather parsons... it says...
"mealworms unfortunately provide little quailty nutrition and are very high in saturated fats"

is that the kind of thing you ment?? or do you want the actual nutrtional contents... i can do that too.. got this from beautifuldragons.com


Ca 1:25
Protein 20.3%
Fat 12.7%
Fiber 1.7%
Sugar
Water 62%

Notes: Low calcium, high phosphorus & fat, hard chitin shell
and it also says to feed them rarely...

i have heard many stories of birds and mealworms... i myself experianced one first hand... just last week i was asked to take a kookaburah to the vet... some one had found him 3 days before and had been feeding him just meal worms.. on opening his beak we found live meal worms crawling out of its throat and on the inside of the beak... poor little fella looked like a baby it was that thin.. he wasnt getting enough nutrients... he wasnt getting anything really... if he had of been getting the proper food (and care) there would have been a much better chance of suvival..

i think meal worms are ok just as long as they arent the only source of food and i personally squish each meal worm's head before letting my dragons touch them... and they get them about once a month..

Megz

 

[reptililian]

I love his name, Possum. Falcore. Great name for a Bearded dragon, or even a Luck dragon! Did you know that if you rub him gently under the chin then he'll purr like a cat for you?

PS thanks Zoe :wink:

 

[Possum]

Did you know that if you rub him gently under the chin then he'll purr like a cat for you?

If I pat him under his chin he either goes to sleep or licks me! :lol: