Lately I've been seeing people commenting that mealworms are bad for Bearded Dragons to eat because their exoskeleton is hard to digest.

Not having one, this question is purely academic to me, but it's not sitting right with me. I don't recall seeing that as an issue before, though I'm not the most observant person in the world, and since I've never had one of my own, I may have glossed over their eating requirements.

Is there any truth to this statement, or is it another one of those "mealworms will eat their way out of a herp" myths?

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I know that they advise against using GIANT mealworms because they are hard to digest. I've always fed my guy superworms, silkworms, and crickets as his main source of animal protein. With him being an adult it wouldn't make sense to give him mealies since they are so small and he is so big.

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Mealworms(Tenebrio molitor) do have a harder chitin than Superworms(Zophobas morio) do. It has been widely stated that they are harder to digest. I prefer to use smaller Superworms instead.
I tried to find some scientific papers to prove how hard they actually are to digest but I haven't yet. Most of the evidence is probably just passed on information.

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Mike
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I use mealworms with some of my animals, with my adults being so big it doesn't make sense but some of my juveniles that are too small for the superworms I get will take some mealworms. I use them mostly just for treats and not a lot at a time, I've had no problems and they seem to digest them just fine. But I don't feed the babies mealworms, never tried it nor do I really want to risk it.

Opps, didn't look at the dates haha. All well, someone else is bound to have the same question anyways.

Thanks everyone. I was just curious. They're usually recommended as staples, along with crickets. The only one I knew needed to be fed treat only was waxworms.

But we all know that information changes, so I was wondering if there was anything to back this claim up.

Kitsuneka, I just asked this question today, so you're fine! Right now the older threads are locked so no one can answer them if they're older than three months, I think. The only time we need to worry about it is after an upgrade. Heh heh. Just kidding.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

i am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it is completely true that meal worms (as well as super worms otherwise known as king worms) are all bad for Bearded Dragons, especially younger ones! i know this is true as I had someone give me their sick juvenile bearded dragon because they did not have the means to help it. it turned out that the Bearded Dragon was impacted (had a blockage, to put it simply the Bearded Dragon was constipated) due to the meal worms hard chitin (skin). you could feel this big lump inside the baby. we tried everything we could do to get rid of the impaction... liquid diet, olive oil, lots of warm baths, the blockage was so hard in the poor little guy that we could not even squish it with our fingers. eventually the baby did die due to the impaction. my boyfriend wanted to be sure that is what caused its death so he preformed an autopsy! out came a rather large oval shaped lump of meal worm skin!!!
when it comes to adult bearded dragons it is okay to feed them super worms and meal worms in moderation simply because they are bigger animals and are able to pass larger items!

I have a question for you then. If the baby Bearded Dragon got impacted, how is it that Leopard Geckos can be fed them fine as a baby? There are alot of breeders that feed mealworms over crickets to their Leopard Geckos. I know this is a Bearded Dragon section, but a leo is alot smaller than a Bearded Dragon. Its not adding up to me. Yes they can get impacted to.

Did you check into care of the animal before you received it? Could it have been dehydrated? Was it fully healthy when they got? There are alot of factors to take into account with your statement though.

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A HEALTHY bearded dragon can easily handle superworms of an appropriate size.

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Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

what Moogle said. If the dragon isn't getting the proper temps, then its going to be having a hard time digesting. There shouldn't be a problem if the husbandry is correct.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I feed both my dragons as well as my leopard gecko on mealworms as a staple with crickets fed about once a week.
I too suspect that there was a contributing problem to the blockage.

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