Mealworm Question

[Rell18]

I will possibly be getting a Leo or crestie soon but I seem to like leos more so I might just get a leo. I do have a question about feeding.

1.Are mealworms a good staple diet for Leos?

2.How long does a mealworm stay a mealworm in room temperature?

3.What brands of vitamins do you supplement your leos food with and how often do you do it? What brand of calcium do you keep provided in your leo's cage?

4.Does anyone know if the T-Rex Leopard Gecko Dust is any good and can it be used on every feeding or does it contain too much d3?

 

[acpart]

Congratulations on your plans for a leopard gecko. Here's my response to your questions:

1.Are mealworms a good staple diet for Leos?
There are different opinions about this. In my opinion it's fine and I bring up my baby leos on mealworms so people who buy them and can't deal with crickets don't have to. I know people who have leos I sold them 5 years ago that are still eating mealworms and are healthy. That said, most of my adults get tired mealworms and are eating crickets and superworms.

2.How long does a mealworm stay a mealworm in room temperature?
It depends on what your room temperature is (60 or 72) and how big the mealworms are when you get them. Under most circumstances, medium sized mealworms should last at leaqst a couple of weeks.

3.What brands of vitamins do you supplement your leos food with and how often do you do it? What brand of calcium do you keep provided in your leo's cage?
I have 2 methods: the one I currently use is to dust all feeders with Repashy calcium plus which is the calcium, vitamin D3 and vitamins in one supplement. In this case I don't put calcium in the cage. The method I use when I sell set-ups to people is to provide calcium without D3 in a bottle cap in the cage and to dust feeders with a 50/50 mixture of Repcal calcium with D3 and Repcal herptivite vitamins.

4.Does anyone know if the T-Rex Leopard Gecko Dust is any good and can it be used on every feeding or does it contain too much d3?
I don't use it so I don't know. I doubt it has too much D3, though.

ALiza

 

[Rell18]

Thank you so much

 

[Merriweather]

Hi again.

1) Yeah, theyre fine, I like variety so you might want to "treat" your geckos with the occasional wax worm, think 1 worm per week per healthy gecko. Sadly this means you'll buy a thing of 25 or 50 wax worms from the petstore, and not use most of them... but your leo will love you for it. If you have another reptile buddy near you, maybe you both can go halfsies or something.

2) .... I'm not sure, I'm confused as to if mealworms and supers are the same thing, as ive read their adult form is both the darkling beetle. If a mealworm is the same as a super, then they shoouullldddd stay in beatley form as long as you dont separate them. Isolation causes supers to pupate.

3) I dust with Reptivite D3, purchased at a major petstore chain. I leave Repashy Superfoods Leopard Gecko Calcium Plus vitamin powder in a little dish in their aquarium. With youngin's you'll want to dust every insect to every other insect. One of my juvinille leos has gotten "air bubbles" by his front legs which people seem to conclude is a result of too much calcium/dusting, so I've eased back with that gecko. Its apparently nothing to be alarmed of thank gawd. My geckos are 4-5-ish months old. :3

4) I dont think any brand of vitamin is bad, I had someone swear to be by the reptivite so I bought that one for my choice of D3 vitamins. I dont think you can go wrong, really.

 

[acpart]

Mealworms and superworms are different creatures. What's confusing is that there are "giant mealworms" that are treated with hormones to make them grow large without pupating, but these are not superworms.

Aliza

 

[Merriweather]

Mealworms and superworms are different creatures. What's confusing is that there are "giant mealworms" that are treated with hormones to make them grow large without pupating, but these are not superworms.

Aliza

Then how come when I've done reading elsewhere online, its said both the mealworms and superworms have their beetle form claimed to be the darkling beetle? Is it two forms of the darkling beetle? Thats where I started to get confused, because I always thought they were two different larvae until I read that.

 

[Fencer04]

The mealworm turns into a Darkling Beetle and the superworm turns into: Zophobas Beetle. Whatever you read was definitely wrong. They are two completely different species of worm and beetle with different living and breeding requirements.​

The above original response (by myself) is not correct, both superworms and mealworms produce beetles that are commonly referred to as Darkling Beetles. That, however, is misleading. They are not the same species. Please see my next post for a more full explanation.

 

[tastyworms]

Read the next post for the correct answer. I had misread something, and don't want to spread misinformation.

 

[Fencer04]

You cannot say they are the same species. That would mean they are the same animal. There may be a group of Beetles referred to as Darkling Beetles but they are most certainly not the same species. They aren't even in the same Genus. The Latin name for the mealworm is Tenebrio molitor and the Latin name for the superworm is Zophobas morio. Just because the end result is called a Darkling Beetle doesn't make them the same thing, it is just a common name for a Beetle that looks like that.

The link that you posted specifically says that the Zophobas (superworm) genus has been excluded from the Tenebrio (mealworm) family. See the quote below (especially the bolded final sentance):

Tenebrionidae is a large and diverse beetle family. Members are represented from all major biogeographical regions of the world and from widely varied habitats. At present there are approximately 19,000 species described worldwide in more than 2000 genera. The family is the largest in Tenebrionoidea, and is currently fifth in number of beetle species overall. Most of the approximately 200 genera and well over 1,000 North American species inhabit arid regions of the Mountain and Western states. Approximately 225 species are recognized east of the Mississippi River, with undoubtedly more to be discovered and described. In recent years, to more clearly represent our hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships, the family has grown by the inclusion of traditionally segregated families such as the Alleculidae and Lagriidae in North America . Several genera have been excluded, including Boros Herbst (to Boridae) and Phellopsis LeConte (to Zopheridae) (Crowson 1955).​

Common names can be confusing, but the end result of a similar looking beetle from a superworm and a mealworm are not the same species. They can both be called a Darkling Beetle due to similar visual characteristics such as turning black but the fact remains that the beetles from superworms will produce more superworms (Zophobas morio) and the beetles from the mealworms will produce more mealworms (Tenebrio molitor).