Mealworms?

My beardie is somewhere around 9 months old and I’ve had for a little over 6 months. I always see things about how bad mealworms are for them and the impaction they can cause but in the entirety of owning him I’ve never had a single problem with them. I feed him the Flukers canned mealworms as an “emergency” protein since the closest pet store is about 20 minutes away and I can’t drive out there all the time. He has never had any issues with impaction and goes absolutely crazy for them. He even recognizes the sound of the lid opening I’m just kind of confused and would like some different inputs or suggestions. My vet said it was perfectly fine as long as they weren’t too big and didn’t cause impaction but I’ve also had some people say I was a horrible owner for letting him eat them so I’m just curious if I actually am doing something bad.

Dried mealworms are even worse the live ones, should never be given to any lizard let alone a hatchling or juvenile bearded dragon as even a treat.

>> No moisture in them , a dragon gets most it's hydration from it's food
You are also risking
>>. severe malnutrition (mealworms are poor nutrituionally)
>> MDB (mealworms are very poor in calcium and high in phosphorus)
>> severe impaction (due to very hard to exoskeletons and the way a young dragon's GIT is "layed out" , there are too many hairpin turns and bottlenecks that are prone to blockage)
>> fatty liver desease (mealworms are high in fat)

They’re not really dried out. They’re gut loaded and packaged. I don’t know how to really explain it but they’re not crunchy or dry or anything like that. They aren’t part of his main diet at all and during his vet checkup he was in perfect condition. He’s never been impacted so I don’t really know what else to get him as an “emergency” snack since shipping insects to where I live costs a lot of money.

Let me put it to you this way : $7 for a can of mealworms (1.2 oz of worms) is REALLY EXPENSIVE cf buying live insects such as roaches, crickets, BSFL etc and even much more then you'd be paying to buy live silkworms & chow or leaves (for them).

You are paying through the nose for a highly processed (and full of preservatives) can of mealworms that holds not that many worms.

You are better off buying a bottle of Repashi GrubPie and making up small batches as needed for when you run out live insects.

I'm assuming you are in the USA : so
Took me under 5 seconds to find the price of 1000x 1/2" or 1/4" crickets in the USA is ONLY $18 ( postage in the price), see
https://www.greatlakeshornworm.com/product-category/feeder-crickets/

One medium sized cup of live Phoenix Worms will set you back the princely price of $6.50 (postage in the price)
see https://www.feedersource.com/product_p/phoenix-worms.htm
A cup will likely have 100 - 200 worms in it and will last a couple of weeks for one hungry hatchling.

Thank you so much!