can you use the mealworm beetles as food?

[ADEE]

When you have mealworms and they turn into the beetles, can you feed those beetles to the red eyes? I had purchased 1,000 mealworms from my supplier to feed as treats to my beardeds and we dont use them.. 90% of them have now morphed into the beetles, we had to toss our entire bin of crickets tonight because of an ant invasion that was coming inside so it would be a day or so before we can pick up more crickets.. so i was wondering is there any harm in feeding them? at least this way were using them up...

thanks!!!

[ADEE]

:bump: so this thread stays ontop since its more important. .thanks

[mlededee]

i've never fed anything the beetles because they seem pretty tough and i'm not sure how much meat is really in them. you can feed the larvae before they morph into beetles though. i'd just keep the beetles and start my own colony so you don't ever have to buy mealworms again.

[ADEE]

are the larva the stage just before the beetles? we have a TON of those too!.. that would be awesome if we could get some use out of them.

[PythonWallace]

I don't think the beetles taste very good. My leopard geckos, veiled chameleons, collared lizards and frogs would all take meal worms, but I've never had one that would eat the beetles. I agree that you should put the beetles in a plastic shoebox with a few inched of oat bran, with spirulina and fish food. Add a few pieces of vegies once a week for moisture and in a month you won't have to buy meal worms anymore.

[MATT FISHER REPTILES]

my beardies and lepord / creasted geckos eat the crap out of them.

[ADEE]

matt, the beetles or the actual mealworms

[mlededee]

fyi, mealworms are not a good choice of insect for cresteds. they cannot digest the chitinous shells, meaning they don't get much if any nutrition out of them. this means they serve only as filler, and not as actual nutrional value. if you must feed mealworms to your cresteds you should cut off the heads first, so that at least some of the nutritious insides will get out and be able to be used by the gecko. as for the beetles, i would imagine that since they move cresteds would try to eat them, but again, i'm really not sure how much nutritional value they have or if cresteds are able to digest them enough to get any value out of them.

[ADEE]

cresties dont eat those here infact they dont eat any insects as of right now they are on the cgd full time

thank you Emily as always for the great info!!!

I might just try and see if i can locate some of the roaches, even though they totally creep me out its better than having to break cricket legs and deal with the ant issue we have had since we brought the crickets in.