Mealworms: live vs. dried

[khawks]

Are litter beetles the same thing as these mealworms???

 

[kindofodd]

Yes. Most of the commercially available mealworms are from darkling beetles (aka litter beetles). Reason being that, although they have wings, they can't fly. Matter of fact they can't even climb. And they breed like CRAZY.
That said, many many other types of beetles also produce mealworms. They're just not as easy to breed.

 

[weidnercharm]

I know this thread is old...... there are mealworm farming threads. You can find everything you need there.

 

[Leaguinea]

I know this thread is old but is it possible to overfeed meal worms to your birds.
I bought the dried ones at TSC as a supplement feed for my guineas because I have a difficult time finding any feed higher than 18% were I am. so thought I would add the mealworms to bring up their protein intake. They love them, and I am wondering if there is such a thing as too much protein?

 

[DK newbie]

There is - it puts too much strain on the organs (kidney, mainly, I think) and can cause different problems. So do watch that they don't get too many.

 

[Krickette]

I started raising meal worms last year so I could feed them to my quail but my meal worm colony has Exploded and I have Way more than I ever planned on. I am getting ready to have surgery and have decided to sell off my quail (and some ducks) because I need to downsize my bird herd. (I have over 100 birds if you count chickens, ducks, geese and quail) I feed meal worms to my chickens too but have decided to see if I can sell my meal worms locally. First I have to learn how to dehydrate them, which is what I am doing today. If any of you have experience with this, I'd Love to hear about it.

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Hey krikette,

Why not try freezing them? Less fiddling that drying, and they'll last the same amount of time frozen.

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Oops, you'd have to freeze them first to kill them before drying anyway.

 

[Krickette]

Oops, you'd have to freeze them first to kill them before drying anyway.

I thought of that but I wonder if people will want to store meal worms in their fridges. If dried they can store them in with their chicken feed.

 

[nhbradley]

It depends on if you were adding nutrition to the live ones (called a gut load) or not. The dead ones are dehydrated, empty stomach contents (less overall nutrition compared to live/gut loaded) which is how that protein gets so high.

I use the dry as a treat to bring them home easier, but I don't rely on them to be the main protein source because they don't have any other nutrients in them. If that makes sense. You can give live ones a gut load of high protein starter or game feed, and sprinkle with calcium (for reptiles) to give to layers. Then simply serve less of them, to spread your supply a little farther.

If you're raising them they should have gut loads. It's the live ones that are store bought that do not have a gut load.

Or just mix the dried with the live, and give both, reducing what is coming out of your bins.