Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Crickets can carry worms that can infect a gecko, can the same happen with mealworms or waxworms? And how do you tell that your gecko has worms?????? are they visible in the feces?

Thanks,
Red
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas

they can if they get loose in the tank and eat feces of infected animals, but I don't think they tend to carry any parasites when raised and kept under normal conditions, or how you would buy from a supplier.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Thankyou

I usually buy my mealworms from an exotic animal store, they are getting me in a shipment of 1000 mealworms next week. But the past few times i've bought some from the Petsmart near by. One container i got from there had *older* mealworms and half were already pupating into beetles. I transfered them to my beetle box and well.......i should have alot of baby mealworms soon.
(((i still don't know why the powdered milk created so much moisture that it killed my colony)))

Two more things......how many eggs does a pair of beetles produce at a time, and how long does it take for the worms to show up? Or do you know of a book i could buy with info on them? I have about 20 beetles right now.

Also, which mealworms are the genetically engenerred ones? Kingworms? I got 24 *large mealworms* from the exotic store to feed to Boo instead of filling his dish with 30 plus small mealworms, i just give him a few of the larger ones and he seems happy. The person said she breeds these ones, so does that mean that the enginerred ones can't breed?

Thanks
Red
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas

I don't know how many eggs off hand. Several hundred per pair I think, but am not sure.

As I understand it Giant Mealworms are not genetic, they are fed steroids, growth hormone, something lke that that makes them grow big. I have never fed these too my animals and don't plan to, I don't trust in the safety.

Superworms, on the other hand, the really big ones with darker chitin, are a different species (tenebrius molitor? Something like that).
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

What is chitin? The large worms i have are very very dark looking. Is there any way for sure to know what exactly i have? Anyone have comparison pics? These ones were marketed as Large mealworms, nothing more so i have no clue. Yikes now i'm worried.

Thanks for getting back to me
Red
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas

Superworms (zophobas) are shiny. Chitin refers to their hard exoskeleton. They've got more of a color variance starting with their back heads going to a lighter tan-colored tail. They measure about 2 inches, but some of the smaller ones they sell at petstores are 1.5 and usually very dark brown.

Mealworms are the tenebrio molitor species. Giant mealworms look just like bigger versions of the mealworms, including the dull tan color throughout their body. They're about 1.5", smaller than the superworms but significantly bigger than even the bigger mealworms. They're not fed steroids, but the JH hormone. I can go into a long story about that, but I'll hold off. Basically, it wouldn't hurt your leo. But given the alternatives, I'd go with superworms or mealworms instead.
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chickabowwow

Hi,
I read your post then went and looked at them again hehehe. They don't really look like mealworms at all....they're darker and huge. I'll keep feeding these ones (only got 24 of them) but in the mean time i'm going to look for a place i can get all my feeder insects from.

Thanks again
Red
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas