# Good feeder worms?



## DanYeomans (Jun 9, 2011)

So, I am sick to death of these tiny crickets which is all you can seem to get at the moment, so 6 months ago I decided I am going to breed all my own live food, I started of with a dubia colony which after a few adjustments I think I have sorted them now and wont be too long until I can start feeding them off, But I want my lizards to have a varied diet so I want to breed some worms to. I just brought them some wax worms and they loved them but I know there quite fatty, So my question is what is a good worm that is easy to breed and is good to feed to my lizards? 
(I know theres pros and cons to all feeder insects but I am looking for a general opinion)


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## DanYeomans (Jun 9, 2011)

Anybody? I am thinking wax worms or silk worms but I am not too sure


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## DeathRoll (Sep 10, 2012)

Mealworms are easy to breed and readily accepted by most small lizards and are a good stable food.


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## DanYeomans (Jun 9, 2011)

DeathRoll said:


> Mealworms are easy to breed and readily accepted by most small lizards and are a good stable food.


They have hard exo skeletons which could cause impactation I heard, and don't worms like wax worms provide more nutrition than meal worms anyway?


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## StuOwen86 (Nov 12, 2012)

Silk worms are very good I believe and you can buy started breeding pack too (think its * - Home Page who sell the kits), Mealies shouldn't be too much of a problem if fed as part of a varied diet and I never had any problems with the shell/exo skeletons sometimes I might just feed these or Morio's for a week depending what live food i'm using at the time or if i'm away for a long weekend as some people who I ask to check don't like feeding my lizards crickets/hoppers or dubias so I just leave a box of morio's and some plastic tweezers to feed the large mealie's or morio's.. I also gut load them with whatever veg/salad im feeding my beardies too.



Stu


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## DanYeomans (Jun 9, 2011)

I quite like the look of the silk worms, I think it may be between silk worms and calci worms, Has anybody got any experanice breeding silk worms?


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## Kaycee305 (Oct 7, 2013)

I would be interested in learning to breed calci worms also.


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## TheGuvnor (Apr 26, 2013)

Mealworms are fine and great staple feeder. Just make sure your temps are good and you gutload, and you wont be far wrong.


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

I've looked at silk worms before, but I'm not.keen on the fact the options for feeding the worms is so.limited and that you'd need to buy the specific food for them..

Calci worms look good, anyone got any idea's on how to breed these??

Tiger

Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2


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## jarich (Mar 23, 2012)

From what I have heard from talking to those that breed them, calci worms, or Phoenix worms, are pretty simple to breed. Be warned that they turn into a rather annoying adult though. They are the larva of the black Soldier fly. If you have them, give them about two weeks outside the fridge and youll soon have a swarm of buzzing black flies. 

As for what else to breed, the more the merrier. Try not to think of it in terms of 'staple' insects. Breed as many different kinds of inverts as you can and then feed them all. Nightcrawlers are pretty easy to breed and are a great feeder if your reptile eats them. Isopods have the best Ca ratio of any invert available, again if your reptile will eat them. Mealworms are fine, but I wouldnt recommend them as a large part of the diet. Roaches of various species, locusts, crickets, hornworms, big headed beetles, and the like are also great to add to the mix and relatively easy to breed.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

help here for non americans.

Nightcrawlers = earthworms
Isopods = primarily we are talking about woodlice.
Hornworms = a large moth caterpillar, but banned in the EU I believe, (certainly not commercially available in the EU). 

Big headed beetles = No idea !


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## GirlyEvo8 (Jan 13, 2013)

DanYeomans said:


> They have hard exo skeletons which could cause impactation I heard, and don't worms like wax worms provide more nutrition than meal worms anyway?


According to a reptile specialist i spoke to a while ago about the best food for most lizards, depending on the size of them obviously, apparently morio worms (super worms) are great for them because they have larger areas between segments, making the exoskeleton easier to digest and is less likely to cause impaction. although they like meal worms have a certain chemical in them which can cause calcium to bind and then cause mbd, so not a good idea as a staple food with some reps :/ 
Meal worms are the easiest worms to breed in history, they will eat pretty much anything, and will breed in many different substrates, i bred some in calci sand ages ago, i left them in my airing cupboard a couple months ago, checked on them last night and i have about 100+ beetles in there and 1000+ meal worms crawling around in the substrate, i have tried sand, sawdust, soil, branflakes, coconut shavings, woodchip, they breed anywhere as long as they have a food source ^_^ 

Wax worms are a great source of protein so great for growing lizards, but as for some that convert over to more veg than protein, the fatty tissue can cause issues if fed to regularly and can also become addictive to them as they taste so good ^_^ had a rescue beardie that refused to eat anything other than wax worms, was ridiculously overweight. 

Locusts are a great form of nutrition, they have just the right amount of protein ratio and can be used as a constant staple food as with roaches which id say are the best live food to use as a staple.

Calci worms are also great for reps, i even started up a colony of woodlice once when i was short on money to feed my 2 baby beardies at the time, obviously let them breed for a few generations to ensure they were cleaned out of any possible parasites or illnesses, also made sure when i brought them in i was certain there were no physical issues such as dulling of the carapace and so on which shows they are clear from external disease, they are a great source of calcium also 

Sorry for such a long rant, i ramble alot so please excuse me,
I believe this is only correct for bearded dragons as i know many people who have fed geckos on just mealworms and crickets but never had an issue with mbd
Feel like an idiot because i pretty much said exactly the same as above haha


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## DeathRoll (Sep 10, 2012)

GirlyEvo8 said:


> According to a reptile specialist i spoke to a while ago about the best food for most lizards, depending on the size of them obviously, apparently morio worms (super worms) are great for them because they have larger areas between segments, making the exoskeleton easier to digest and is less likely to cause impaction. although they like meal worms have a certain chemical in them which can cause calcium to bind and then cause mbd, so not a good idea as a staple food with some reps :/
> Meal worms are the easiest worms to breed in history, they will eat pretty much anything, and will breed in many different substrates, i bred some in calci sand ages ago, i left them in my airing cupboard a couple months ago, checked on them last night and i have about 100+ beetles in there and 1000+ meal worms crawling around in the substrate, i have tried sand, sawdust, soil, branflakes, coconut shavings, woodchip, they breed anywhere as long as they have a food source ^_^
> 
> Wax worms are a great source of protein so great for growing lizards, but as for some that convert over to more veg than protein, the fatty tissue can cause issues if fed to regularly and can also become addictive to them as they taste so good ^_^ had a rescue beardie that refused to eat anything other than wax worms, was ridiculously overweight.
> ...


It wasn't a rant, it was very informative and you expanded on some of the things that was said above, so it was a useful post


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## GirlyEvo8 (Jan 13, 2013)

haha why thank you ^_^ however i do that alot so if you see me post it is often a rant xD my bad


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