Breeding and feeding meal worms - Page 2

Linds · 06-25-03, 10:06 AM

An awesome place to find substrate ingredients real cheap is at the Bulk Barn

I don't know if you guys have it down there... maybe its just a Canadian thing, but if you do its worth checking out

drewlowe · 06-25-03, 10:10 AM

nope nothing like that around me that i know of. I'm going to try to find a feed store cause i spend 20.00 yesturday on all the stuff i bought.

Is powder (condenced milk) ok to feed the mealies. thats the only thing i'm uncerten of.

Linds · 06-25-03, 10:43 AM

Powdered milk is fine

I don't use it personally, but have spoken with many people that do.

Edwin · 06-25-03, 12:34 PM

I mix in some powder milk and fish flakes on my mealie's substrate. Works well so far. Also, I buy most of my stuff from Bulk Barn, it is the cheapest place to go, and they have most of the items I need. For certain items, you could try health food stores, but they are really expensive, and it is difficult to buy small quantities. For example, I got really weird looks when I ask for a small amount of bee pollen and dried sea kelp.

Bartman · 06-25-03, 12:57 PM

i have not tried this yet but someone on this site explained to me that you must take around 10 king mealies out and put them into a rubbermaid. Than you are suppossed to put a lot of oatmeal or the stuff that i get when i buy them from a store. Fill it really high so they can burrow and they will eventually become cacoon type things and you take them out and when the beatles hatch you need to place a piece of cardboard in the new rubbermaid. Than feed the beatles the same diet and they will breed and lay eggs in the cardboard. I dont know if this will work but it sounds like what everyone else has been saying and this guy, who i dont remember, sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

good luck...i think im gonna try it my self soon so if you do it now tell me how it turns out

Bartman

drewlowe · 06-25-03, 03:30 PM

sorry i forgot about this question what do their temps need to be at. right now i have it at room temp (which happens to be the basement cause i live in the basement) which is around the lower to mid 70's. Is that ok???

Linds · 06-25-03, 03:41 PM

They will be fine at that temp, but their production will be a fair bit slower than if they were kept at temps in the low-to-mid 80's.

drewlowe · 06-25-03, 03:45 PM

ok i started with 600 mealies should i go get more that way i can still feed my leos some gut loaded mealies without having to diminish the ones i have in there already. Maybe like 1000 more or would that be too many. currently i have 8 leos that are loving the mealies. But i don't want to go to far overboard.

Linds · 06-25-03, 03:51 PM

Even at 85 degrees, my mealies took months to become even semi-established. I would definitely keep a bit of a surplus for use as food, in addition to the breeders. However they will pupate after a few weeks, so don't get anymore extra than you would use in 2 weeks I would say to be safe. You may want to keep your feeder mealies in an even cooler place in your basement to slow down the cycle so they stay mealies longer

drewlowe · 06-25-03, 03:53 PM

thanks for all the info linds.
i appreciate all your help. and i'm sure my geckos will too.

Linds · 06-26-03, 06:37 AM

No problem

Good luck with your mealie project

Pookie · 06-26-03, 07:00 AM

after reading all of this, i'm inspired to start my own mealie colony! I'm feeding a cham (who eats like a pig) and 2 leo geckos. What size container did you say to use? And what do i do if the colony's population gets out of control?

Do you think it's really worth it to breed these little "buggers"? Or is it the same price to just buy them?

drewlowe · 06-26-03, 07:42 AM

i have them in a 2 feet long 1 foot wide, and 1 1/2 foot tall stackable container thing that was $2.00 it cost me then their food cost about $20.00 and 600 mealies cost me a little over $7.00 and i just ordered 1000 more mealies that cost me$7.00. but i belive that food will last quite awhile.

If this gets out of hand i will just give some away to some of my friends that have leos. i'm sure they will apprciate that.

I also think i will save some money doing it myself. I usually go through a case of crickets every week to week and a half. now i may only have to order crickets once a month with me breeding my own mealies. i figured it out to be around $40.00-$60.00 savings a month. and now even more since its breeding time.

Edwin · 06-26-03, 09:09 AM

Well, since I started breeding mealies, I have stopped buying them almost entirely. They are so easy to breed and maintain, unlike other feeder insects.

Linds · 06-26-03, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Edwin
Well, since I started breeding mealies, I have stopped buying them almost entirely. They are so easy to breed and maintain, unlike other feeder insects.

Couldn't agree more....... if only superworms were as simple to breed