Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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

>>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

I use non medicated chicken crumble. Or layers crumble. Full of good stuff for them. Works for super worms to
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www.hybridhaven.net

ok but can you tell me if what im using is ok/bad/good for my animals?

I'm not a mealworm expert, but I raised superworms for a while.
The big guys usually pack them in some kind of bran. (In your case, oat bran sounds fine, they can chew their own food.)
Just keep it dry so it doesn't mold, and keep a few veggie slices on top for water content.
Superworms, in my opinion are a little less demanding than mealies, my superworms lived fine on a diet of substrate from my box turtle, which was mostly peat moss.
When I was a kid and I ran low on superworms, (I lived on a farm.) I would just wait until midnight, and go in the grainary (Grain on the floor.) and sweep the floor into a dustpan. That would be a few thousand adult beetles. That would supercharge my colony.
During the day you's maybe see 1 or 2, but at night the floor was covered with 'em.
If they can live on cracked corn dust, they can certainly live on rolled oats.

Can they survive yes. But the things are like little vitamin pills. The better you feed them the better they are for your animals. The chick starter or layers crumble. Has alot of nutrients that are not in plain oats. I have raised them on Chick starter. I have raised superworms on peat moss and also chick starters. The ones on the Chick starter always seemed larger and grew bigger.
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www.hybridhaven.net

ok i will definiately look into that stuff

but can you tell me if i have other options available to me?

I use wheat germ ($0.40 per lb at the feed store) and ground up "Flockraiser" poultry food. I've also used mainly wheat germ and they seem to grow fine but I imagine they are more nutritious with other types of feed added.

I've heard of people using rolled oats, ground up cheerios, pretty much any kind of dry grain product. For gut-loading Ive heard of people adding dry milk, fish food, and of course fresh greens and vegetables and fruit. Powdered rodent lab block at the bottom of the bag is always added to my mealworms or fed to the dubia roaches.