Mealworms?

[flamedragon]

I’m almost ready for my dragon . The environment is ready and I've got a colony of Dubias breeding. The problem is that the Dubias aren’t 'breeding very fast. I was wondering if I could feed my dragon mealworms. Until the Dubias are ready. But I have a couple of questions, What is the nutritional value of mealworms?, How many would a sub-adult to adult dragon eat a day?, Do they have a smell? Thanks for your help.

 

[patrickb]

Mealworms are a bad idea for two main reasons. The first being that they have a high chitin:meat ratio, ie they have a lot of hard undigestible exoskeleton and very little meat. This equates to a huge risk of impaction that is just not worth it. The second reason is that mealworms are very fat and offer little nutrition otherwise. There are just other things you'd be better off feeding, even those disgusting crickets.

Phoenix worms, silkworms, crickets, or Turkestan roaches would be my first recommendations while you wait on the Dubia to get going good.

 

[augsburg1530]

I agree with patrickb all the way around. You will be much happier if you wait for your colony to kick in and produce enough roaches to feed your new baby, so I too would advise you to wait until your colony can be fed off.

Eric