Reptile & Amphibian Forums

WOW was that a great smell to wake up to in the morning as useal im up at like 6:30am going to feed the geckos. So I put all my medium sized geckos in the large rubbermaid as useal. I dont keep my mealworms in the fridge for the simple fact I have about 4-5000 and the rubbermaid wont fit in the fridge. So I open the mealworm container and WOOOWWWW!!!! Most horrid rotten vegetable type smell I have everrrrrr smelt! But I dont realy get it I feed the worms about every 4-5days And never leave the food items in there for more then a couple hours. Where is this smell coming from.. I keep them in Oldstyle Oatmeal. It was cool this mornin so I put them outside in the shade for alittle bit to air out. What is it just time to change the bedding? Any ideas how to get 5000 worms out of a pile of oatmeal? ALSO, some of you guys who breed geckos id appreciate if you could post some pics of your breeder enclosures so I can play copy cat thanks!!
Jason
1.2 Adult Breeder Leopard geckos (Male Rainwater Albino, both females Hi-Yellow)
1.0 Sub adult Leucistic/Patternless Leopard Gecko
0.2 Sub adult Hi-Yellow Leopard Geckos
0.1 Sub Adult Rainwater Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Sub Adult Hypo Tangerine Leopard Gecko (starting to show carrottail)
0.0.1 Baby Super Hypo Tangerine Carrotail Leopard Gecko
0.0.2 Baby Blizzard Leopard Geckos
0.0.1 Baby Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Baby Striped/Jungle Leopard Gecko
0.0.2 Baby Hi-Yellow Leopard Geckos
0.0.1 Baby Leucistic/Patternless Leopard Gecko

and to think, we feed those nasty things to our geckos!

just breath thru your mouth, u won't smell a thing.
that is just an occupational trick i learned a long time ago ( i am a dental assistant)

seriously, i think mealies are going to have somewhat of an odor no matter what u use for bedding or how clean you keep it. perhaps you could use a colindar to seperate the worms. with the size of oatmeal, it might be hard to find one tho.

i am keeping my mealies in chicken starter, cornmeal, and over-the counter cricket gut load. on occasion i add other things to the mix. i do feed slices of carrot about every other day or so.
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Lizards

0.8.0 leopard geckos - mango, noodle, jaws, mosin-"nagant", sobe, libby, sonora, & "zin"fandel
0.1 bearded dragon - sydney
0.1 king snake & 0.2.3 corn snakes
1 red eye tree frogs, 3 green tree frogs, 2 firebelly toads
5 anoles,6.0 bettas & numerous tropicals
1.1 cockatiels (dilly, mrs.pudd), 1.0.2 bantam chics (crele old english rooster & golden laced cochins )
1.2 dogs (dachshund-pepper, brittany spaniel-jenni, lab-kaci)
1 hubby & 2 boys

www.skayart.com

I just found it unusual because I bought them a few weeks ago and this is the 1st sign of smell and I checked on them last night and there was no smell it was a all of a sudden thing. It's hard to find a strainer that the oatmeal will go threw and the worms wont not to mention I have medium, large, and giants all mixed together. I have come to conclusion that I thing opening and closeing it so much gives to much air/moisture and they basically just got nasty. They are all alive and everything just smell REEK!!!! Im going to end up changeing the oatmeal tonight and put them in something else so I can disinfect the container. It wouldnt hurt to make a mixture of subtrates for the worms would it?
Jason
1.2 Adult Breeder Leopard geckos (Male Rainwater Albino, both females Hi-Yellow)
1.0 Sub adult Leucistic/Patternless Leopard Gecko
0.2 Sub adult Hi-Yellow Leopard Geckos
0.1 Sub Adult Rainwater Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Sub Adult Hypo Tangerine Leopard Gecko (starting to show carrottail)
0.0.1 Baby Super Hypo Tangerine Carrotail Leopard Gecko
0.0.2 Baby Blizzard Leopard Geckos
0.0.1 Baby Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Baby Striped/Jungle Leopard Gecko
0.0.2 Baby Hi-Yellow Leopard Geckos
0.0.1 Baby Leucistic/Patternless Leopard Gecko

mealworms normally don't smell...it's probably the substrate...which could be bad. If the substrate has gotten moldy at all you're probably going to need to toss all the worms to avoid getting your animals ill.
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

...although sometimes whatever you use as substrate can just smell bad if it gets any moisture in it...even if it doesn't mold...in which case just change the substrate.
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

I’d suggest leaving the lid off of your mealie container. It sounds to me like they are not getting enough airflow. I had a similar situation last year, where I feed the worms and put the lid on the container, by the next day ½ the worms where black and dieing, stunk something horrible. Ever since I’ve just left the lid off. Hope this helps,

DaveCable

Here are pics of my blizzard pair, and their setup: