too many mealworms!

[Zoe_Ball]

I first got my little grump ball, Zoe, In September. She's always a little angry, so after reading your thread on grumpy headgehogs, I bought her some emalworms. The first time I bought her big ones, and she only ate a a few halves of them, so this time around I bought her the tiny ones. I am a vegetarian and also really grossed out by mealworms, so I had my boyfriend take them out of the container (lots of sawdust) and put them in a bowl for Zoe. I assumed she would treat the mealworms like she treats her dried food: eat a little and leave most of it, like a cat. But this morning, all of those mealworms are gone. ACK! :eek:

so, my questions is: what do I do? Zoe looks ok (still grumpy and huffy), so I can't tell if she ate all the mealworms and went on a "binge" (all her dried food is gone too) or if she dragged the mealworms from one of her cages (she has one side with fleece and then a tunnel to another with all her play stuff and wood chippy stuff) and put them in the wood chips so she could root around. Does anyone have any experience with this? I am really worried that she is going to be really sick if she ate them all, and really concerned about cleaning her cages if she put them in the wood.

Danielle

[Sarah+Sonic]

LOL! Zoe did the same thing that a little child would do if you handed them a bin of candy. Keep an eye on Zoe-if she doesnt defecate, or seems bloated, try a warm bath. The thing that came to mind first is constipation from the mealworms exoskeleton

Sarah

[Nancy]

Or she could get green poops or diarhea as too many mealies can upset their tummies.

A couple of mealies every few days is more than enough. :)

[Schmuzzle's Mom]

My vet recommended that 1/3 of Muzzie's diet be bugs. She is getting about 3 average (1/2 inch) or 4 small (1/4 inch) crickets per night as well as 2-3 meal worms which are quite small. :Pukey: Is this too much? She seems to be doing ok.....that has been about 1 week since I increased her bugs. She weighs 200g........or at least she did last week at the vet's office. Lots of normal poos........ :confused:

[equus_peduus]

BTW, mealworms generally come in a wheat bran type stuff, and my experience with mealworms (a gecko) is that they tend to crawl out of the dish you put them in and under stuff and then when you clean the cage later, you find a bunch of dead/dying mealworms >.< The solution being, put them in something with a high enough edge the mealworms can't get out, but low enough the critter can get in (which was tricky with the gecko...)