Quote Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny View Post
The female beetles tend to be a bit bigger than the males. I just use oatmeal for now because I haven't had a chance to go grocery shopping yet. A few years ago I had started a mealworm colony that got off to a good start. Here was the mix I used as far as food.

Oatmeal
Bran Flakes
Corn Flakes
Veggies (potato, carrot, lettuce)

Warm temperatures will produce more pupa and therefore more beetles. I keep my animal room at 75+ and I bought a container of 50 medium mealworms less than a month ago. I now have 12+ pupa and almost a dozen beetles. Mealworms do take a while to get started though. You can look up the exact time period they spend in each stage, but I know they spend several weeks in the larval stage and eggs take up to 2 weeks to hatch.

If you get beetles, put them in some food and leave them alone. If there are males and females, they will breed. Do not throw away the food/bedding! Eggs and very very small larva are living in the food. At first you won't be able to see the worms, they are very tiny. I just dump this food into the worm drawer and let them grow up with the other worms.
Thanks so much that is very helpful. I'm using oatmeal for now and it seems to be working quite well. For now I'm just feeding them lettuce since that's the only thing I can find in my house that they like to snack on. Are any fruits good for them like grapes, blue berries, strawberries, etc.?