For the squishing heads - I think she was thinking of superworms. Mealworms mouths aren't big enough to bite something, but superworms now, those things can bite, and hard.
The only problem that I might see is if you fed mealworms to a too young chick. Typically with reptiles, the skin/shell of the worm is too hard and is difficult to digest. The shell is made of chitin, the same stuff our fingernails are made of. I wouldn't feed them to a chick that's under a week old. The beetles I wouldn't feed to them until they were 4-5 weeks old. That being said, chickens in my experience have iron stomachs.
Raising Mealworms:
This is the way I do it, other peoples ways may vary.
I use a sweater box that fits under my bed. I do not use the lid, mealworms nor the beetles that they turn into can crawl or fly out.
You'll need some type of bedding. I put the dust from my bags of cubed hay in the bottom of the container. Then, dump 1-2 boxes baby cereal in. Baby cereal is enriched and has many nutrients and calcium in it. I then typically put a few handfuls of oatmeal (dry) into it. Order 5000 worms. Less than that takes to long long to reproduce for me. When the worms arrive, take out any slices of potato if there are any in the box. If they are packed with egg crate material, put one in with them, if not, just remove the packing material. Dump the worms into the bin. Don't worry about any dead ones, they will get recycled. Cut up 2 potatoes and drop into the bin for water. Mealworms are stupid and will drown if there is a bowl of water in the bin.
In about 2-3 weeks (if you get the 1 inch worms) you will have weird alien looking things lying on top of the bedding. These are the pupae of the worms. Another week or two and you'll have black beetles crawling about. They will breed and lay eggs. If you keep them about 75-80 degrees, the eggs will hatch (warmer=quicker, cooler=slower) and you will see tiny worms in the bedding about 2 weeks after the beetles begin dying off. Depending on the temp in the room they will mature in about 4 weeks, but they can be fed to critters at any stage of their life.
Every week, drop in 2-3 handfuls of oatmeal and one new cut up potato. You can remove the old potato, but as long as they aren't causing any mold, I leave them. Once every other month, mine get another box of baby cereal.
Mealworms will eat anything and everything, from cotton to newspaper, fish (they love dead aquarium fish....especially comets), green peas, and various other things. Three times a week mine get leftovers from my sugar gliders. This normally consists of leftover BML (the protein portion of the gliders diet), green peas/green beans/carrots, and a small portion of squished fruit. Toss in soft foods and they will devour it. Just do it in small quantities. I've never had a problem with mold, but it's a nasty problem if you get it. If you get mold, the best thing to do is dump the container out to the adult chickens and start over. Once per year, I buy an additional 1000 mealworms to up the production and so I'll have mature worms all the time.
You can keep mealworms in the fridge as well, but they don't grow/pupate/breed at that temperature. Waxworms can be kept in the fridge as well (wonderful for fattening anything up). Do not put superworms in the fridge if you get them, it will kill them. Mealworms are about 1 inch long full grown, superworms can reach 3 inches when full grown.
I feed 4 sugar gliders, 2 bearded dragons, and 2 mice off of my mealworm colony currently, and I have 25 chicks that I'm going to pick up on the 13th of March.
I hope that you can understand my rambling, and I hope that it helps!
Emily in NC
PS - You can buy bulk mealworms pretty cheaply from online sources. I use grubco.com now, but I have also used wormman.com in the past. Grubco has larger quantities. I pay $28 after shipping for 5,000. They have quantities as high as 100,000.
The only problem that I might see is if you fed mealworms to a too young chick. Typically with reptiles, the skin/shell of the worm is too hard and is difficult to digest. The shell is made of chitin, the same stuff our fingernails are made of. I wouldn't feed them to a chick that's under a week old. The beetles I wouldn't feed to them until they were 4-5 weeks old. That being said, chickens in my experience have iron stomachs.
Raising Mealworms:
This is the way I do it, other peoples ways may vary.
I use a sweater box that fits under my bed. I do not use the lid, mealworms nor the beetles that they turn into can crawl or fly out.
You'll need some type of bedding. I put the dust from my bags of cubed hay in the bottom of the container. Then, dump 1-2 boxes baby cereal in. Baby cereal is enriched and has many nutrients and calcium in it. I then typically put a few handfuls of oatmeal (dry) into it. Order 5000 worms. Less than that takes to long long to reproduce for me. When the worms arrive, take out any slices of potato if there are any in the box. If they are packed with egg crate material, put one in with them, if not, just remove the packing material. Dump the worms into the bin. Don't worry about any dead ones, they will get recycled. Cut up 2 potatoes and drop into the bin for water. Mealworms are stupid and will drown if there is a bowl of water in the bin.
In about 2-3 weeks (if you get the 1 inch worms) you will have weird alien looking things lying on top of the bedding. These are the pupae of the worms. Another week or two and you'll have black beetles crawling about. They will breed and lay eggs. If you keep them about 75-80 degrees, the eggs will hatch (warmer=quicker, cooler=slower) and you will see tiny worms in the bedding about 2 weeks after the beetles begin dying off. Depending on the temp in the room they will mature in about 4 weeks, but they can be fed to critters at any stage of their life.
Every week, drop in 2-3 handfuls of oatmeal and one new cut up potato. You can remove the old potato, but as long as they aren't causing any mold, I leave them. Once every other month, mine get another box of baby cereal.
Mealworms will eat anything and everything, from cotton to newspaper, fish (they love dead aquarium fish....especially comets), green peas, and various other things. Three times a week mine get leftovers from my sugar gliders. This normally consists of leftover BML (the protein portion of the gliders diet), green peas/green beans/carrots, and a small portion of squished fruit. Toss in soft foods and they will devour it. Just do it in small quantities. I've never had a problem with mold, but it's a nasty problem if you get it. If you get mold, the best thing to do is dump the container out to the adult chickens and start over. Once per year, I buy an additional 1000 mealworms to up the production and so I'll have mature worms all the time.
You can keep mealworms in the fridge as well, but they don't grow/pupate/breed at that temperature. Waxworms can be kept in the fridge as well (wonderful for fattening anything up). Do not put superworms in the fridge if you get them, it will kill them. Mealworms are about 1 inch long full grown, superworms can reach 3 inches when full grown.
I feed 4 sugar gliders, 2 bearded dragons, and 2 mice off of my mealworm colony currently, and I have 25 chicks that I'm going to pick up on the 13th of March.
I hope that you can understand my rambling, and I hope that it helps!
Emily in NC
PS - You can buy bulk mealworms pretty cheaply from online sources. I use grubco.com now, but I have also used wormman.com in the past. Grubco has larger quantities. I pay $28 after shipping for 5,000. They have quantities as high as 100,000.
