Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got a thousand mealworms and I figured since I have them I might as well take a shot at breeding them. I went to my local grocery store and they don't exactly specialize in mealworm food. I had to go to an organic food store to find anything even close to useful. I got Wheat bran, a mixed ten grain with oat bran, wheat corn and other stuff, and a bag of whole wheat flour. I figure I will mix this all together and put in calcium enriched cricket gutload. This should be plenty I hope? I would hate to have to order mealworm bedding and gutload because shipping is too expensive when I can get all this for around five bucks. Anything else I should add?

Are you feeding them anything other than oats/wheat/bran? They don't provide many of the vitamins/minerals required for a healthy gutload. I feed mine the same mixture I feed my crickets (I'm assuming you have crickets also)...here's a good gutload mix that you can ground up and refrigerate for 1 WEEK AT THE MOST, or freeze for up to 3 months..
1 bag DRY MILK (Vit. D, calcium, iron)
1 cup SUNFLOWER SEEDS (Vit. E)
1 box PABLUM (rice baby cereal) (iron, calcium, phosphorus, Vit. B1, Vit. B2, niacin)
1/3 cup SPIRULINA (Vit. B1,Vit. B5,Vit. B6,Vit. B12,Vit. E, beta-carotene, iron, chlorophyll, amino acids)
3/4cup RAW BEE POLLEN (Vit.B1,Vit. B2,Vit. B3,Vit. B6,Vit. B12, folic acid,Vit. C,Vit. D,Vit. E,Vit. K, minerals)
1 cup WHEAT GERM (Vit. E)
1 cup ALFALFA LEAF TABLETS (Vit. A,Vit. B6,Vit. E,Vit. K, enzymes)
1/2 cup DRIED SEA KELP (iodine)
1 DRIED EGG YOLK
1/2 cup DRIED HIGH PROTEIN KITTY FOOD
*Fruits and veggies on occasion are great as well, just be sure to avoid spinach and broccoli as these are calcium binders, and acidic/citrus fruits should definitely not be used (oranges, lemons, etc) because these will cause diarrhea.