Mealworms?

[bluedragon1587]

Hi, I have always been reluctant to feed mealworms to my dragon because of impaction due to chitin (sp?). But now Saki is going through a stage where all he will eat is worms, I won't be able to get silkworms off the internet for a while so right now my only options are waxworms and mealworms. Saki is 13.4 inches long, will there be a risk of feeding him mealworms until he decides to eat crickets again or when I can get silkworms?

[ace13]

have you tried feeding small superworms they have a lower level of chitin then mealies you can try www.superwormfarm.com

[Pooka]

I would not feed waxworms and mealies in the same day as waxworms have an almost laxative effect on the dragons digestive systems, this can cause chitin to impact the animal. When I don't have crickets I offer mealworms one day waxworms the day. I also highly advocate getting a trial kit of silkworms from silkwormfarms.com. You get 100 worms and food for $11 shipped that less then what I pay for waxworms locally and they are really healthy for your dragon. Good luck.

[Grover]

I tried the silkwormfarms.com website and it didn't work. is the address correct? I'd like to get Pennywise to try silkworms. He'll try any worm..once.

[Slickster]

the address is silkwormfarm (without the "s"). I did the same thing.

[jamesobrady]

Yeah dragons do have a tendancy to get addicted to worms and ignore crickets.
If you want them to go back to eating crickets you have to refrain from feeding them for a few days until they are hungry enough to eat "anything" in a way.

If my local suppplier is out of crickets i'll get worms instead of waiting till he gets crickets but everytime this happens the addiction starts again and they will ignore crickets.

Obviously you dont want to let them starve...but a good indication is to throw a cricket in right in their line of sight...if they are hungry they will eat it straight away and the "addiction" has been broken by necessity.

I find with my older dragon(12ishmonths) he rarely refuses a meall and will eat either, while the younger one (6months) has a tendancy to go for up to 3 days without eating unless it's a worm.Once you break the addiction they're fine and eating healthy again.

I know this sounds like bad advice...i thought so too when i was given it first...but it works, and they aren't going to starve themselves to death or anything what with survival instincts etc...!!

[Pooka]

James is right on from what I have seen also. It may not be fun to starve our babies but sometimes it is nessecary (and in fact is recommended when you start them on pinky mice for the first time). Personally I let pooka eat whatever she wants at about 15" snout to tail she is large enough the chitin from the small mealworms is no longer a concern for me. She generally perfers meals and supers but will eat silk worms and crickets also.

[Pooka]

for the record: Personally I am an advocate of a varied diet as opposed to getting them back on crickets. Crickets are only as healhy as what they have eaten and mealworms are high in protein but thats about it all need to be supplemenetd with dusting. Out of all the common foods superworms are the best nutrition wise in my opinion so long as your dragon is large enough to eat them (silk worms are really good nutrition also but harder to come by)

[ace13]

i agree with pooka superworms are a very great food and silkworms are good but hard to get but the problem with supers is they can get your dragon addicted to them when i had chaos she went for 3 months with out eating anything but supers because i let her just have one