mealworms

[neven]

hey guys and gals,
just wondering about mealworms and bearded dragons. is it ok provide beardies with a mealworm diet rather than roaches or crickets? and does any one have any care sheets on how to look after mealworms and even breed them?
ta nev

 

[instar]

Mealys are ok as treats but not as a staple diet. not great nutritional value. Always use fresh molt ones, pale/white soft, the shells are indigestable chitin, can cause inpaction if over fed.
heres a link to breeding them, cheers
http://www.icomm.ca/dragon/mealworm.htm

 

[Parko]

There has (i'm told) been cases of mealworms eating their way back out of lizards stomachs, and as inny said they aren't very high in nutrition. Now i've said that i'll also say i have fed them to various gecko's and dragons throughout the last 20 years, and have not once had any problems from them. Is that helpful?

 

[peterescue]

Mealworms- get a bag of bran and empty it into a plastic box. put some apple peel or banana peel in and place a sheet of newspaper(foldled) over that. thats it. Replace the peel regularly and use them when they shed(best time) with other foods. They move and add variety to your lizard or turtles meal. You can dust with cal powder if you like or feed them on lots of different veg peelings. Its like grapes, no nutritional value what so ever but they like them.
Anyone have first hand knowledge of them eating their way out of a beardies stomache? I've heard this too but no one can verify it.

 

[neven]

hhmm doesnt sound good. im trying to find an alternative food to feed my beardys which i can breed myself. i used to breed roaches but they have all died as a result of the hot weather im guessing, and im finding it hard to find any one who can supply me some. most supplies have faced the same problem. any ideas?
nev

 

[Guest]

You could grow your own boc choy? I use the cut offs from the boc choy i get at woolies, just stick them in a tub with soil, keep them watered and they do the rest. They grow pretty quickly and they are very good for the dragons. Plus, how could a few million asians be wrong? (line from the movie "The lost boys" when they are talking about rice).

 

[Greebo]

Are you talking about Easterns or Centrals? My Vitties will happily eat cat food but the Easterns wont touch it. I buy pellets for the Easterns, they don't particularly like them but they will eat them when they are hungry. I feed mealworms to them as well but its best to vary their diet.

 

[sarahbell]

if you cut there heads of about half way down and put them back in the tub they will regrow a body, so you keep doing this

 

[angelrose]

I find mine love bok choy, watermelon, cat food, apricots, grapes, plums, apples, carrots,, beardie pellets in orange juice, tinned fruit salad (natural only) crix, woodies and i breed meal worms, you can buy mealies for $50 a kilo and they will breed all year round, in a empty big blue water bottle mine live in rolled oats a newpapers and get the fruit and veges peels, fridge em to stop em breeding....meal worms to beardies are like lettuce to us though, nothing in em..... but my beardies sulk if they dont get the at least once a week....

Angel

 

[peterescue]

ps. dont remove the newspaper. thats where the beetles lay their eggs.

 

[Magpie]

Can someone please explain what is meant by "No nutritional value"?
They are a whole animal and as such have proteins, fats etc.
Properly fed and gut loaded they should be quite a healthy thing to feed your animals.
My angle heads that get meal worms as well as woodies and silk worms grow at twice the rate of those that don't.
They are nothing like "lettuce" although even lettuce does have nutritional value to us.
So can someone help poor dimwitted me out here?

 

[nuthn2do]

Anyone have first hand knowledge of them eating their way out of a beardies stomache? I've heard this too but no one can verify it.

I think this has come from the fact that mealworms loose in an enclosure will take advantage and feed on anything available. The softest part of a dead beardie is going to be its belly right?

So can someone help poor dimwitted me out here?

Going troppo already bloke?
Yep gut loading and diet are the key, just those pet shop tubs with the little packet of gutload stuff is a bit suss. Give the poor b$$ggers a chop and food scraps every now and then.

But I still have a prob with their chitin.

 

[Greebo]

I found the following information:

Nutritional Value of Mealworm
The nutritional value of mealworm is very good. These worms can be used as food for animals in aquaria and zoological parks, and they are very popular as fish bait as well as bird food. The proximate analysis of the nutrient contents of different stages of mealworm are shown in Table 1.


Table 1. Proximate analysis of mealworm.
_________________________________________________________________

Different Dry Moisture Crude Crude Ash NFE
stages of matter % protein fat % %
mealworm % % %
_________________________________________________________________

Larvae 43.05 56.95 48.31 40.46 2.92 8.31
Pupae 38.39 61.61 55.30 36.54 3.27 4.89
Adult 42.10 57.90 59.43 28.33 3.16 9.08
_________________________________________________________________


It seems to contradict some peoples theories on this thread.

 

[Greebo]

Hmmmm..that didnt come out very well. Here's the link to the site:

http://www.dbs.nus.edu.sg/research/fish/livefood/mealwm.html

 

[Matty_2004]

Don't soak beardie pellets in orange juice, the citric acid causes problems - use apple juice.

 

[Hickson]

But I still have a prob with their chitin.

Why are you worried about chitin on mealworms? Woodies would have more chitin than a mealworm. Crickets have a fair amount too.

The problem as I see it is that the small worms have a high fat content. But if you give your lizards a varied diet, there should be no problems feeding mealworms in moderation.



Hix

 

[Parko]

Anyone know of any suppliers who will mail order them?

 

[angelrose]

yes parko, www.animalattraction.com.au

thanks matt i will switch to apple juice.

Angel

 

[Parko]

Oh didn't realise animalattraction sold em, thanx angel you're an angel.

 

[angelrose]

no prob, he can give you tubs, or order you a full kilo to start a colony if you want to