Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok. I bought 500 meal worms at petco yesterday with plans on breeding them. Some will get eaten b4 that cuz I will be grabbing mealies for the gex & gliders as I go. But I have a few questions and was hoping someone here could help me out.

first off, is 500 too many to start with? I just have 2 geckos and 2 sugar gliders who will be eating them. the suggies eat 3-5 each every other night. The geckos main food source is crickets but I'd like to eventually change that.

I have them in a small critter keeper. the size is about 7 inches long, by 4 inches wide and 6 inches tall. Filled about an inch with oatmeal, bran muffin mix and tropical fish food flakes- I poured it over little bit of crumpled paper.

So do you think the critter keeper size is ok for the mealies? I understand pupas and bugs go in different containers, but I dont have any of them yet. Just mealies. Also is the food mix ok?

Now for my main question. Some sites say place the potato on a piece of card board so the food/bedding doesn't get wet or damp. Other sites don't say to do this-just to place it on top of the oatmeal. So.. Um, what do I do? What is the best way? Would the mealies find the potato if its on card board? And is potato, carrot or bread the best for a water supply- ya know, least likely to mould? (im assuming red potatoes are ok? thats all I have lol)

OHHHH and.. Im not gonna have hundreds of bugs all at once am I? lol they are sooo gross ew LOL. Should i put 1/2 or more in the fridge?

Any info would be appreciated greatfully

Candi

BTW.. my name was supposed to be werthers_original (the al went somewhere??) lol

500 for a colony will get you a HUGE colony... Assuming your talking about regular mealworms (not superworms). They are small but if they start breeding i'd get a decent sized rubbermaid container... the more area the better... the walls only need to be like 4-5 inches high. Here are a couple links to look at.

http://www.drgecko.com/mealworms/breeding.htm
http://www.icomm.ca/dragon/mealworm.htm
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Later,
WhisQuila

Hello thanks for the links. I think I will put most of the mealies in the fridge. Start small

And yeah, I was talking about just regular mealworms.

Here is a link to a page I made for starting to breed my superworms. I did about the same with the mealies when I started to breed them also. There were 2 differances though ONE I didn't seperate the mealies to morph, I just took out the pupa and placed them into a "shoe box" sized box til they turned into beatles then put them into breeding containers. TWO the mealies produced TONS more... I started with 1200 mealies and with my first batch I had to have had over 10,000. One thing I have changed since then is I use carrots for a water source rather than apples. The carrots donot mold as easily but they also don't last as long as the apples.

Here is my superworm link:
http://www.iaherp.org/superworms/index.html
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1.12 Ball Pyhtons

and where do you get 1,000 empty 35mm film canisters? i don't have any and use a digital camera, can you buy empty canisters?
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groups.msn.com/JEChameleons
0.1 Chameleo Calyptratus
1.1 Furcifer Pardalis (Nosy Be)
1.0 Chameleo Melleri
1.0 Ball Python
0.0.1 Golden Tree Frog
0.0.1 Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon

I started with 1,500 mealworms when i started.. depending on the temperature and what you put them in you will get different growth rates ..

I have gotten the best growth rates using oatmeal( with some multi grain baby cerial). I got the slowest rates with fine meals. Right now i am actually using rolled oats for horses ( super cheap.. although oatmeal is cheap anyways) which i blended a little to open the husks a little more.

I use paper towels on top of the meal for the beatles to hide under and also to lay their eggs on.

I never really pay attention to the temperature for them, but my fiance likes to keep the house at a chilly 65degrees .. although since they are in the laundry room in the summer i am sure it gets up to 80 degrees.

I use potatoe for the veggie, you can really use any type of veggie or fruit as a water source that is fleshy. For a while i used orange fleshed squash ( pumpkin ) since it was in season and sonce i used it to feed other animals. When i prepare any of my veggies i wash them in water that has a drop of Grapefruit Seed Extract in it. Grapefruit Seed Extract is a natural antibacterial that you can get at health food stores or pharmacies ( walmart can order almost anything in if you cant find it anywhere else just to let yah know if you are interested), which i also use to clean our African Greys cage. This keeps the potatoes from molding. They just dry up and the mealworms eat right though the potatoes. i cut mine into slices of 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and plop them in.

I also just use the little "rubbermaid" plasic 3-4 drawered thingys that you can buy at Walmart or Lowes i use the thin small one that can be basically placed any where in the house and hidden.

Don't worry when after a while your mealworms seem to not move as much ... they will turn into these freaky looking almost chrisalis type brown things .. and Black beatles will hatch from those.. those black beatles do eat so still put veggies in.. when i had mine i also put a bottle cap full of veggie salad i use for my iguana and turtle.. which they ate.. its not neccisary for them though.. the beatles can't climb out of the rubbermaid tub and they only get about max 1/2 an inch or so and i never had one bite me ( i don't even think they can )

Once the beatles die you can pull them out or leave them in which ever you choose. i left some in one tank and my mealworms have eaten at them. Once the beatles died i wondered for a long time if i was going to get babys and almost threw them out until i moved a little of the meal and watched closely and could see it moving just a litte .. then i saw them weeeeeee little worms smaller then pencil lead crawling around on the oatmeal. I was estatic!! now my worms are feeding size .. they look very plump compared to the thin ones i had bought originally so they are very healthy.

If when you do do your worms you actually over compensate and choose to let more then just a few breed you will be rewarded by being able to go everytime you look and find atleast a few that are almost pure white. Those little mealies have just shed their exo skeletons. i know atleast for turtles to many mealies can cause blockages, but the lighter mealies are softer and less likely to cause blockages.