Be careful with mealworms

[acpart]

I have a gecko that I got as a juvenile with a tail loss. The way the tail regenerated, he occasionally gets cracks or skin breaks at the end of it. Recently he had a cut that wasn't getting better and seemed to be getting worse. I discovered the other day that the mealworms that had gotten loose in his cage were eating his tail. Needless to say, he's in a very clean cage now with no feeders of any kind left in his tank. His tail is healing nicely.

Aliza

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

A dish that the mealies can't escape from would have prevented that plus with any tail loss you need to be really careful until the tail is fully regenerated and keep the cage really clean and the paper towels changed very very often and not allow any loose food items in the cage.

Thinking anything otherwise would lead to problems.

 

[efx*]

I hate when mealies get out. I have like 3 diffrent food bowls and mealies always get out.

 

[supperl]

This is a wonderful thing:
http://www.exo-terra.com/de/products/worm_dish.php

I have from time to time mealies for my Leos but as I had them first on a dish they could escape I had dem in my Room what scared me^^.
Now when feeding mealies I use that dish and it workes well(don´t think it will work with Superworms^^)

 

[moosassah]

That exoterra dish looks better than my simple brown so-called "inescapable" plastic one. I'll have to check that out.

I'm sure whatever the Latin name for mealie is involves something with Houdini in it.

 

[Leopardbreeder]

I always have mealies escape, never had a problem, thats odd.

 

[GoGo]

Petco constantly has sales on ceramic bowls and you can get ones from the hamster/mammal section that are small enough for your leos to get into but big enough that even supers have a hard time escaping before someone gobbles them up. That mealworm dish from exo-terra doesnt always work even with just regular mealworms and the cover over it makes it a pain in the bum for younger leo's and lazier leo's to realize foods in there.

 

[acpart]

I haven't yet found a bowl that my leos would use that kept all mealworms in. I make my own ceramic bowls that curve inward like those plastic bowls that Lee makes (I was making my bowls before I ever saw those) and they are about 90% effective. I really don't feel that mealworms will prey on a gecko that doesn't already have some kind of enticing skin break which is what happened in this case. This is also a very lazy gecko so I had the mealworms in an unusually shallow dish. I have never had anything like this happen to any other gecko. Now that I've eliminated the problem, he's healing very well.

Aliza

 

[gothra]

Yes, mealies are evil...there was one time I threw out several mealies and an uneaten silkworm in a bowl, then next morning I discovered the mealworms had eaten the WHOLE silkworm (only part of it was left), and the silkworm was very lively the night before!

 

[acpart]

In the same vein, you should see what the carpenter ants did to my crickets on year . . .

Aliza

 

[Kimjorg]

None of my geckos will eat of the exoterra dishes they hate exoterra i think lol

 

[TWC]

This is a wonderful thing:
http://www.exo-terra.com/de/products/worm_dish.php

I have from time to time mealies for my Leos but as I had them first on a dish they could escape I had dem in my Room what scared me^^.
Now when feeding mealies I use that dish and it workes well(don´t think it will work with Superworms^^)

i have that one, and super worms will get out of it.

 

[acpart]

Just an update on my mealworm-attacked gecko: Phoenix has shed and his tail is healing nicely. He will not lose any of it. He is no longer sharing his tank with any feeders; he gets personally hand fed every other day.

Aliza

 

[MSMD]

I have the exo-terra dishes and love them. I only feed the reg. mealies, though, so haven't had any problems with escapees.