Meal Worms

[henpecked]

Has anyone raised mealworms. Doesn't look like that big of a deal. The chickens and turkeys go crazy for them, not sure about the parrots. Would love to hear from folks who have tried raising them. Especially what problems to look out for.

 

[henpecked]

Did you feed them live or dried ?

 

[JerseyWendy]

I've never raised them either, but when I had a Leopard Gecko and tarantulas, I'd buy them for food.

None of my current birds liked them, but when I had a pair of Red Sided Eclectus, they'd go crazy over them (fed alive)

 

[Kalidasa]

I fed a few dried that I rehydrated in warm water. They ended up in my wild bird mix.

 

[BillsBirds]

Mealworms are very easy to raise. Use a large glass or plastic container. Put a few cups of oatmeal in it. Not packaged mixes, just plain oatmeal. Also, a quarter of an apple. And a few scraps of newspaper. After a while, the worms will pupate, and then hatch into beetles. Those will lay eggs, and you've begun your mealworm farm. I've fed all kinds of animals, especially birds, live mealworms. I had a Mynah that loved them. Also, you'll be surprised at other birds liking them.

 

[QuakerMom]

Mealworms are extremely easy to raise. I found wheat germ to be better than oatmeal though. You can use a sift to get the worms out (to feed to birds or for cleaning their container). I got lazy and put a cottage cheese lid with a bit of paper towel and a jar of water upside down on top of the paper towel and lid. That gives them water for a couple weeks instead of one day. If you refrigerate the worms, it slows the growth process and they will keep for weeks without turning into beetles. They grow faster if they are kept warm but be careful because once the temp approaches 80+ degrees the beetles will begin to fly. Not good!
A couple other notes: of they run out of water, they will canibilize each other for moisture! They will eat the pupa phase bugs first as they cannot run away. Keep plenty of water sources available and remove the pupae to their own container until they hatch into beetles. The pupa container does not need food or water as pupae do not eat or drink. Just remove the beetles from the pupae container daily and place the beetles back in the normal container.
I have read that you can also use ground flaxseed instead of oats or wheat germ but my mealworms didn't do nearly as well on the flaxseed. I guess they didn't like it!
ALSO: avoid "giant" mealworms.. they will turn into beetles, but they are sterile! Giant mealworms are just regular mealworms that have been exposed to hormones that causes them to grow huge but in turn renders them sterile.
Dried mealworms are nothing but an empty shell. There's nothing inside them!
I raised mealworms for a couple years. Hope this helps!

 

[MikeyTN]

I used to raise meal worms years ago....The pet shop that used to buy babies from me exclusively give me a tank with a lid with saw dust or sand like bedding within. All I had to do is put fruits in there to feed them. It was quite simple and I never had any beetles escape from there because of the lid. It took awhile to teach my birds to eat them, but once they got started, they LOVE that stuff!!!! Someone locally was giving a meal worm tank farm away not long ago but I couldn't convince my partner to let me get them, I was given the answer NO.....lol....