Gutloadingh mealworms ?

[Hallucinogen]

Does anyone know how to gutload mealworms ? if its even neccesary ?

[Dani33]

Yup, I believe it is. Here's a good guide - http://www.drgecko.com/insectdiet.htm

[Reptile Kings]

Gutloading any type of feeder is necessary. For mealies I just gutload them with chicken mash found at a near farm feed store. As a water source I provide them with Fluker's Cricket Quenchers, works great.
-Sam

[LISA127]

I use a multi grain hot cereal by quaker. It has oats, rolled rye, barley and wheat in it. For moisture I add carrots and leafy greans. I also add a small amount of powdered calcium to the multi grain mixture. And sometimes I crush up a monkey biscuit and add that too.

[Hallucinogen]

So how do I go about gutloading mealies ???
Do I put them in a box ? then what ? can someone give me step by step, thanks.

[Dani33]

I keep mine in small rubbermaids. You don't need a top. I use something similar to what's used in the website that I posted above. I use this mix a substrate. I throw in fresh greens, veggies, fruit. What ever I have laying around. I put in new stuff daily and take out anything old. I also remove any dead ones and molted skins. Very easy to keep.

[Slannesh]

That's pretty much what I do as well... Carrots for moisture and the mix from the Dr Gecko site.

Now if only I could convince my Leos that they really like mealworms instead of mostly crickets :)

[crazyboy]

i keeep mine ina rubbermaid with rolled oats, wheat grain, and fish flakes as substrate i also put in a carrot every couple days.

[nimrodfiftyfour]

Go to IFA and get some high calcium high protie chick mesh, put in some fresh greens and carrots and I use oranges for a water source. Heres a little tip from a long time marine aquarist. Go to your nearest asian food market and pick up nori algae. Its what they wrap sushi in. Its some of the nutritionally best green vegetaion on there. awesome stuff!

[dave68]

you can almost treat them like a compost, they come in handy, as you never have to throw veggie/fruit scraps out.

[Linds]

I keep/breed my mealies in a substrate of: wheat germ, spirulina fish flakes, oat bran, red bran, white bran, 12 grain mix, rolled oats, rye flakes, dog food dust, powdered milk, pablum (mixed fruit type) and provide them with nutritious fruits and veggies, and leafy greens for moisture. I try to steer away from carrots, potato, and apple since these don't contain much nutrition, mostly just sugars, starches, fiber, and moisture. Apparently mealies will devour f/t pinkies fairly quickly, although I've never given mine any so I can't say for certain.

Originally posted by Reptile Kings
Gutloading any type of feeder is necessary.

Gutloading is only necessary when dealing with feeder insects, whole prey items such as rodents do not need to be gutloaded so long as they have been provided with a complete diet and aren't suffering from any deficiencies themselves.

For mealies I just gutload them with chicken mash found at a near farm feed store. As a water source I provide them with Fluker's Cricket Quenchers, works great.


As far as I know chicken mash contains all sort of synthetic vitamins, hormones, and other indesirable additives. I recall hearing somewhere on this forum though that duck starter didn't contain these :confused:
Not sure if all are like that, but most cricket jelly states that it should not be placed directly in the reptile's cage due to the fact that the reptile may ingest some, leading to problems such as appettite loss. I wouldn't want to be feeding my feeders this, as what goes in to the feeder goes in to the reptile :eek:

[sevenofthorns]

If you get chicken mash meant for layer chickens (eggs for human consumption) there is laws against putting hormones, antibiotics, etc in it. The other kinds of chicken feed could be pumped up with many unwanted things though. I have not heard anything about duck starter though.