Anyone raise mealworms???

[GreenOasis]

Getting tired of throwing my money away to LLLReptile, so if anyone out there breeds mealworms & would like to sell some, I would really appreciate it!

Looking for about 1000-2000 mealworms.

Thanks!

-Carey Kurtz-

Green Oasis Reptiles

 

[Colorcham427]

Getting tired of throwing my money away to LLLReptile, so if anyone out there breeds mealworms & would like to sell some, I would really appreciate it!

Looking for about 1000-2000 mealworms.

Thanks!

-Carey Kurtz-

Green Oasis Reptiles

You should DEFINITELY offer super worms instead of meal worms!!! I've been educated from chameleon breeders/enthusiasts and super worms are a TON better than meal worms. Meal worms are way too fatty.

Super worms hold in their gut load for a lot longer too. You can get a thousand for $17-$20.00 from many online stores. Google cheap super worms. Unlike crickets, super worm care is easy and most if not all dealer's super worm quality is about the same so I highly doubt you'll be getting dirty supers. Good luck!!

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

You should DEFINITELY offer super worms instead of meal worms!!! I've been educated from chameleon breeders/enthusiasts and super worms are a TON better than meal worms. Meal worms are way too fatty.

Super worms hold in their gut load for a lot longer too. You can get a thousand for $17-$20.00 from many online stores. Google cheap super worms. Unlike crickets, super worm care is easy and most if not all dealer's super worm quality is about the same so I highly doubt you'll be getting dirty supers. Good luck!!

IMO there's not TOO much of a difference between the two. My leopard geckos were raised off gutloaded mealworms until adulthood, they grew likes weeds. Though the three are now on a staple of dubia roaches and some mealworms nowadays. I've been too lazy to breed the supers, even though I've tried it before, they do take more attention than mealworms when it comes to seperating the worms to pupate, keeping them warm, cannibilism, etc.. Egg to beetle is doubled for supers, too, though I think between the two supers are obviously the healthier choice.

 

[hibiscusmile]

The mealworms are super easy to raise, just leave out and feed and in no time u will have beatles and then worm babies, I breed superworms and have to many if you need some, make me a deal!

 

[Colorcham427]

IMO there's not TOO much of a difference between the two. My leopard geckos were raised off gutloaded mealworms until adulthood, they grew likes weeds. Though the three are now on a staple of dubia roaches and some mealworms nowadays. I've been too lazy to breed the supers, even though I've tried it before, they do take more attention than mealworms when it comes to seperating the worms to pupate, keeping them warm, cannibilism, etc.. Egg to beetle is doubled for supers, too, though I think between the two supers are obviously the healthier choice.

Hate to burst your bubble but Leopard geckos are known for surviving the best to the worst of keepers. Not saying you are a bad keeper, but any human on this planet could keep a Leopard a live and well. I am not sure what is in their bodies, but they are amazing and soooooo hardy.

Usually the only reptiles that don't look cruddy in the pet shops around NJ are the Leopard geckos.

I was just comparing the mealies to the supers from a chameleon keeper's point of view. Meal worms are basically the same as wax worms. Poor ratio of nutrition as appose to bad fats. They are soft ice cream to our pets...

It's pretty nutty to compare chameleons to mantid's needs. If I were to feed my panthers fruit flies, house flies, and blue bottles they wouldn't live all too long, nor be all too healthy during their much shorter life.

I raise my reptiles on nothing but well gut loaded insects with healthy food. Imagine how healthy humans would be if we never knew what candy, ice cream, calzones, and cheese steaks were? lol

If you want to breed meal worms, that's fine, just consider what's a healthier choice.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

it definately varies from reptile to reptile, I wouldn't feed my beardies any more than 20 mealworms a week. Mealworms are just SO easy to breed, though. I can't say anything about chams, because I've never owned one, but like I said there's no doubting that supers are healthier.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

it definately varies from reptile to reptile, I wouldn't feed my beardies any more than 20 mealworms a week. Mealworms are just SO easy to breed, though. I can't say anything about chams, because I've never owned one, but like I said there's no doubting that supers are healthier.

 

[GreenOasis]

Adult beardies should be eating primarily salad & veggies...only getting insects (including mealworms) as a treat. We also give our breeder female the (very) occasional pinky mouse or rat for the extra protein. Baby beardies start out on primarily insects and gradually move to more greens/veg as they get older. Of course, our little piggies have been chowing down every green we give them since day one! :blink:

Brian, Leoopard geckos are very forgiving, except in that they need a lot of calcium in their diets. They are VERY prone to metabolic bone disease, particularly when they are young (learned the hard way with the first few babies we had.) Other than that, if they have nice, fat tails, that's all you need to look for. I had an issue with getting food for ours several months ago, and I was prevented from feeding them for over two weeks. I thought for sure we'd lose one, if not all of them, but because they had ample food stores in their tails, they survived it just fine (even with the females continuing to lay eggs).

Not to worry! I've got a good group of mealies going now and just started a second container a few days ago (thinking I'll just do three containers & rotate every two weeks.)

Rebecca, I'd be interested to hear any tips you have for breeding success with them!

I've tried doing supers before...don't remember what went wrong, so I may try again. Finally got waxies going! YAY! Just need to split up the worms and *keep* them going now!

 

[hibiscusmile]

breeding mealworms? nothing to do with them other than feed them good, they will pupae and turn into beetles and then will start laying, I usually have to throw mine out when they get to that point, the mantis will eat the larvae, but I always get mites when they start to be beetles. now the superworms, no problems with them, other than they multiply llike roaches!

 

[PeterF]

Mealworms are cake. We never water them, just feed them. They do fine on their own.

Like anything else, start with a lot and soon you'll have too many. But if you're using them as feeders then a lot might be just enough.

While their food should be mixed, I understand that cabbage has a compound that induced breeding.

I have found superworms to be a bigger challenge. Separating them out into a small container for pupation is easy (we use a tray box, they are common at craft stores for keeping....beads, buttons, what have you).

But I can't say we get a lot of eggs laid / young.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I started with just a few beatles, cant seem to decide which spelling of beetles is rite!!! hahah, I kill me, and tomorrow, if I can I will take a pic of them for you.