Gut loading questions

[lovelovelove135]

Hi, I was wondering how to gut load mealworms. I think I have a pretty good idea, but am still unsure. Is it okay to feed them fish food and oatmeal? Or should I just feed oatmeal? I'll throw in some slices of carrots too. Now here's where I'm really unsure about what to do. I know when I put them in the fridge, they "go to sleep". How would they feed then? Do I just take a couple out, and put them in a container with all the food, or do I take them all out? I don't plan on breeding them, by the way. Do I not put them in the fridge then? I don't want them to pupate, but they're really small ("mini mealworms" is what it says on the box). I'm afraid the ones in the fridge will die of starvation or something. I'm not really sure how this all works. How do you guys gut load? Help/advice/tips are greatly appreciated Thanks so much in advance!

 

[Dog Shrink]

A little on meal worms. When you refrigerate them the hybernate and do not need to eat. You should take the whole lot out maybe once every week or so and leve them out to gutload and for the ones going back into the fridge to eat and hydrate. You want to gutload about 24-48 hours before planning on feeding your leo. I have heard the fish food thing but both good and bad comments on it so I would avoid it and just go with the rolled oats as your housing medium and to gutload I usually use a couple baby carrots, a potato wedge and an apple slice.

Hopefully some of the people who raise their own mealie colonies will chime in with anything I might have missed. Hope this helps.

 

[5HiddenLizards]

From my experience, mini mealies die off faster than the larger ones. Is your lizard so small that it needs the mini worms? If not, since they are small worms, I would leave them out & feed them until they got a little bigger, maybe mid size & then put them in the fridge. The bigger ones usually last longer. And then, as Dog Shrink said, take the ones out that you are gonna feed off & load them up. I don't think the weekly removal will hurt them either. Sounds like a good plan.
I breed my worms & just keep them at room temperature. Since its cold, they don't pupate or turn into beetles. I feed them the same stuff I feed my roaches. Right now its a mix of oats, ReptiLife reptile vitamins, calcium, and Fluker's Cricket Gutload all mixed together. I use gel water for a driking medium. Since I feed all my bugs daily, I don't gut load.

 

[Designer Geckos]

We gutload our mealies with fresh organic carrot slices, Fluker's high calcium cricket diet, and Pro Geckos gutload.
Using organic veggies for gutloading, or in with supers, crickets, dubias, etc. is very important. Conventional veggies have what? Yep, pesticides....

If you have a Whole Foods near you, they always have that huge pyramid of fresh organic carrots stacked up.....99 cents a lb.

 

[lovelovelove135]

Thanks guys! I don't have oats at the moment so I'm using fish food, but as soon as I get them I will switch immediately; don't want to take any risks My gecko is pretty small, 4 inches maybe 5? So I think the regular mealworms might be too big. I actually just got him (well I don't know the gender yet, but I'm hoping it's a male) yesterday from Petco. I was originally supposed to go to the expo in February and I was all stoked and everything, but my dad saw a Petco flyer and it said 50% off. I said the expo is better, but he wouldn't budge >.< But I think my gecko is pretty healthy He ate 12 mini mealworms today! And he's got a nice fat tail. I hope 12 mini mealworms isn't too much for his size He's quite an eater, but it's better than not eating at all So I gut loaded them with fish food and carrots. I actually happened to have organic carrots in the fridge, so that worked out well. I would have never thought about the pesticides. I left them out to eat, but I don't think I'll put them back in the fridge because it's pretty cold in my house, and they probably won't have the time to pupate at the rate my gecko is eating haha Next time I'll get some of the Fluker's stuff while I'm getting more worms. Once again, thanks guys!

 

[Pinky81]

What are the pros and cons on the fish food thing?? I sprinkle a little into the Flukers gut load in with my crickets!! I guess more importantly whats the cons?? Thx