another mealworm question from newbie

[tintern]

Hi all, I have another mealworm question I would love help on. I take the responsibility of my new gecko seriously as he is great. I am feeding him mealworms (alive with heads intact). However although they are only 1 week old they seem to be very large. I have read online that they shouldnt be bigger than the width of his head, but they are now at least twice that. He does still seem to enjoy them. Should I stop feeding him these and buy smaller ones (in which case I will be buying new ones each week and throwing rest away). Is this mealworm growth normal or should I slow the growth somehow.

I have also noticed several turning white which I understand to mean they will turn to beetles. Do you think they were to old from pet shop?

Please help folks, I reaslise this might sound daft to those of you in the know but it is a bit of a mine field at first.

Cheers :dizzy2:

 

[M&I Gecko]

If your little guy isn't puking them up your probably fine.

 

[Srt14292]

Most probably fine, I feed all hatchlings on normal mealworms, however if you are worried, there is no harm in picking up some mini mealworms and see how you feel about that, bear in mind your going to have to feed like 10x as many.

 

[Tony C]

Your mealworms are fine, no need to worry. If you want to slow their growth you can keep the in the refrigerator though. When you say they turn white, do they still look like mealworms, only bigger? That means they just shed their exoskeleton, when they are getting ready to turn into beetles they go into the pupa form, which looks like a little alien.

Take a look at this thread about feeding hatchlings, one breeder shows his taking down full grown crickets and superworms.

 

[tintern]

thanks folks

Ta folks I cant seem to find anywhere around me that sells mini worms so will continue with them as your comments make sense.

Tony C the tread doesnt seem to work and I would be very interested in seeing it if you could re post thred.

 

[Tony C]

Let's try that again. Sorry about the bad link.

 

[tintern]

wow - huge prey

Thanks for the link Tony C, I have just watched the vid "Epic Prey" on Youtube and will not worry about my mealorms anymore. Cheers

 

[erik]

those alien pupa are freaky, especially when they go into spasms!