Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been feeding crickets to my leos for years. At last week's Daytona show, I bought a leo from Tremper that had been fed mealies.

So I bought some mealworms. The container of mealworms I purchased reads: "Store at 45-55 degrees."

I live in South Florida - its 90 outside, and 72 inside. In the refrigerator, it about 40 or so. So where should I keep the mealies?

I was thinking about purchasing one of those small, portable refrigerators to keep the worms in -- did anyone do this?

With regards to feeding mealies, do they really eat (gutload) when kept cold? I guess I should let then warm up before feeding them to the leos right?

Well, a lot of it depends. Are you going to want to "breed" the mealworm beetles - make a colony so that, eventually, you're not going to have to buy more mealies?

Or would you prefer not to mess with beetles and such and just buy them as you go? In that case, 40 degrees is probably okay - they always survive a trip through my fridge, and I keep it COLD in there. And when they ARE in there, the mealies WILL go Dormant - they'll just lie there until you take them back out and warm them up again. So, no, they won't gutload while they're in there - at least not once the cold's gotten to them.

Honestly, I think the colony is easier because you don't have to worry about whether they're gutloading or not - they live in their gutload and eat and drink as they please. And reproduce.

~~Dusty Windom
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So Many Alleles, So Little Time...!
@
~~The Gecko Barn~~

well... how many did you get, because you'll probably have fed them all to your leo LONG before they mature into beetles....... if you only got like... 40- 60, then room temmp is fine

Hey Yano

Mealies are by far the easiest bug to take care of and feed out. If your fridge is around 40 you may want to check the temps in the door compartments. Normally things are a tad warmer there.

Also I do not think gut load is needed while they are in the fridge as they become pretty much dormant. I keep mine in a rubbermade shoebox filled with rolled oats for two reasons.

1.)In case any of them do eat they eat something good
2.)Mealies are very easy to see against rolled oats.

Every day after I feed 15 or so to each of my geckos I then take the right amount out of the fridge and put them in a small container with gutload in it and a couple of baby carrots. This allows them to gutload for 24 hours before they are fed to my babies.

Meallies metabolism slows down when kept cool, so they stay/live longer with minimal food. But gutload em with lots og health foods. I feed em oats, bird pellets, veggies, mixed up with oyster shell for birds (added calcium), and wheat germ.

BTW, great terrarium. Did u make it yourself? would like to learn. Arent u afraid of the leos falling from the higher tiles?

Thanks for the pointers.

Yes, my wife and I built that enclosure ourselves. We both enjoy the herp hobby, and as you can see, we watch far too many episodes of Monster House.

I am not afraid of the leos "falling" off of the top ledge. It is actually not quite as tall as the picture would indicate. The entire enclosure measures 21 inches high total, from bottom to top.

I have watched them for hours, and they prefer to use the "stairs". Sometimes they hang over the ledge and think about jumping down, but I have never actually seen them jump.

what did you use to make that? it looks great.

-jonathan