ponders
Chameleon Enthusiast
What exactly is a lesser mealworm?
For people who breed dubias (or others)
- Thread starter CandyCham
- Start date
What exactly is a lesser mealworm?
Andee
Chameleon Enthusiast
They are a smaller type of darkling beetle that is a mealworm that is relatively small too. Though they also turn to eating weakened and live roaches or animals at times they have more food sources than the hide beetles. They eat grass, grain based foods, other harmful insect pests, and dead carcasses. In fact I have almost completely destroyed a small infestation of phorrid flies in my roach bin, by not feed any watery foods of any type for a few weeks and keeping the heat off. I will do it another two weeks and they should be completely dead by then.
If u got the time n dedications ,go for it n follow ur heart,do plan to calculate the set up ,space,feeders source ahead so u can be prepared.
CandyCham
Member
I definitely have space and I already have a list of materials to make my own cages. I want the babies separate so I can monitor them. I want to breed dubias and crickets for their food source. Right now I'm just looking for the perfect PCs. I'm being patient right now with it all.
Spyro
Avid Member
Lesser mealworms are a different species of beetle
I understand,as long u have the time on ur side n u able to provide the babies place to stay then u can achieve ur breeding result,breeding them and laying eggs is the easy part,7month or more until they all hatch,thats when u need to plan and prepare for success,the babies will need whole lots of feeder,depending on how many babies u have,I did my year long with these babies,it took all my freedom away and I watch all of them grow under my care,its fun but very time consuming.
U will also need to prepare how u will keeping them as they get older by having lots cages each for individual chameleon,unless u want to find the buyers and get them to their new home,and thats another part u have to plan accordingly,in the mean time they will eat like a school of piranhas day after day ,its like a marriage commitment,the older they get the more they need u, all the Time,both of the babies n u are inseparable its not easy but its doable.
CandyCham
Member
I definitely feel like I would enjoy it and that's what will make it doable. I've been putting thought into it for about 2 years so I'm not taking it lightly and it most likely will be another 6 months before I find the right chameleon parents. Right now I'm just researching and researching some more! I also just bought this wonderful cage that someone made in Germany and a friend brought it back to the states with him after being stationed out there... but unfortunately it didn't end up fitting in his house. It ended up being my gain and just yesterday I brought it home!! Take a look! I'll be replacing the glass doors with screen doors and putting a divider in the middle to house the two chameleons. Itll be super easy to create a drainage system in the bottom I believe. Anyway, once I make it all water friendly as well as chameleon friendly is when I'll get my two starter chameleons. My current chameleon might be jealous of the set-up but her cage is rather spiffy too. I might pick your brain some throughout the process and I really hope you don't mind. For the babies, I have a huge industrial shelving unit and I plan to make 30 or so baby cages myself. Cylinder or square cages... I haven't decided yet. http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Lizard-Care/Building-Lizard-Cage/ I found this link to be quite useful on the matter. As much as I'd love to buy dragonstrand's nursery, I would rather cut some costs somewhere and this is one of those places. I love that idea because no matter how many babies there are, making a cage to fit their size is very doable when done in that fashion. I just plan to switch up a few things about the cages because I don't like plastic plant dishes as the cover (I don't feel like thats a good idea with the lighting). How did you house your many babies?
The only thing I need to point out is the shelf cage u have will need to modify with some screens or ventilation,the chameleon u plan to keep will do much better on the screen cage than all close off wood panel,the air will be stagnant and cause the chameleon to breathe in none circulation air,and possibly cause the respiratory infections.
As far as the babies,I kept them in 12x10 multiple containers for easy feeding n cleaning purposes until they ready for the cage to hunt their feeders on their own.
I monitor them all day to prevent any loss on the baby especially during their first 3month of their growth periods,non stop daily routine day after day.
CandyCham
Member
Yes, I did point out the replacement of screening. It's a Huge cage, ventilation will be no problem. It's almost 7 feet tall!
Great ,the whole process will take u about 3years to get a good results.depending on how u planning to raise the juvenile chameleon to adult stages(1solid year) mating them n for the female to lay eggs and wait to hatch( another solid year) raising the babies to adult(another year) along with breeding ur own gutloaded feeders.
CandyCham
Member
Ah yes, the lengthy process. I'm at the stage in researching where it's mainly about dealing with so many babies and rehoming them. I don't want to skimp on their care or rush them into homes ignorantly.
That is another thing u will have to solve along the whole process...
Basically U will need Time and patience on ur side,if one thing off ur daily routine (especially when the babies hatched) then u might have to spend more time to get back on track.just give u an example on the feeders part,u will have to learn how to keep ur baby crickets healthy n alive prior to feed them to ur cham babies ,and depending on how many baby chameleon u keep at the time ,u will have to keep up with their food intake ,u can go thru 5000 cricket easily or even way more.
CandyCham
Member
I'm assuming that is 5000 in a week? I do plan to breed crickets and start that a few months prior to their arrival and dubias for when they are older as I like them better. I might do the flightless fruit flies. I will see.
5000 crickets is just the low number in a week for me,I usually start them with the 1/8 since the pinheads are too small(they are tiny little dot) n goes even quicker,I use to use the fruitfly but it gets more messy plus the crickets will do the same results maybe even quicker.
Andee
Chameleon Enthusiast
In my opinion you should have flies, dubias, and crickets available. Then offer as often as possible, young silkworms and hornworms if you can. Black soldier flie larvae are good to have too if you can get them small enough. There is tons of other possibilities to add but those will make a good base.
The new born are very tiny,fruitfly maybe,the rest of the feeders type will wait till the babies gets bigger a bit.
Andee
Chameleon Enthusiast
In my opinion, you should be able to feed even neonates pin head crickets, fruit flies, very young silkworms if you hatch them and if you can get them get them young hornworms (which is why I always hatch mine). I don't know how small soldier fly larva get so I can't offer any info on that. However I think if you could get soldier flies small enough they will be super amazing to include because of how healthy they are.
The fruit fly n the crickets for sure,but the silkworm it will be 50/50 chance,since the babies tend to go after the fast moving feeders that attracts them plus they can out grow the babies faster than they do unless u prepare 5000 or more newly hatched silky a week to keep up their voracious appetite ,BFSL its bits harder in shell for the newborn babies,and u can't gut load those except they contain more calcium.
@Andee any more suggestion u can think of on the beetle family or others for the new born,my bug lady guru
@Andee any more suggestion u can think of on the beetle family or others for the new born,my bug lady guru
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Andee
Chameleon Enthusiast
You technically can gutload BSFL however you are supposed to purge their guts before you feed them off. It doesn't really matter if they are gutloaded or not, because they tend to have far more nutrition than most insects who are even gutloaded. But I agree they would be harder to feed for babies. I have seen neonates fed young silkies, and in my opinion it would be better if you raised them yourself (from hatching to laying etc) in order to get the numbers and ratios you needed. Just because they out grow the babies don't mean they aren't useful anymore, you can feed them to adults, and save some for breeding/laying purposes. (in my opinion it all depends on how much work you want to put into the babies and them having healthy diets) I am not at all saying you didn't put enough work, just I would do it a lot differently compared to how most breeders do it, even the hobbiests.
I start feeding them silky when they were around 2month old,because they were never pay attention to the worm,plus having 100plus or more babies to feed and tracking them their intake were a non stop duty for me besides with my other house pets,so I concentrate on the baby crickets when the crucial time on the panther babies,since they will constantly chase after the crickets without touching any silkworm (age 1month old prior),plus its easier for me to get whole bunch more crickets than waiting for the silkworm baby to hatch or coming in (out of stock mostly)after their crucial first month ,Thats when I introduced the baby roach,tiny silky along with cricket into their diet,since they are getting their steady growth routine under my care,each babies can eat between 15 to 25or more of the feeder a day,that will drive me to the wall if I try to hatch 20000 silky every month before my chameleon room turn into a big silky cotton web n separate the silky eggs in those tiny dishes 500 a dish
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