Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am going to be ordering some mealworms online soon and i want to make sure i get the right thing. What kind of mealworms do most of you feed to your leo? Giant mealworms or just normal large mealworms? Also, has anyone ever ordered from http://www.millbrookcrickets.com/ before? If so, what was your experience with them. Thanks again everybody.

Rob Woods

i only feed regular mealworms or superworms to my leos...NEVER giant mealworms. giant mealworms are regular mealworms that have been given growth hormones to increase their size...that can't be good for a leo. Just go with the regular mealies or if you want, superworms (giants and supers ARE different).

Cleo

actually, giant mealworms are feed a hormone, but it is not harmful to leos, or any worm eating animals, at all. the hormone they are feed is one that they naturally make, all it does is keep them from pupating, so they grow longer and therefore larger. if you want to feed giant mealworms go for it, supers go for it, regular go for it. i do regular mealworms because im to lazy to breed supers and i cannot breed giants.
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eventually with out the hormone they do pupate and turn to beetles. i COULD breed them if i had that hormone, but i dont see a need to when i can just feed regular mealworms that are much simpler to breed.
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your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it, and you'll ask yourself, "where is my mind"

if you have AIM, IM me at chichandoCONrosa

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I would go with regular mealies or supers not giants. Granted people say that giants are still ok even though they are given a growth hormone and it wont hurt your leo. Im sure that Iluvblackfrancis and I heard this from the same company. A breeder told me this after I had to call him about a leo that I bought from him that was sick. He told me that he feeds all his leos from a month old Giant Mealworms and that they are great to feed them. He also told me a lof of other crap. From my time I talked to him, I dont believe anythign he says at all and I have talked to MANY different breeders that have said not to use Giants. I will believe them anytime over a man and company that sales animals that were injured and stressed in a plane trip and knocked around and decided not to tell people buying from him about it. Thats why I dont believe that Giants are great to feed leos.
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2 male leos: Winky HY & Lenny TangCT & 4 Female Leos: Sunshine Super tang, Serenity Tremper HY Jungle Albino, Skittle Hypo-Golden, and Banana Patternless.

i trust Brice, he never came off to me dishonest about anything. he is even going to trade me the male i bought from him with the bent leg, for a "healthier" male. the female i bought from him did the wabbling for a bit, but both always ate and now the female is perfect. he really seems to care about his animals. and the info about the hormone they are feed not being harmful came from him, AND rainbow mealworms.
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your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it, and you'll ask yourself, "where is my mind"

if you have AIM, IM me at chichandoCONrosa

Why havent u sent him the male back yet? Its been a few months?
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2 male leos: Winky HY & Lenny TangCT & 4 Female Leos: Sunshine Super tang, Serenity Tremper HY Jungle Albino, Skittle Hypo-Golden, and Banana Patternless.

im gonna trade him at the october IRBA show. He said he wont be there, but other people that work for him will.
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your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it, and you'll ask yourself, "where is my mind"

if you have AIM, IM me at chichandoCONrosa

The hormone that prevents the giant mealworms from pupating into adults is called JH--juvenile hormone. The regular mealworms already produce this hormone. Any insect larva produces this hormone. It's only when they no longer produce this hormone that they pupate into adults. So what breeders do is continue supplying the hormone so the mealworms molt into an extra larval stage instead of molting into adults.

People hear the words "growth hormone" and instantly think it's something bad, but JH is natural. Plants have evolved chemical defenses against bugs by emitting JH (or JH mimics) to stunt the propagation of plant-chewing insects. In fact, how they even discovered JH was from a lab where the insects kept molting into an extra larval stage. Instead of molting into adults as planned in their studies, they just molted into super-sized larvae and then died. The people conducting the lab couldn't figure out why, until finally somebody figured out it was because the paper towels they'd been using for substrate were made of Australian pine trees that produce JH.

I don't know all this from a breeder. I learned it in a college biology course.
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