POLL on feeders and breeding/egging problems.

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Since I have received several calls, emails, and PM's from people that feed mealworms and are having serious issues with breeding, egging, mortality, and deformities but are reluctant to post anything for fear of jeopardizing their reputations, I thought it would be fitting to put up an anonymous poll to help us see what's going on.

 

[Stitchex]

Thanks for the poll Marcia! Hopefully we'll be able to figure out the problem as to what's going on. I hope it can eventually be fixed.

 

[Franks_Geckos]

Despite some 3rd year breeders underperforming, my season has been ok, not great, but what I would expect with hatch rates and such. My major complaints have been that my beetles would not reproduce to hatch new mealies and my geckos have been thriving on supers since the shortage, which leads me to believe the mealies were definitely poisoned or extremely substandard this year. I primarily fed mealies until the shortage.

 

[spykerherps]

In the beginnging of the year they were on primarilt mealworms and for the last three months they have been on a mix of crix kings and dubia
although we haven't bred many this year we have had 8 eggs mold or go bad and 1 unrecoverable deformity and a little hatchling that appears normal but is not growing at the same rate as her clutch mate( though housed individually)... the odds are bad that is out of about 16 eggs

 

[Kristi23]

It's tough for me to answer. I have some that only eat dubias, some that will only eat mealworms, and some that eat both. (I also feed waxworms, silkworms, and butterworms on occasion.)

My first eggs that went bad were our fault. My husband bought vermiculite with miracle grow and I didn't realize it right away.

The next three from that female hatched fine. She eats both.

I have another 2nd year female that has only had 2 clutches of 1 egg each. One has hatched and the other is due in less than 2 weeks. But she hasn't had a clutch in a month now, so I think she's done. She only eats mealworms.

All my other eggs are from first year females. Out of these, we've had a couple infertile, a couple that went bad within a week, and one full term death. I've had 4 hatchlings so far with more eggs in the incubator. Some of these girls only eat worms, and some eat both. A lot of times, one egg from the clutch has been good and one has gone bad. I just figured it was a first year female thing.

I think for me, time will tell more. I no longer have any of the bad mealwoms left. Most of those died quickly. The worms I have now seem healthy and pupating just fine. We did decide to start breeding mealworms here just incase any problems continue or happen again. We also breed our own dubias, but haven't got a big enough colony going so we have to buy some once in awhile.

I do have a couple girls that are over a year that haven't ovulated. One eats mealworms only. One eats roaches only and one eats both. So I don't know if that's an issue or not.

 

[Lena]

Sounds just awful, the things that are happening because of mealworms. I'm going to stay away from them just as a precaution.

I wouldn't pass judgment on any breeder who's having problems right now because of the mealworms.

Best of luck to you all, I hope things improve.

 

[nevinm]

ive been feeding mealies the past 3 years, and now all the sudden im getting major problems. so i switched to supers

 

[Crazygecko]

would be interesting to see if anyone who had old mealies left was able to get them tested to see if and what kind of chemicals might be in them to cause such problems when breeding them.

 

[John Byer]

I have been breeding Leos for the past 5 years and I to have had the worst season ever. From adult breeders not breeding, females who have been breed not laying eggs, females laying only one egg,high % of bad eggs and to top it off 4 hatched that were deformed with legs they could not stand on. One that lived only for 3 days and never did open its eyes. Have hatched over 600 eggs with not one problem until now. Al were feed mealworms from the same major company. I think we all know which one it is.

 

[rubym]

I feed mostly mealies but these are mealies that I raise. I use organic wheat bran. I also feed organic potatoes and carrots grown by a friend and I feed a combination oatmeal and baby cereal. I have had 38 eggs laid this season out of these I had 11 infertile( 7 of these were from my rescued female that was gravid when we got her and too small)- 20 hatchlings ( 2- 5 grams 15- 4 grams and 3 were only 2 grams)- I have 7 eggs incubating and all candle fertile). I also feed crickets that are raised on the same food as my mealies along with Iams cat food ( ground up) and whole wheat cherios. I got my mealies from a local breeder when I started my colony and I have introduced new mealies from a different colony. I was told to introduce new worms to my "bug" colony every 6 months or so ( not sure if this is correct but it couldn't hurt).

 

[Bling_my_leo]

Well, I don't breed. But I feed my leos meal worms only. I may add, my skinny Bling is now a fatty, with a nice plump tail!

 

[nicks]

I feed only crickets and have had some colonies just out perform others, proven breeders that haven't done much while first year breeders have produced a ton. The fertility rate is about what it has been over the last couple years out of about 800 eggs so far this year we have had about 25 duds. I don't know if we can point to just one problem I have spoken to several people that work primarily with snakes and they have had their worst year this year as well. Maybe our animals know something we don't know!

 

[tangerineman]

mealies

my year was fine, i held back on breeding many, and i survived the drought with little effect, but i was super willing to slow down my purchasing of mealies, as my supplier was going through the rumors of drought,

i would be MORE curious to know what goes on in the mealie industry, like who is supPlying WHO...please enlighten us, any of those who know,as to who supplies which supliers with what mealies, east coast vs west coast???
because if there's any connecting of the dots this would certainly help....

i am on the east coast, northeast, and my supplier i believe, didn't take any new customers during this past shortage, i cut back to the minimum i needed to order in the meantime, and tried to work with his requests to use less as he spread his mealies thin...in return he sent me bacthes as he rec'd them, and i always had 'something' to use...

i had no unusual issues with defects, but bred less than last year,
actually i had a good year overall, hatching the morphs i needed most for next year's projects...with plenty to sell in the meantime..

i feel bad that anyone had to suffer possibly becuase of defective shipment(s) of mealies....

it would be nice to know exactly what the hell happened

-D