gut loading meal worms

[opihiman]

As noob i have been reading as much as I can to get as much information as possible. This fourm has been very helpful at openning my eyes to how difficult this truely is...it's science!!!!

Anyway in my reading I have beening finding how important it is to gut load food...I was wondering if cereal (life, cheerios, etc) is OK...I noticed that when you by meal worms it comes with grain for food. Since most cereals are grain products with vitamin and mineral fortification I thought it would be a good food source for them...I there some aspect of this that I am missing that would be not good for the Chams.

My male seems to love the meal worms and is showing no ill effects.

Thanks

OPI

 

[Tygerr]

The problem with mealworms is not simply a case of inadequate gutloading. The reason they aren't good staple feeders is due to their high fat content, and also due to the realtively high proportion of chitin in their exoskeleton (in relation to the amount of meat content they have).

In her article, "A Bugs Nutrition", Dr. Sue Donaghue points out that 67% of the calories obtained from mealworms come from fat (as opposed to 47% in crickets and only 25% in silkworms).

The high chitin content could lead to digestion/impaction problems if the cham is fed mealworms exclusively.

The basic conclusion is that mealworms are a good addition to a cham's diet if gutloaded correctly, and used for variety in the diet, but not used as a staple/exclusive feeder.

If you want to learn more about keeping them, read Don Well's article, "Mealworms".

As for using cereal as a gutload - it's fine provided it's not the only gutload you're using. Baby cereal is an ingredient used in the Wells/James/Lopéz gutload. But for the gutload to be more complete nutritionally you need to also be using fresh veggies, fruits and greens as gutload. I keep my mealworms in a bedding that is a combination of a few grain cereals, wheatgerm, brewer's yeast and milk powder. Then I alternate fresh veggies and fruit on a flat dish above the bedding (carrots, apples, squash, orange, etc.). The tubs they sell the mealworms in usually contain nothing but bran, and that is certainly not good enough to use as a gutload.

 

[dodolah]

Please don't use cheerios or any other cereal (except the one for babies).
The amount of sugar that they have in them is bad for your cham.

 

[opihiman]

I guess the little yogurt balls in the cereal would be a bad idea too then...

As an after thought. I read that earth worms are a good source of protein for Chams.
I have two about year old jackson. would earthworms be OK for them...if so how would you attempt to feed them these earth linguine.....I can see it now my jackson with a worm half in and half out....Nah on second thought dumb question...

thanks every one

OPI

 

[Roni013]

I heard if the cham doesnt bite the worms head off it can still be a live and kill it from the inside out. I've never heard of such a thing, any one else?

 

[AndrewH]

I heard if the cham doesnt bite the worms head off it can still be a live and kill it from the inside out. I've never heard of such a thing, any one else?

Its an old wives tale, their stomach acid will kill it.