mealworms

[ether]

How many do you reckon i will need to start a colony for just two sleepies. How long until i start to see babies??

Regards Alex

 

[angelrose]

if you buy a kiklo, it will never run out, ever.... if you buy it buy the tub, you'll probably need 4 or 5, and at about 5 bucks a pop, you be better off buying a kilo anyway, babies arrive within a month no prob....... they breed like.... rats.... lmao

 

[Magpie]

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

Cause he had a black soil dragon die from meal worm impaction.
The problem is not the amount of chitin, it's the fact that it is arranged in rings.

 

[nuthn2do]

The problem is not the amount of chitin, it's the fact that it is arranged in rings.

This is the reason, what had happened was a few sections of the exoskeleton had managed to avoid the choppers and once in the gut expanded from gastric juice to form a couple of what looked like teeny rubber bands. Might not be a problem 90% of the time but I won't use them unless their freshly moulted.
Heres some of the offending poo.

 

[beknluke]

Neven:
I get my roaches from a guy called Leigh in South Australia.
He sells 350g of adult roaches (that's about 700 roaches by herpshops standards) for $40. I bought 2x 350g, + freight (you collect roaches from Australian Air Express at Melb Airport) for $94!! Phone # 08 8244 3133
I used to buy from HerpShop - but they didn't have any available for a good 2-3 months and by then, my lizards were sick of verggies!! lol. I have also tried a guy called Robert Porter in QLD, but the postage is a ball breaker cost wise.

 

[neven]

oh nice ta mate, is there any way to get him to post to my house rather than collecting from the airport?
ta nev

 

[splitty]

Hey Bek

Where is Robert Porter located in QLD ?? Do u know how much he was selling them for ?

S

 

[beknluke]

Splitty, email me at [email protected] and I will email you his price list and address dets
Neven - I am not sure. You could probably have Australian Air Express deliver but it would be much more expensive.... Give Leigh a call

 

[neven]

can you send me his price list too beknluke? [email protected]
nev

 

[beknluke]

On it's way

 

[Rusty99]

umm only freshly moulted meal worms should be fed as there shells can cause gut impactions..joel

 

[Rusty99]

anywayz thats all

 

[Coastie]

I will be feeding my beardie 2 week old one when i get it from Barney , mealies coated with diet supps , occasional fresh mince , fruits and vegies .
P>S. Is that a stable diet?

 

[Guest]

Sounds good to me Coastie.

Try adding some Rep-cal beardie pellets too, they are great for them, and have all the necessary vitamins and minerals they need for their growing little muscle factories!!!!

 

[Menagerie]

wow, just checked how much a kilo of mealworms are - $55.00.

I know that it's a long term investment but jeez it's a lot of cash for a bunch of worms :lol:

 

[diamond_python]

I have never ever fed my beardies meal worms. Always crix and roaches as well as vegies etc. But I do find that it gets expensive to keep buying crix and roaches by the tub. At around $5.25 per tub, and you are buying around 4 per week, that works out to be a lot of money..

 

[geckodan]

Hi Macka, I don't feed mealworms often to any of my geckoes , mostly due to their poor nutritional value (high fat, low calcium, poorly digestible). I have seen even adult gecks get gut impaction from large meals of mealworms but the occasional one won't hurt particularly if you pick out the white freshly moulted ones. I prefer woodies and crickets and that little guy will tackle an adult roach quite easily. Otherwise moths and hoopers from the garden are a good variation to this diet. For adult gecks I still dust with calcium/D3 every second feed. If you have bought quite a few mealworms they store well in the fridge for about 6 weeks if you sieve out most of the bran and leave them in an open topped container (no lid). If you do this, they won't grow bigger than the size you purchased (I buy mini mealworms by preference) ,they don't turn into beetles or pupae (which are both equally edible but not all things will want to eat them) and more importantly rather than buying multiple small tubs you can buy in bulk and save some money.

 

[macka]

Thanks Dan,

Zeus the gecko is doing really well. He sure has attitude for a gecko.

I have caught a few moths for him and he seemed to enjoy them and I'll give him a mealworm beetle tonight and see what happens. I hadn't thought about calcium/D3 so I'll buy some. I'm going to set up speckled feeder roaches as per instructions on Herp shop.

Thanks again for Zeus.

Mack.