Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone tried this? Is it adequate bedding?

How long is their gestation period..I couldn't find anything.

I keep them on regular oatmeal, and throw in a couple potatoes face down. If you keep them in the fridge, they grow slowly and are sluggish in there. Granted if you have a bunch this is the way to go since you would not want a bunch of beetles. I keep mine in the basement so they will grow a lot faster and become huge. I only get 300 at a time so they go pretty quick.

Right on, same thing i've got going then, except they're in my toasty garage with the crickets. How long do the beetles take to make their lil eggs?

Ha looks like we're both up. The beetles will start breeding and laying eggs at around a week. Sometimes two.

I got the same thing going. Mealworms on oats. Add some carrots and potato and you get some pretty fat juicy mealworms! Actually it's surprising how much of a difference you get if you take the time to gut load mealworms this way as opposed to using them out of the store container.

I put the carrots in a low rimmed lid that the mealworms can easily climb over. Heard it helps to keep both carrot and oats free of mold.

I let them grow into beetles but I'm trying to create a self-sustaining population. My 3 leos are reasonably sized such that I can feed them the larger mealworms, so that helps put a cap on the number of beetles I'm stuck with.

I got it started with about 500 mealworms and then as they were beginning to pupate I bought another 100 small mealworms to kinda spread out the population. If they make it to the pupae stage then I figure they're the lucky ones. Probably have about 50 beetles at this point. I would guess that's more than enough for future generations.

Still going through them pretty fast (3 x 5 mealworms = 15 per day) so we'll see what it takes to create a stable population. Can't imagine it'd be too hard given that insects make rabbits look like prudes.

For sure. So you're not supposed to put the food directly on the substrate? THat's what i've been doing.

I do, it is easy for them to get to. If you don't want to worry about mold, like the person above said, put it on a small lid or dish.

I keep my mealworms on oats and chicken laying mash, I feed them carrots, greens and potatoes. I have egg crates in their container and I put the wet food on top of the egg crates. I have more problems with moisture if I do not have a thick layer of some grains on the bottom no matter if I fed them or not. I go thru over 5000 mealworms a week, 4000 crickets, 1000 supers and 500 waxworms plus I just started( 2 months ago) raising Roaches. I have Dubia, Lobster and Hissers. My problem is sometimes I run out of food and I go into the mealworm breeding container and its hard to get the worms out of the grain. So I was wondering how others do it. I do not store mine in the fridge because I go thru so many but maybe I should and take some out every other day, feed them(gutload) and then feed off but still have the ones breeding in the breeding container. I would really be interested in how others do it. I hope this helps some and I certainly hope I can get other ideas as well. Thanks, Deb

-----
SACRED CREATURES~
www.sacredcreatures.com
sacredpurr@yahoo.com

BEARDIES: 8.12.25
MYST- Hypo Red x Yellow Sandfire Female Juvy, PYRO-Red Flaming Tiger x Orange German Giant Male, KAI-German Giant x Orange German Giant Male,SKYLA-German Giant x German Giant Pastel Female, VOODOO-Yellow Red Desert Male, BANSHEE-Orange Sandfire Female, PUFF-Citrus x Red Flamming Tiger/Orange Sandfire Male, CERA-Citrus x Sunburst Female,
MOON- Snow x Hypo Female, JEWEL-Yellow Sandfire x Orange Sandfire- Female,ACE-Sundial Coral x Snow Male,JACE-Yellow sandfire x Orange sandfire Male, SUNDRA Sunrise x Red/Gold Sandfire Female, NITRO(Stubbs)-German Giant x GG Pastel- Female, SEDONA-Blood x Red/Orange Sandfire Female,
FLURRY- Snow Female, JINX- Snow x Patternless Pastel x Hypo Orange male,JAZZ- Snow x Patternless Pastel x Hypo Orange female, JET- Snow x Patternless Pastel x Hypo Orange male, JOKER- Snow x Patternless Pastel x Hypo Orange female.

CRESTED GECKOS 1.1.2
1.0 WARRIOR- Dark Harley Part Pin, Dalmation, Full Fringe,
0.1 SUEY- Orange Tiger Dalmation, 0.0.1 RA- Rust Flame, Part Pinstriping, Full Fringe, 0.0.1 WICKET- Yellow Tiger.

FAT TAIL GECKOS 4.8
4 Stripes, 2 Normal, 4 Het Armel, 2 Het Albino

LEOPARD GECKOS 5.18.45
INDIA-SHTCTB Female, SIRIUS-Tremper Albino Male, BLOSSOM- Patternless Tremper Albino Female(Animal Dreams),BLAZE- Jungle Bandit Female (Bruckman's Reptiles), BASIL-High Yellow Jungle Leo Female(Bruckman's), EBONY-Dark Phase Normal Female, SNOWFLAKE-Line bred snow Female, TWISTER-HQ Red Stripe Leo Male, SWAZYE-HQ Red Stripe Bold Jungle Leo Female(Hot Geckos), ECLIPSE-HQ Red Stripe Bold Jungle Leo Female(Hot Geckos), AYESHA-Outcross JMG x HQ Red Stripe Female(Hot Geckos), SUNSPOT-High Yellow Leo Female(Bruckman's Reptiles), PHOENIX-SHTCTB Male(Hot Geckos), CAJUN-SHTB Leo Female(Hot Geckos), CALYPSO-SH Leo Female,
ORION- HT Leo Female, ARIES- Rainwater Albino Leo Female(Hot Geckos), ARWEN Rainwater Jungle Albino Leo Male ( Hot Geckos), MIRAGE- Rainwater Spotted Jungle Albino Leo Female(Our Breeding),ICE- Blizzard Leo Female(Bruckmans Reptiles), WINTER- Blizzard Leo Female (Bruckmans Reptiles), BIJOU- SHT Leo Female( Our Breeding)
SHIVER-Banana Blizzard Leo Male(Bruckman's Reptiles)

TORTS 1.1
VELVET-Leopard Tortoise 2 years old male
ISIS- Blond Leopard Tortoise 16 mos old female

BALL PYTHONS 4.3
Stripe Male 05,Black Back Female 05,Het Pied Male 05, Axanthic Female 03,Reduced with Blushing Female 03, Chocolate Reduced Male 04, Banded Male 04

TARANTULA'S
1 Mexican Red Knee "Red",1 Brazilian Striped Knee "Gremlin"
1 Chilean Rose Hair "Rosey",1 Guyana Pink Toe "Pinky",
1 Chaco Golden Knee "Goldielocks", 1 Curly Hair "Curlie Q".

EXOTIC ROACHES
Lobsters,Orange Headed,Orange Spotted,Hissers

FURRY PETS:
2.1 German Shepherds
4.2 Chinchilla's, 0.1 Easter Grey Squirrel, 1.0 Hedgehog, 0.1 Ferret, 5.8.13 Dumbo Rats( Rex,Siamese and Hairless)0.1 Hairless Normal Rat, 1.2.8 Hamsters, Many Manx cats.

Wow!!! That's one heck of a grocery store for reptiles!!!

I was thinking about the problem a bit. One of the issues I have is that getting rid of old substrate. Kinda turns into dust and I've kept adding more rolled oats on top. Without removing the old this makes for an ever deepening layer of substrate and also makes it hard to find the mealworms/pupae.

I'm thinking that one could create some sort of filter screen to sift out the dust-like old substrate while leaving the mealworms, pupae, and new substrate on top of the screen. Haven't tried it yet but it might make it easier to find the little buggers when you want to.

That way you could keep the little buggers in a substrate where they'd be fairly obvious without much trouble finding them.

Also, this might be good for separating mealworms from their substrate in those containers you buy from the pet store. Depends on the size of the particles in the substrate.

Only trouble I imagine is that you may be throwing out a small percentage of baby mealworms with every cleaning if they're small enough to get through the screen.

Just an idea.

N.F.

I've used oatmeal in the past, and no one complained

Now I use cornmeal. With the meal, you can use a "flour sifter" to sift the mealies out of the meal. Makes it easy to get them. I use to have dig them out of the oats by hand. A real pain when you're trying to get 40 or 50 at a time...

I've heard oat bran or wheat bran recomended in the past, but so far I haven't found a good source for it...

Keep the mealies warm, and only the amount of food they will eat in a few hours, and you will have tons in no time.

BTW, I keep them in a few sweater size rubbermaid containers.

Good luck,
Indiana_Dan