Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i didnt know if this was the best location to post but since own a leo and nothing else;

what substrate do you use for your mealies? ive always bought form the petstore which included a substrate already in the container but i never asked

and now i just got a shipment of 1000 mealworms that came in newspaper. i know they cant be kept on that but is using quaker instant oatmeal ok? i looked at the ingredients and it said 100% quality quick rolled oats.

thanks guys

When you buy packaged tubs, typically the bedding is bran with a little bit of baker's yeast.

They'll eat almost any grain. In a plastic shoebox size container usually mix oatmeal and bran, half and half, until it is about an inch thick, then toss in a tablespoon or so of baker's yeast. The yeast gives them some protein. Then, once or twice a month, I give them a carrot.

Regarding the carrot, they will devour it fast but don't be tempted to give them more immediately. The bedding MUST dry out. If there is too much moisture, you will create a breeding ground for book mites. Book mites are all over the world and there's no way to avoid them. But you can keep your mealworm's bedding dryer and not create an ideal place for book mites to take over.

but my quaker oatmeal should be able to keep them alive right?

is an apple as good or better or worse than a carrot slice?

Yes, any oatmeal will do.

And an apple is just as good as a carrot for occasional moisture. As far as mealworm nutrition, I don't know if one is better than another but it's probably not a significant difference anyway.

ok thank you so much

I wanted to share with you how I kept mealworms going when I had 20-some leos.

I used one of those plastic 3-drawer units. The whole thing was a little bigger than a one foot cube, square. One drawer was my feeding drawer, the next a growing drawer and the last, the beetle drawer.

Each (or every other) day when I'd feed the leos it only took a few moments to look for pupae. When I'd see them, move them to the "beetle" drawer.

Once I'd start to see young mealies in "beetle" drawer, that would become the "growing" drawer. They look like little pieces of orange sewing thread against the oatmeal. Then, I'd make a new "beetle" drawer, starting with the leftover live ones from the last beetle drawer.

Occasionally, I'd run a little low and need to add a 500 cup to my feeding drawer but for the most part, it did well. (And sometimes for space, and/or bedding usage, I'd dump the feeding and growing drawers together.) Keep in mind that I had at least 20 leos, but for 10 or 15 it probably would have been sufficient.

I already explained how to mix the bedding and you'll really only need to do a fresh batch when you set up each beetle drawer. You'll figure out how much works best to get them through without having to keep adding more...but remember to always keep the drawers open about an inch for air circulation!!

wow thats informational!

hey i wanted to ask a question however

i noticed that mealworm pupae look like some larva of other insects and one day i had found one (at the time i didnt know it was a pupae), it was seeminly soft-bodied and i fed it to my leo.

are they edible?

hehe at the time i thought it was a mistake phoenix worm put into my mealworm cup

Sure, they're edible...but most leos don't like them, probably because they're a bit jagged on the outside and they don't wiggle like worms or caterpillars.

Good luck getting your mealworms going. Remember to be patient. The first couple months are the worst because they grow so slowly and are so small that it looks like nothing is happening...then suddenly, you've got tons.