ARE MEAL WORMS BAD FOR A JUVY?

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My beardie Falcor is about 5-6 months old ((rough guess based upon size)) and recently i have been giving him Meal worms as the main staple of his diet. One pet store i visited told me to never ever give juvenile bearded dragons meal worms because they can cause impaction. However, another pet store i visited said that they feed their baby beardies meal worms religiously. I have read articles both supporting and not supporting meal worms for baby bearded dragons. Should i continue to feed Falcor meal worms? Or go back to pinhead crickets
 

destiny1998

Extreme Poster
Photo Comp Winner
Hi. Go back to crickets. You can also try Phoenix worms, silk WOR s and dubia roaches. I would order online. Cheaper then the pet store.
 

JessPets

Gray-bearded Member
Hello, mealworms are horrific. They commonly cause impaction, which can be fatal. Try crickets, silkworms, or BSFL
 

Gormagon

Extreme Poster
I never trust pet store advice, they are there to sell a product, not there to help. Most chain pet stores have killed more dragons (and other reptiles) with bad advice than you can count.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
Psychopsin":1iqw3941 said:
My beardie Falcor is about 5-6 months old ((rough guess based upon size)) and recently i have been giving him Meal worms as the main staple of his diet. One pet store i visited told me to never ever give juvenile bearded dragons meal worms because they can cause impaction. However, another pet store i visited said that they feed their baby beardies meal worms religiously. I have read articles both supporting and not supporting meal worms for baby bearded dragons. Should i continue to feed Falcor meal worms? Or go back to pinhead crickets

Petshop gave exceedingly poor advice , they likely only use mealworms because they are VERY VERY CHEAP.

Mealworms (and waxworms) are essentially junk food for beardies - yes they love them, BUT they have very hard to digest exoskeletons and are very high in fat. For a human the equiv diet is junior burgers and fries or just crisps and bread.

Mealworms ARE NOT SUITABLE for any but occasional treats for beardies over 12 months old IMO. (Like superworms are.)

At 6 months old your beardie is probably around 200g to 300g and way too big to give pinheads to , he should be big enough to eat 2/3 sized crickets - I'd use these and make sure you gut load them with enriched pellets (repcal adult beardie pellets used dry work well with crickets - they love them) and calcium rich greens (ie buk or puk choi) and carrot. And dust the crickets with calcium powder.
He will manage medium sized (2" long) silkworms no problems either as they are soft and squishy. One medium silkworm is roughly equiv to 4 x 2/3 sized crickets (in protein mass). Most beardies absolutely love eating silkworms - they hoover them down quick as a flash.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Mealworms are not the ideal but they are far from being bad nutritionally. Most keepers have used mealworms in some amount, I have used them off + on in small amounts for over 25 years with no problem. You just can't let the reptiles gorge on them. If you use Google to search mealworm nutritional value, you will find that they are actually somewhat nutritious. Here are a few interesting articles, the first one is REALLY comprehensive because it examines mealworms in the light of use for human consumption as more people are turning to insects as a viable protein [ myself NOT included :) ]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiXj4KCg-XSAhVk7YMKHdjeC5cQFghDMAY&url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownload%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.923.9133%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&usg=AFQjCNHZ61gua7XEyPOHbO7pzZyVm9uJLg&sig2=AQ2bMOg64udlmyuj2DCUGg

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiXj4KCg-XSAhVk7YMKHdjeC5cQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.grubco.com%2Fnutritional_information.cfm&usg=AFQjCNETVp2xeiMAN1afrKw_Yi8N0fiJiw&sig2=-DXA5kSvk_2Os2fCuHjeeA
 
I'm another newbie that was given mixed advice on the subject. I have the benefit of having some badass herp colleagues to go to for advice, though, and one of them put it like this to me:

Mealworms are treats; when used as a staple they can cause impaction in juveniles, depending on their health and other metabolic factors. They're okay when used occasionally, or even if you need to calorie load an animal that hadn't been doing too well. But in general, there are better, more nutritious foods that are easier for them to digest on a regular basis.

They're handing for taming and getting your beardie to start taking food from your hand, though, that's for sure. :lol:
 

Psychopsin

Member
Original Poster
Thank you all for the wonderful advice. I had beeb feeding Falcor meal worms for about 2 weeks. At first he loved them and would eat many a day, but as of last week, he would not eat anything, this carried on for a week. I was so worried that he was impacted from them, but then he started pooping normally, so i ruled that out. I picked up some medium sized crickets last night and tried feeding them to him. He was so hungry he ate a whole box!! I felt so bad </3 But now i know not to feed him meal worms, and quite honestly, i dont think he likes them
 
Psychopsin":2t2go7ah said:
Thank you all for the wonderful advice. I had beeb feeding Falcor meal worms for about 2 weeks. At first he loved them and would eat many a day, but as of last week, he would not eat anything, this carried on for a week. I was so worried that he was impacted from them, but then he started pooping normally, so i ruled that out. I picked up some medium sized crickets last night and tried feeding them to him. He was so hungry he ate a whole box!! I felt so bad </3 But now i know not to feed him meal worms, and quite honestly, i dont think he likes them

Maybe he got tired of them? It's not unusual for me to ger tired on rich foods, too the point where thinking of it makes me sick. Maybe he was just tired of eating like a king! :D

Don't feel bad. You recognized a problem, and fixed it! !
 
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