I'd be happy to stand corrected if I'm wrong, but both the experienced breeder I obtained my reptiles off and the herpetological society I'm a member of say that feeding mealworms to juveniles is a risk. Several of the people I had talked to had learnt this the hard way. They teeth aren't strong enough to crush the exoskeleton, so they aren't always dead before they reacht the stomach. As for the assertion that the digestive juices will kill it quickly, I don't pretent to be an expert on reptile physiology, but is reptile digestion that efficient? Temperature plays an important part in how they digest food, and it becomes much less efficient the lower the temperature is.
Start with meal worms and then crickets later?
- Thread starter dragonblade71
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It can be if they choke on them; I'm given to understand that things as chitin-heavy as that aren't good feeders for young ones.
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You don't have to be an expert in reptile physiology...you need to know a slight bit about invertebrate physiology.
The experiment uses common tap water, which is (in theory) neutral...but is almost always either slightly on the acidic or basic side but not enough so that it would have any effect even close to those of digestive juices.
The point is, when superworms are submerged in any liquid at all, they stop moving very quickly whether or not they're crushed. They drown far faster than they'd bore through anything, especially the stomach a predator who has evolved to eat insects. It makes no sense.
This is an urband legend and nothing more.
I know very little about reptile physiology, but as an aspiring entomological evolutionary biologist I do know quite a bit about the physiology of invertebrates and I can tell you with near certianty that I have a greater chance of hooking up with Elisha Cuthbert than a superworm has burrowing it's way through the stomach of an animal.
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From my understanding as long as the T. molitor is well fed you shouldn't have an issue. T. molitor should only resort to scavenging if they are starved, and even then many die first. As long as you have some visable oats or bran in their enclosure you should be good to go.
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Well I'm a monkey's uncle ! Thanks for correcting me cheshire. That pic of the mealies eating the mouse is not only irrefutable truth, but also nasty.
On that note though, I would assume the food source for the mealies would have to be dead. Wouldn't that thus exclude a live tarantula ?
I have been feeding all my slings live crickets without any problems, just recently began feeding some of the larger T's roaches (2"+ legspan.) I have a tiny, I don't know, little more than 1/4" N. chromatus who WILL NOT eat pre killed crickets. So, I have had to find absolutly the smallest of crix to feed her, and everything has been fine so far.
Thank you all for some fantasic advice. I think I'll have to get over my squeamishness about head squishing with the roaches--sometimes my T's struggle a bit, flailing roach legs and all. But yes, I think thier a much better food as well, for many reasons.
Thank you all for some fantasic advice. I think I'll have to get over my squeamishness about head squishing with the roaches--sometimes my T's struggle a bit, flailing roach legs and all. But yes, I think thier a much better food as well, for many reasons.
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im wondering why that guys teacher was feeding mealies to an iggy