Mealworms, hmmm..

[Cara]

I think I am going to start raising them for my quail, and also because i'm a fishing nut

My question is, how to you separate them from the sawdust, do you pick them out one by one? And how do you feed them without them wriggling away?

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
I kept mine in CHICKEN FOOD not sawdust.
Then every week or so, cut a potato in half and put it cut side down on top of the chicken food.

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

Most of them come packed in wheat bran so all you really got to do is pick them up and not worry about the packing material unless it really is sawdust. Other than that get a deep dish and set it down in the quail's litter material so they can just reach in easily. They still might crawl out but once the quail know that mealworms are food and in the bowl they most likely won't have a chance to escape.

 

[smpezzi]

Here are some links I found, I didn't read all the way through allof them though

Hope they help some

http://www.sialis.org/feeder.htmnnhttp://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htmnnhttp://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/downloads/RaisingMealworms.pdfnnhttp://exoticpets.about.com/cs/reptiles/ht/mealworms.htmnnhttp://www.efinch.com/mealworms/mealworm.htmnnhttp://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef002.asp

 

[Omniskies]

Back when we had reptiles we used to raise mealworms. They smell _awful_, but are insanely easy to raise.

Warning: Mealworms that are swallowed whole _can_ chew their way through reptile stomachs and bird crops. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. We got around this by pinches the heads with tweasers. For a while the body wriggles around but there's no risk to the animal.

If you want to raise bird/fish food I highly recommend African Crickets. They're painfully easy to raise, are risk free and make great bait. I'm also trying out red worms to see what I can do with those. I doubt we'll bother with mealworms again.

 

[Cara]

I have an irrational fear of crickets and grasshoppers LOL

 

[kees]

You can keep them in a container with some holes poked in the top with lots of dry oatmeal and slices of apples.

 

[Nessy]

What kind of stuff do you feed crickets? Newspaper?