My hedgie has worms!

[Schmuzzle's Mom]

No, not internal parasites, but as in meal worms. :slurp: I am keeping my meal worms in the fridge live now, cause she just seems to like them better than frozen and defrosted. Here are my questions:

1. How long can I keep them in the fridge for? :confused:

2. Do they stay nutritional even when "sleeping" in the fridge for a week or so, or do they lose nutritional value over time? :confused: I'm not feeding them in the fridge.

3. If I put them in her treat dish overnight and she does not eat them, how long does it take for them to morph into beetles? :confused: I do not want beetles in the house. Can the beetles fly or do they crawl. I just dont want to think she is eating them and in reality they are morphing after warming up for a few hours and getting into the house.

4. She seems to like her bugs of all types better if hand fed by me than in her dish. Anyone else have this experience? :rolleyes:

Thanks for your helpful advice in advance! :applause:

[Ginger]

Ouf !
I was scared a bit when I saw the title of yout thread ! You know how to get the attention of people here ! :laugh: :applause:

1) personnaly, in the fridge maybe for 1-2 months
2) same thing... I never give food to the worms (isn't that ironic, they are in the fridge !) :laugh:
3) Oh my god ! :eek: Beetles can came out of that ?!!! :scared: I didn't know that ! I'll say after 2-3 hours, take them off the bowl.
4) I always place the mealworms in front of Kiwi when I want to give her some. Like that, I am sure to know where the worms goes !

Don't forget, not too much the worms ! It can cause some ugly green poops if the hedgie eat too much of those ! :Pukey:

[Schmuzzle's Mom]

When I hand feed her worms, she will eat 3-4 and that's all I give her since it is only a treat. crickets only 1-2 or 3 cause they are bigger.

[RoxieFaye]

It takes quite a while for them to morph into beetles. Don't worry about them being in the bowl over night. :) I raised mealies for a while (got too gross for me) and it took a couple weeks for them to morph.

[Ginger]

Me I never give her more than 2 mealworms every 3-4 days because one time, I gave her 4 and she had some intestine troubles (green poops). I almost sure it is because of that.

[Schmuzzle's Mom]

Thanks alot for the news on the morphing.....I am so relieved. How long would you leave them in a dish if they were put in from the fridge live........would you leave them in overnight and then if not eaten.......the next day all day?

Do they go bad quickly? I figure if live at night say 9pm, then not eaten and left the following day, that would be ok, since I can't even tell if they are dead and not just slower from not eating or whatever, unless I prod them which I am not interested in doing, I would feel like I was torturing them more than they already are kinda suffering. Weird I know........but they are still living creatures after all.....you should see the setup the crickets have while being kept as food for the frogs! I am such a nut! :laugh:

[Schmuzzle's Mom]

Any other responses to the questions? I would really love to hear from anyone else.......experienced or not. All input is interesting........

[PrettyHate]

They turn into this worm looking white thing before they start to turn into a beatle, so that is kinna a heads up.

Now Im not totally sure on this, but I would assume that if you are feeding bugs to something for nutritional values, the bug has to have some kind of food in them to give them that value. IE- before I feed crickets to my toads, I make sure they have had food and water for at least 24 hours before the frogs eat them. That way the toads are getting the nutrience from the bug, as well as from what the bug was eating. This is called gut loading.

I would think that it would be the same for meal worms. If it was me, I would probably keep a peice of carrot or something in there for them to nibble on in case they do get hungry. Although Im not sure if they will indeed eat while they are "hibernating". Even if they dont eat (pretty sure they dont? ) their bodies are probably still metabolizing nutrience. Dont know if that is correct, but it makes sense to me :laugh:

The whole point of keeping them in the fridge is to slow down the morphing process.

If you arent going to be buying a bunch of them (say you only have enough to last you a week or so), then I would say probably keep them out of the fridge so that they can eat etc. If youre going to be getting more than that (say a months worth or more) -I would keep them in the fridge, then take out a few a day before you are going to feed- in order to let them eat.

I hope that makes some sense....
Sorry that it is so all over the place...I was just writing down things as I thought of them.

[Nancy]

When I keep them in the fridge I don't feed them. They can last a few months in the fridge, just make sure they are warm and still alive before you give them to her.

Lately I've just been leaving them out as they just go through too many to bother with the fridge. :laugh: I will give them some of the gut load if they are out for a few days or longer. I give the crickets gut load too.

They can survive along time when out. I had a load of hedgie laundry that I didn't get at it for close to a week. As I was putting it in the washer, there was a mealie someone had missed. :)

I'm going to raise them soon, I hope. :laugh:

[horse_chic89]

can i freeze the mealies and then give her them, or is that a bad idea?