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Farming Mealworms

72326 Views 163 Replies 61 Participants Last post by  Draenog
Farming mealworms yourself has several advantages over buying them at a pet store. You always have mealies on hand so you don't need to spend time and money making trips to the pet store. You also control what the mealies eat thereby producing healthier mealies for your hedgie.
Here are some links on how to raise mealworms.
http://www.wormman.com/mealworm_breeding.cfm
http://www.nyworms.com/mealworms.htm
http://mealwormstore.com/raising_mealworms.php
http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm
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I am pretty freaked out to touch the worms let alone any other of their stages..I use tweezers. I just started a small farm of mealies today! :D
I used an old glass canning jar, filled it half way with bran (I only did half so its easier to get the wormies out for hedgie lunch, and when i get them from the pet store they're in a little tub with some bran already) and drilled SMALL holes, and keep it out of direct sunlight. *I like a lot of small air holes as oposed to less larger holes haha I'm not as worried that they'll escape then. I have yet to find a stationary warm place in my house haha I've been too busy watching the worms through the glass jar!! Its sort of like an ant farm...I never had one of those but it is really quite neat. I feed them by using a potatoe peeler on a carrot. I take one shred for the size of my jar and break it in little pieces with my fingers. Then its just a matter of dropping the little carrot bits in the jar and putting on the lid. And then watch! lol sounds icky but it really is pretty neat to watch them crawl up to eat...kinda creepy though, they really attack the carrot! Like little wormie wolves. And I do not put water in as its self. I've read that you can put drops of water in using an eye dropper, but they didnt take well to it at all. Then again my farm is only a ar or two big. My goal is to get the occasional beetle.
This summer luna and I were in the garden, and she caught herself a black beetle. I know, thats not good, wild bugs are not necessarily safe what with pesticides etc, but have you ever tried to get a beetle out of a hedgies mouth? Not as easy as one would think.

I myself dont like superworms...they scare me :? . I went to ask about them, and the lady said not to get them if we have a long drive home as they will eat out of the bag, then the box, and then the store bag...And they bite. haha I know, I know, a lot of hedgies favorite bugs bite...but they're really big, and bite, I'm a chicken.

I was reading the first few posts, about feeding the farmed mealies to be more benifical/healthy treats for hedgies. What sort of foods would give the mealies more nutritional value? Like I said, I use carrots.
Any suggestions, ideas, more info stuff like that?
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Alright, I'll check in to the flaxseed! Thanks! I dont have the same brand of cat food but my hedgie is on another recomended brand, I'll put a couple kibbles in and see if they're gone tomorrow. They're really eat the cuttle bone? Thats interesting and icky bug scary :lol: I'm still getting used to the creepy crawlies, but luna loves em so eh I tough it out.
Thanks!
Also, I was wondering if the alien pupae stage the go in to - do they do that in the bran, or do they come up to the surface to do the cocoon..metamorphose alien thing? I'm watching mine right now through the glass and they seem a little sluggish. Should I put them in a warmer spot, or have I fed them too much?
OK, so its been two days since they've become sluggish. I put a few of Lunas kibble bits in and they're still sitting there, as well as little pieces of carrots I put in there a day or so ago. They're not eating any more, and they're not even crawling around. I sifted through to make sure they didnt go to worm heaven. They're still alive, but arent worming their way around any more, when I did find some worms they moved almost lik they were in slow motion.
I'm worried if the worms are sick, should I really still be giving them to luna?
And if they're not sick, whats going on? They aren't in their alien stage yet I know that.
Its roughyl 20 -25 * celcius, and 45 -50 * faranheit. We have a wood burning stove in the basement, which is keeping a fire right now. Should I move them to the basement near the fire for more warmth?
Wheph, Thanks!! :p I was worried I'd have to start all over again.
Whoot!! So I checked in on my mealies, and changed some of the bran and I found my first Aliein pod!!! lol Out of the 53 that I counted, I had one deceased worm, one pod, and one white white worm. I figure it was close to going in to its little pod form but I put it back with the other worms because it was still in worm form.
Was that the wrong thing to do? Should I have put it in with the pod? I didnt know, and didnt want to do it in case it ate the one in the cocoon. :?
Ooh okay, good! I have another question too.
I changed the bran today because when I check on them, and feed them now they're mostly all on top! I thought at first they were on top because I needed to change their bran and clear out some worm doody. But they're all on top again! And food I put in there is used for drinking and then climbing on. There are maybe ...10 or so that aren't on top.
They're all about an inch long now. So they've grown. But I dont think they've grown so much that I need to switch containers.
But, could I be wrong? If not, whats going on??? What should I do?
Okay, thanks!! Thats a big reliefe. :D I wonder if it could be because I put them closer to a humidifier (humidifyer?? what a strange word).
Okay, I have one pod in a seperate container. My worms are all on the top of the bran in their container still, but today they've really stopped moving, a lot. They seem sort of stiff like, and most of them are curled in a C shape, or nearly. They're not eating any more, and I'm assuming they're starting their metamorphies in to pod stage. I wanted to make sure though, that my assumption was right lol 90% of the worms are all along the edges of the container, and only a few half out of the bran in the middle.
Are things still moving along well?
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