Waxworms? or Mealworms? or Superworms?

[Reptiles4ever]

Which would be the best snack for a beardie. Or which would be the most nutrious?

[Jawz]

well lets see, waxworms are coined "leopard gecko crack" but have the softest shell, mealworms have alot of chitin thats hard to digest, superworms are a little on fatty side and have less chitin than mealworms.

So id say superworms, but silkworms are the best kinda worm around, not fatty, high protein and calcium, and are said to be better than crix.

[Edwin]

I would go with superworms as the main staple, and throw in mealworms, crickets, silkworms, waxworms etc. every now and then.

This brings a bit of variety to your beardie's menu, and protects your animal from the potential risks involved with monotonous nutrition.

Search around the forums, someone posted a great link on the nutritional information of various feeder insects. Just remember that the nutritional value of feeder insects primarily come from what you gut load them with, not what they are.

Hope this helps!

[ChristinaM]

Waxworms: high in fat. Feed sparingly. Treat food :)

Mealworms: lots of chitin, hard to digest....feed freshly molted ones( white ones ) if you want to feed mealies.

Superworms: less chitin, nutritionally comparable to crickets. A good worm. Can be used as a staple instead of crickets.


This is the order of nutritional value for common beardie yums.(the ones I've researched and used)

starting off with the best

silkworms and butterworms
superworms
crickets
mealies
wax.


beardies love variety :)
Silkies and butters, because they are so high in protein and calcium are not the best for a staple ( as in every day feeding for young dragons), but are fine for the older dragons who get bugs 2-3 times a week.

For the younger ones, stick with the majority of crix or supers(depending on the size of your dragon) and add in the butters or silks throughout the week but not every feed.

HTH.

[LISA127]

I don't know if anyone will know the answer to this but....

One superworm is equal to about how many crickets or mealworms?

[Siretsap]

Depends on what you feed your crickets or superworms or mealworms. As for silkworms, they lack certain nutriments since they only eat mulburry leaves... I still don't think they are of much greater value than a well fed nutricious cricket.

[ChristinaM]

Originally posted by Siretsap
As for silkworms, they lack certain nutriments since they only eat mulburry leaves... I still don't think they are of much greater value than a well fed nutricious cricket.

I, respectfully, disagree on this one.
Silkworms surpass crickets in both protein and calcium, 2 of the main needs of dragons.

silk vs cricket nutritional analysis (http://www.silkworm-supplies.co.uk/nutri00.html)

The values speak for themselves :)
This is JMHO tho.

I do agree tho, a well gutloaded cricket is pretty good in nutritional value. But....even then, they don't surpass the silks.