[Guest]

Does anyone have any input on mini or black meal worms? Are they good for emegency use only or is alright to feed them as a regular staple food? I know with other critters you can run into problems with impaction from the shells of standard meals but the "superworms" are fairly soft body and don't poise as much of a problem. Just curious of other peoples experience.

 

[Arklier]

I raise them. It's my personal opinion that impaction is overrated as a danger for herps in general. I feed them out along with springtails when my FF colonies aren't quite up to speed. They don't just sit there like regular mealworms, they are very active which catches the frogs' attention.

 

[Ryan]

I think all pet store food is bad though, i breed mealworms and they are non stop moving, but when you compare them to store bought its amazing the difference.

Ryan

 

[Arklier]

I did not buy mine from a pet store. I got them off ebay. I've bred regular mealworms before, and there's no contest. These guys are much more active. This is the seller I got them from:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2383841976&category=1285

 

[Guest]

I'm game, can you describe breeding?

Joe

 

[Arklier]

Same as normal mealworms. Get a plastic shoe box ($1.99 most places) and some wheat bran ($0.40 per pound here). Add bran and minis to box, and toss in some veggies for moisture every now and then.

 

[Guest]

Do these turn into beetles or moths?

joe

 

[Arklier]

They are Tenibrio obscurus. Normal mealworms are Tenibrio molitor. They both change into beetles.

 

[Guest]

How have your frogs taken to them?

Anyone try them on P. Auteranias? Mine don't seem very attracted to CFB larvae.

I'm sure my tincs will enjoy them if I feed off the smaller ones.

Joe

 

[Arklier]

My leucs love them, my azureus aren't so sure, but that could be because the leucs are on white paper towels, and the azureus are on dirt. The mealworms are dark, so they're harder to see, I guess.

 

[Guest]

Well, they have a lot more exoskeleton than flour beelte larvae, but the auteranias love them. The tincs arent' too sure. One of the larger tincs ate three or four of them but the others didn't seem to want to try them.

Funny story (to me anyway). My auteranias are basically like my tincs, they'll eat out of my hands. Well to test the new worms I tried to feed one of the frogs sitting on a brom leaf, well I dropped the stupid worm down into the axil water where I couldn't see it. No prob, the auterania chased right after it and sucked it out of the water, too cool.

Due to the size of these things I would say they are definately for the adult frogs.

Also for anyone looking to buy them, they can get kind of expensive on ebay, I finally gave up tring to get them cheap and emailed the guy for some. They sell for $7 + $4 shipping.

Still not a replacement for the slow breeding flour beetles.


Joe

 

[mindcrash]

Yeah, you should save money and buy direct from them. Their website is http://www.backwoodsfarm.com