Hey folks, can anyone tell me if the pupae of the mealworm is still edible or nutritious? Half of my mealworms are pupating and the pupae still moves if you touch it so I believe my Waterdragons will eat them if I offer.

And what about the beetles that I'm sure to have in a few days? They'll be too big for the baby dragons but I can offer them to my Leo. I imagine you can gut load a beetle eh?

Not sure if the lizards will even be interested in the beetles....if there is a stray one in my tanks, they ignore it.....and I wouldnt offer them or the pupae I dont think....they have pretty hard shells on them....so no real nutritional value....if you keep them in the fridge they go dormant and wont turn into pupae.....good luck!!!

__________________
Warmest Regards from Lyn

Ya but I want them gutloaded so they have to be eating. Or is it pointless to gutload a mealworm? They don't seem to have very big guts to load.

"they have pretty hard shells on them....so no real nutritional value".

Hard shells don't correlate to low nutritional value. The pupae are actually not that bad as they are essentially all the nutrients a mealworm could aquire with a new shell and a mishmash of reshaping insides. It's not like they lose all their mass, nutrients and everything useful when they pupate- they actually NEED that stuff to complete metamorphosis! Likely they aren't that bad. Not as good as a gutloaded mealie at any rate.

Beetles are bad. Aside from the obvious hard shell factor, many beetles cary other nasty defenses. Ever smelled a superworm beetle? Hideous, simply hideous. Beetles are infact very good at making themselves hard prey to get by on. I've only seen one of my lizards, the nasty female gold skink who never turns down a meal, eat a beetle.


If you are going for nutrition, get yourself some superworms to gutload. They are awesome. I keep a mealie colony only as a backup incase something happens with suppliers for a few weks.

I also have a mealworm colony going and I would shore up your number of actual worms to about 250-300+ worms before using them as regular feeders. This will ensure the colony will sustain and grow.

Make sure you have a 4-5 inch thick substrate consisting of oats (from oatmeal), brokenup crackers, Cheerios, and other cereals. Also chuck in the occasional leaf of lettuce for moisture.

I wouldn't recommend feeding the pupae. Stick to feeding the actual mealworms.

__________________
Grammostola rosea 0.1.0
Pandinus imperator 2.0.0
Lampropeltis getula nigrita 0.1.0
Uromastyx maliensis 0.1.0
Rhacodactylus ciliatus 2.2.2
Uroplatus henkeli 0.0.1
Eublepharis macularius 1.0.0

I don't know about water dragons but I have routinely fed my adult bearded dragons excess beetles as well as some of the pupae. They have absolutely no probem with consuming the beetles.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!