How many giant mealworms??

[madison45]

My leopard gecko will eat 6-7 giant mealworms a day. Is this ok

 

[Embrace Calamity]

Most people will agree that it's not a good idea to feed giant mealworms because they are treated with hormones to prevent them from pupating. But if you decide to feed them, how many your leo should eat depends on its age and size.

~Maggot

 

[madison45]

i have had to do giants because my pet store has beed out of regulars i would never feed them all the time thank you though

 

[cassicat4]

There was a post on this forum recently about giant mealworms, where someone inquired of the company that sold them what they were exactly. The fear many people have of the use of hormones is not entirely accurate.

http://geckoforums.net/f128-feeding-feeders/92344.htm

To summarize, all worms have hormones that prevent them from pupating. After a time, the hormone levels drop which causes them to pupate. All that happens with the giant mealworms is that they are fed the exact same hormone that is naturally occuring in their bodies anyway to prevent them from pupating, which allows them to grow larger. Essentially, the only difference between mealworms and giant mealworms is their size. Both contain the same hormones.

I feed both of my Leos about 5-7 giant mealworms/kingworms a week. My one absolutely loves them.

I find the advantage is that the worms are much more filling than the small mealworms simply because they have more meat to them (especially when gutloaded). I would think this would also make them more nutritious. I don't know if there are any comparative studies, but I would much rather feed 5 kingworms to fill up my gecko, than 10-15+ little mealworms that would have a much higher chitin content to contend with as a result.

 

[Embrace Calamity]

There was a post on this forum recently about giant mealworms, where someone inquired of the company that sold them what they were exactly. The fear many people have of the use of hormones is not entirely accurate.

http://geckoforums.net/f128-feeding-feeders/92344.htm

To summarize, all worms have hormones that prevent them from pupating. After a time, the hormone levels drop which causes them to pupate. All that happens with the giant mealworms is that they are fed the exact same hormone that is naturally occuring in their bodies anyway to prevent them from pupating, which allows them to grow larger. Essentially, the only difference between mealworms and giant mealworms is their size. Both contain the same hormones.

No one argues that the hormones themselves are dangerous. It's the fact that they're present in much higher levels than regular mealworms. Most things that are safe for an organism's body are dangerous in large doses. I also investigated a company that sold them, and they recommended not using them for anything other than fishing due to the high levels of hormones.

~Maggot

 

[cassicat4]

No one argues that the hormones themselves are dangerous. It's the fact that they're present in much higher levels than regular mealworms. Most things that are safe for an organism's body are dangerous in large doses. I also investigated a company that sold them, and they recommended not using them for anything other than fishing due to the high levels of hormones.

~Maggot

I will be contacting the company that I purchase my kingworms from to see what they have to say as well. I've seen both sold up here - Giant Mealworms and Kingworms, and my impression was that they are one and the same, just a different name? But they look different from one another, so I don't know that that's true. Kingworms are what I feed, they're usually a bit smaller than Giant Mealworms, and they are one of the recommended staple items (as verified by numerous sites/breeders/vets) for one of my reptiles (my water dragon), so I've just been using them instead of mealworms to feed my geckos as well. It was always explained that the levels of hormones wasn't any higher in Kingworms vs. mealworms, it was just prolonged. As in, instead of allowing the hormone to drop off at a certain point to allow the worm to pupate, they were fed enough of the hormone to maintain that level, but not exceed it. This would make them no more dangerous hormone-wise than smaller worms. And the Kings do pupate - I would say within 2 weeks if they're not fed off.

However, it's entirely possible that different companies use varying amounts of hormones for breeding, so the one you're referring to may feed them an excessive amount to make them large enough for bait, whereas other companies whose worms are smaller may not. Considering the variability in size and coloration of all types of feed items, it leads me to believe that there is no one consistent method of breeding among companies, so I don't want to assume that what was explained by the Rainbow Giant company is misleading in light of the information you've received from the company you investigated. It may just be variablility among companies.