Mealies and Super questions

[pawsfoot]

I normally feed mealies with no problems. I used to buy the large for my bigger girls, but they tended to be less active than the little ones. Is it ok for me to feed 30 small mealies as opposed to 10 large mealies? I also recently decided to buy some supers, but since I still have some tiny leos I just decided to buy small supers as well. I'm probably going to keep feeding mealies as well. Would you feed half mealies and half supers or would you feed a majority of one or the other? How long will it take my small supers to get to the medium size? I don't want them to get huge in 1 week and then not be edible for my babies anymore. Thanks in advance for the info. Sorry I actually thought of a few more questions. How come when I gutload my mealies they get more sluggish and don't want to move, or even sometimes they die off? I don't get it. Am I doing something wrong? I take out just what I want to feed the next day and I putin just enough gutload to cover the bottom of the tub and I place a small dish with either carrots or potatoes or lettuce or some moisture in it. It's a petri dish so I know they can climb over the edge of it to get to the moisture. Should I do the same thing for my supers? I know I hvae to gutload them, but do they need moisture. I'm sorry for all the questions. Thanks for the help.

 

[Stitch]

I do not refrigerate my mealies because I have the issue of them dieing off after thawing out. I keep my mealies in a 10 galon with the bottom being covered in gut load about half an inch thick. I also spray the cage maybe once a day. I do put Fluker orange cubes in for constant moisture. i have found that they thrive in this kind of environment. I have allowed some to pupate into beatles and rotate them between three containers to lay eggs. So now I don't even buy meal worms because I raise them myself. I do want to add, Supers are more difficult to breed.

I would keep the mealies for your small gecko and feed the Super to your older ones.

 

[pawsfoot]

So explain to me the whole breeding process because my collection of leos keeps growing and for some reason that means food bills go up. LOL. It just gets more and more expensive and my 3 babies can eat 30 mealworms each in a sitting if I let them.

 

[Stitch]

The one thing that may help you is to go to your local pet store and ask if you can have the beatles from their meal worms. They might give them to you or they may charge you. I know a guy that gets them free so it never hurts to ask.

Just put the beatles in a milk jug (you'll need 2-3 if you are rotating) and they will do their thing. Keep them in a warm room, most likely your reptile room. In no time you should have plenty of meal worms.

 

[pawsfoot]

HAHA. My reptile room is just a bedroom in my house that really is the same temp as the house, around 75-77 depending on the day. Do the beetles need to be kept warm? Do they need any substrate such as the mealworm bedding and moisture? If I wanna make more beetles how do I make them? I've heard of the mealies pupating and all that, but never had one turn into a beetle on me. From the other thread I got that you just have to rotate them about every 10 days to keep them from eating their own eggs. How long does it take the eggs to become mealies and how long does it take the beetles to die off? Sorry for all the questions.