mealworm advice please!

[TarantulaGirl549]

So I feed all my tarantulas mealworms.

I've bought mealworms where they have lasted, not pupated (if thats the correct term) and have all been gobbled up by my babies.

Anyway, this last recent pack of mine, the worms have all gone rubbery white, shed skins and turned in to beetle like things.
I never keep them near heat either :/ .
Shall I continue to feed them to my T's? Or shall I dispose of them humanely?

I suppose it wouldn't be any different to feeding cockroaches, I'm still slightly unsure.

Any help is much appreciated, Jen

 

[HungryGhost]

I don't think meal worms are a good food choice for tarantulas to begin with. Nutritionally, roaches and crickets are much better for the health of tarantulas. I do feed an occasional super worm to my adult T but only every other month.

 

[Christell Erasmus]

Hi there
I am with HungryGhost on that one. I would not recommend meal worms either. I breed my own cockroaches which I find the easiest and best for my babies. Meal worms can bite and hurt your tarantula, burrow in the substrate of the enclosure and then become difficult to remove or caught by the T, and I find they are not nutritional.

 

[TarantulaGirl549]

Thank you for the advice, I am aware that they can bite, hence why I kill them first.
I feel a bit mislead as when I first got in to the hobby I was advised that mealworms were a good food choice for T's. Seems as if I'm doing it wrong, although my T's are very happy and healthy.

 

[Christell Erasmus]

Your tarantulas are really stunning. For a long time I also fed my tarantulas meal worms until mine did the same as yours, turned into a beetle. I then decided to look into breeding my own food. I tried breeding crickets but that was unsuccessful. I breed roaches and now I don't have to spend money on food for my babies.

 

[TarantulaGirl549]

Thank you . If I had my own place I'd attempt breeding, unfortunately where I am at the moment it's strictly a no no!
I did however feed roaches to my T's when I first got in to the hobby and they just ignored them, the buggers used to burrow and hide away and my T's and the T's wouldn't show any feeding interest at all. The same with my slings, I tried them on pinkies and that failed... So, I moved to mealworms and now my T's jump for the kill and gobble them all up, they all seem happy on them.
I would hate to think that I am doing something wrong, but I have read quite a few different success stories on feeding mealworms to tarantulas.
What do you think about waxworms? I've heard they are more of a treat.

 

[Christell Erasmus]

If meal worms work better for you and your tarantulas then continue. I just hated opening the meal worm container and it was full of beetle thingies. The most important thing is that your tarantulas are happy. What works for one doesn't always work for someone else. I haven't had any experience with wax worms so I really give my opinion, Maybe some of the other members who use wax worms can give you more info on that.

 

[TarantulaGirl549]

Thank you , also, what did you do when they went to beetles? I'm thinking with the heat we've had recently they've decided to turn...

 

[Christell Erasmus]

I threw them out. Don't know how healthy they are to tarantulas so i rather did not feed them to my T's.

 

[MatthewM1]

While mealworms high chitin and fat content makes them an unhealthy staple diet for herps, there's no solid evidence that it is the same for T's. Many people use them as the staple of their T's diet without issue. I don't use them often personally but that's only because I enjoy keeping roach colonies so much and have more roaches than than all my critters could eat if they tried, not because of any dietary concerns. The beetles are fine to feed off, but I've heard they seem to get ignored by some. Or just keep them and start a little colony

 

[Christell Erasmus]

MatthewM1 That is very interesting, I did not know you could feed them the beetles.