mealworm beetles?

[ImBooBy]

Hi, I was wondering if it would be ok to use mealworm beetles as a staple for my dragon. I breed mealworms for my geckos so i have plenty of beetles. I have read in a few caresheets that its ok, but some doesnt put them down as a food item. My main concern is the difficulty of digesting beetles for a young dragon. My dragon is only about 7 inches long and is still feeding on mid sized crickets. I just dont like having to move him to a different tub for feeding.
So does anyone just leave a bowl of beetles in their tank? Any opinion or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou

[AkHerps]

No, neither mealworms or their beetles are a good staple for most reptiles. They have too high a shell to meat ratio, meaning they have more shell than meat. As an adult, your beardie will also need more salad/fruits/etc..than meat. If your tank is big enough, you can just put a big enough container in it when it's time to feed, and take it out when he's done eating. Thats what I did.

[redstormlax12]

I have fed leo's some of the beetles and they loved them. While beardies should not be eating mealworms as a staple, Im not sure what the chitin to meat ratio is on the beetles or the actualy nutrional value. I would say just stick with the typical feeders for beardies, roaches, supers and crickets. If your already breeding mealies then Id suggest breeding some roaches. They take almost no effort and breed like crazy. If you can breed mealies you can easily hold down several colonies of roaches.

[AkHerps]

Yeah I breed dubia roaches and turk roaches, way easier to breed than crickets, and they are just great!

[jfreels]

I give the beetles to my dragons as a treat. My leo's won't touch them. Just keep an eye on the dragons digestion. Mine poop like clockwork twice a day.

[ImBooBy]

Ok i talked to a local breeder here and he feeds mainly crickets. I asked him about mealworms and he said the beetles are ok for adults but youngsters just cant digest them well enough for it to be safe. I asked about just plain mealworms and again i got the chitin answer. Then i came to another question...what if I only feed out mealworms that have just freshly shed? The white mealworms will have no shell and be very soft. He said hes never tried but if the dragon eats it and poops solid without mealworm bits in it then its ok. Anyone ever tried this?

[AkHerps]

If you can get enough white ones, but there's never a lot at one time and I had a couple thousand mealworms in my colony. But they really don't have the good nutrition that a young beardie needs.

The key is variety, you don't want to have just one staple, although it isn't bad for a reptile, they will be really help when fed a variety of protein sources, crickets, mealworms, roaches, etc..

[ImBooBy]

I have a 50K plus colony due to my large gecko collection. Yeah i was just asking to see if its ok to feed. I dont want to feed him crickets all the time...figure it would get old....

[AkHerps]

Crickets are a good staple for most reptiles, and you can supplement with mealworms and their beetles.

[Oxylepy]

You could breed roaches and crickets. They would work.