Young beardies and Meal worms

[Ryker5]

Hi, should meal worms be treated as a treat or are they ok as a main part of the diet? My baby beardie would not eat crickets or locusts but when given a few meal worms he gubbed them! Not sure what to do, it was a relief to see him eat something.

[kenobi]

i have bred a lot of beardies and for the first two weeks i fed mine solely on dusted and gutloaded mealies. fed the mealies on dusted vegeetation so they were full of goodness.
all my youngsters have grown very very well and eat a full variety of everything. i introduce crickets and locusts at 10 - 14 days of age and greens at 28-days.
they all seem to eat fine no problems, but you do want to be giving them a variety one food item for life will lead to deficiencies in later life
Ryan

[MattThing]

Personally, I wouldn't, meal worms are notorious for having tougher outer shells/skin or "chitin" making it more difficult to digest. I'm not saying it's wrong, just I wouldn't do it for a staple, maybe every now and again.

I'd give roaches a try next, more nutritious than crickets and a higher meat to shell ratio.

EDIT: Variety is key as kenobi has said.

[imginy]

Basically when it comes to mealworms there is a lot better alternatives like roaches locusts crickets and so on but if the only thing your will eat is meal worms your going to have to feed it mealworms. If your are feeding mealworms make sure they are eating lots of healthy greens this is gutloading and its evan more important when using mealworms becuase of there shell to meat ratio.
But this doesn't really solve the problem as to why its not eating others thing you need to look closely at what is causing your bearded dragons distress. It may eat meallies to day but if you dont find out what the problem is you might find it soon goes off them as well. Giny

[rachy]

I lost a young beardy once , i cut him open and he was compacted with mealies , id never use them on young beardies again after that

[imginy]

Originally Posted by rachy

I lost a young beardy once , i cut him open and he was compacted with mealies , id never use them on young beardies again after that

That isn't very nice I hate when pets die

[Ryker5]

Thanks for all the info. Will move away from mealies. He has fresh greens twice a day not seen him eat any yet. Roaches next on the list.

[rachy]

Roaches are the best imo , my beardies .....hatchlings and adults go mental for them!

[mrspebro]

i never give mealies to any of my beardies till they are over 1year old as they carnt digest them at such a young age