How To Care For Feeder Insects? | FAQ FRIDAYS 

a mealworm that i forgot in one of my leopard geckos food dish pupated and i found him as a beetle the other day in the dish, lying on his back. i felt really bad for the thing so i put him in a container.... where he then fell over on his back again. so i put him in a critter keeper with some hides and carrots and named him dennis. he still falls over

The only thing that sucks about owning insectivores. You become a insect owner as well 😂

The "substrate" that came with the superworms is called BRAN. This is way better than oatmeal!

if you put the wax worms in the fridge they will last for about 2 months. just thaw what your gonna feed and when they start moving again ( takes about 20 mins) they are ready to feed never once had a moth

Omg I have crickets and I shiver when feeding my animals because they are disgusting And when you put your hand in the cricket tub I legit screamed

For meal worms, to help them last longer w/o pupating, here is what has worked well for me: Take them out of the fridge, allow them to warm up, add food as you have, let them eat for 12-24 hours, use what you need to feed lizard, put them back in the fridge. I now use a commercial meal worm substrate and then add some commercial meal worm chow, both are sold online in the US. The substrate is bran mixed with dehydrated veggies and other meal worm-happy ingredients. Gut loads them really well. Makes the lowly meal worm quite a nutritious food. I am also trying wild sow bugs I find in my yard (no pesticides). I'll let you no how it goes. My leo does eat them but chooses meal worms first. Good source of calcium according to an LA Zoo curator, but they have to be pesticide-free and fertilizer-free of course, that is crucial. I know you are against wild bugs, I will experiment for you. I raised a toad on them, still kicking after 2 years.

I work in a pet store, and we always sell our worms with wheat germ. You can find it at most grocery stores. If you have trouble finding it you can also try oatmeal. As far a bugs in the fridge most of them won’t last long but meal worms do really well in the fridge and it stops them from pupating almost completely

And those flakes that are with the crickets and mealwormz might be bran. I raise mealworms and that is what i use. For mealwormz you can use just straight wheat bran or oats (oatmeal) as substrate. They eat the bran and it provides substrate for them to burry in. Same goes for the crickets

You can put mealworms and wax worms in the butter tray in the refrigerator door. Colder temps make them hibernate which makes them last 6 to 8 weeks.

put the waxworms in the fridge it puts them to sleep so they last longer

Thanks! I'm getting a leopard gecko and was wondering how to take care of their food. Now I know. Thanks so much!

I have used raw oatmeal as bedding for mealworms and that worked really well

OMG thank you so much. I had been looking everywhere on how to keep my insects alive for my leopard gecko and although I got a overall view you just went in depth and it helped so much. Thank you

Cheers for this. I’ve just bought a scorpion and watched lots of videos on their care...but never thought about the crickets (who are also fascinating to watch)

Could you do more Beginner videos? I’m getting a leopard gecko for Christmas and I have learned a lot from your videos and was wondering things I can learn besides the basics.

I love your videos, they’re so informative and concise

Super awesome video and so informative!! I have a crestie, so I don’t feed live food very much, but I absolutely love watching all your videos!❤️

Yes ive really been waiting for this video

I am a new leopard gecko owner and your videos not only informed me on everything i need to know on the care of my new baby girl but your videos also SAVED HER LIFE they sold me calcium sand and she got severely impacted so i followed your advise looked at her belly it was no longer translucent it was black. And she lost weight in her tail and her belly swelled. So i gave her a warm soak in the bath and wow the amount of sand that came out of her was crazy . I immediately emptied out her tank of all sand placed paper towels then went a couple hours later when i noticed she started moving around much better to get eco earth and she loves it so much. Thank you so much for all your help and knowledge you put out there ! She is a happy healthy lepord gecko that has a comfy safe place to live thanks to you. I told the pet store what happened and asked that they suggest to people when buying a new lepord geico to get the eco earth they sell instead of the calcium sand so I hope they do. Again thank you so much!

Oh my goodness thank you so so much! I was wondering how you keep the food alive and this has really helped me! Thanks!

This video is gold dust! Thank you!

The powder stuff is called Flukers high-calcium cricket diet

i love your videos always very helpfull and its net\ver heavy to listen to :) I thank you for that!

thank you!!! i'm getting my gecko in 2-3 weeks and i was nervous about keeping the insects alive. also i love your channel, it has helped to research to prove my parents i can care for a gecko.

Thanks so much for all you teach us !!!!!! I love leopard geckos and your channel ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈❤️

I needed this thank you ❤🙏❤🙏❤🙏❤🙏🙏❤🙏❤🙏❤🙏❤🙏🙏

I'm pretty sure the substrate is wheat like crushed wheat'a'bix I've used dry porridge and it works fine as well as oatmeal flakes

Me on the outside:I see so you gotta make them fat Me on the inside of my brain:THEY GOTTA BE THICCCCCC

I use porridge oats or crushed weetabix as extra bedding for insects

The bedding looks like wheat bran! (: That’s what all of my feeders come with as well. Also I refrigerate my waxworms. They’re best on the door, since that’s the highest temp in the fridge. You don’t want to cool them down so much that they die, just cold enough that they stop growing. :) It sounds like maybe yours were a bit too cold!

The sandlike material on the bottom of the Morio 'worms' container looks like casting (poop) & is a good fertilizer for plants. Most of these ' worms' are sent in wheat bran, which they eat & live in. They also like oat meal & like the crickets, need a few fresh vegetable or fruit for hydration.

Wax worms last forever in the fridge

Where do you order your insects from? You seem to have a good supplier!

Nice! I usually keep 130 crickets in a ten gallon tank. For my wax worms I usually keep them in a fridge. Now one day before I feed my geckos I take out a couple wax worms and gut load em. It makes them last *much* longer. When they are out for a day or two they wake up.

Thanks you are so helpful since I’m a new gecko owner

You can use oatmeal or the stuff your crickets came in which is oat bran. I have wax worms in an enclosed space in the fridge. It’s not as cold as the rest of the space. If you take out what you’re going to feed the night before and put them in another container, you can put in some food so they will have eaten before they’re feed out. I do the same thing with my mealworms. It is a cost savings and your pet gets just fed food!

YES, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :)

Hey girl I use oats as food for my feeders along with carrots or potatoes for hydration!

There needs to be more people like you on RU-vid. People who get to the point and give reliable information. Most people just care about views and money ,but i can tell that you actually care about these animals.

couple of questions 1. for a gargoyle gecko where can i find clean up crew 2. do you buy your crickets off eBay or???? 3.since im an american is there any place i could get all the supplies in her Equipment haul where can i buy the items (sorry if i misspell a word also please comment in order)

I used a plastic tub to store my crickets. About 20 liters. Also I've seen people use large garbage/rubbish bins. The more crickets you buy, generally the cheaper they are. You can get the bug gel as water storing crystals on Amazon or home stores.

I know this video is old but the stuff that goes with the mill worms and the super worms and crickets is wheat brand that comes in the containers

Hey love, I have a tip about keeping the wax worms from pupating quickly. If you keep them in he fridge, it helps slow down the process. That’s what I do and it seems to help. Love and light🖤

Usually I feed any pupas I find, and than any waxworks that look like they may pupate soon, which prevents them from turning into waxmoths

That stuff with the crickets look like wheat bran, oat bran works too :) I use it for my superworms as well so you can use those for your supers :)

The "stuff" your feeders come with is usually bran. You can buy it wherever you find oatflakes.

these videos are helpful I got a leapord gecko 3 days ago

love your vids your amazing

Porridge oats are a good substrate for the morios

I use a storage bin. Poke holes in the lid put egg carton for them to hide it works out great

Thank you so much for your videos. You're an inspiration for me. I breed all kind of inverts like tarántulas, centipedes, scorpions, real spiders and live food like dubias, runners, cinereas, crickets, mealworms, zophobas etc. Yesterday i bought my first leopard gecko, a young Blizzard that i love, he eats so much ans it's the first gecko, i hope, from many. May be next month i'll get albino super hypo and tangerine. Keep the hard work.

Where do you keep your feeding insects? In a cool dark place or does it not matter? I love your channel!!! You’re fantastic at this and I can’t wait to get my leopard gecko!

The stuff is wheat bran. You can buy it in Hollanda and B or supermarkets.

I ordered crickets for the first time and ordered them to small so I put them on my back porch so that it was warmer but they wouldnt be exposed to weather and they would grow quicker. Then got some from the pet store to feed to my gecko while the others are growing

I have had the opposite experience with crickets, letting them in the original box makes them last longer. I must say that I get new crickets every week, but when I used to put them in a big container, they would all die in like 4 days, while now they last a whole week, with very few losses, if any. It might have been luck though. I always have a piece of potato in the box for hydration, as it doesn't mold, and just dries up with no smell, and I feed them fruits or veggies every day, for the nutrition. I like carrot the best, as it doesn't mold, just like the potato.

I know what you're talking about with the floppy waxworms after they're refrigerated. You just have to put them in a warm place like over a heat for 15-20 minutes and they start to turn to their normal state. :)

I use Kretschmer's wheat germ as meal worm bedding eventually replacing when it all turns to poo... Crickets, I add sani-chips to the floor to absorb cause they are so nasty!

I think the stuff that comes in the cricket packs is wheat bran. Get it really cheap at a feed store

thx needed them for my tarantula's

Just brilliant really needed this video thanx heeps paula England

The substrate that the supers and mealies come with us usually called bran. I buy mine from rainbow mealworms but I’m not sure if they deliver to the uk.

Question: where do you get your feeder insects from? Love watching your videos keep up the good work

The stuff that the crickets come in is called wheat bran

Yup they're oats! And in some stores you can buy them cheap by the scoopful

When I got my first reptile, for the first month or so, I wasn’t feeding the insects at all. Then I was wondering why they were dying off so quickly. I mean now, they’re fed properly but I wish I had done more research on the insects after I was done researching the animal.

I feed my tarantula super worms and mealworms once they turn into beetles my T loves the adult meal worm beetles just as much so pupating makes no differences my case, I have in the past put around 15 mealworms into my T tank because it’s big and has 5 inches of substrate so I let them turn into beetles in my T tank and as each bettor pops up at the surface he gets them it’s a sufficient way to feed your T if your on vacation or busy

thanks

aside from my story: another tip is to keep cheap polythene gloves (thin, clear, non latex and used by food service people) and surgical masks around when cleaning-- im particularly allergic to the dust or poop or whatever the mealworms/roaches make, so i be sure to always wear a mask and gloves when im doing anything with their containers. even if youre not allergic its safer! i also use large tea strainers to sift out the frass weekly, keeps way more alive

It's called Cricket food those flakes that came with your crickets, u can use them for crickets and mealworms/superworms, u can buy em on eBay

PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON HOW TO INTRODUCE THEM TO MEAL WORMS

Is there a similar product to the Arcadia insect fuel? I can't seem to find it to purchase in the US!

Is it ok to feed the pupae to your gecko? Mines 4 months old and doesn’t seem to have a problem but I do remove them from her feeding dish whenever I see one, btw love the vids very informative keep up the good work

Those flakes are wheat bran. Add a bedding of 1in if wheat bran or quick oats and they will eat it and last much longer.

hey i recently started to breed worms and they seem to have gotten out of control, the constantly escape through the little cracks, the freshly hatched ones, or the hole in the lid, i just tried to put some tape to see how that would work but keeping them is really annoying

You can find that bedding in a feed store..they are goat food it’s basically wheat bran that goats eat...so u should find it in your local feed store.

I have an empty 10 gallon with a screen lid that's in a trailer outside my house... I really don't want my house to stink. Its gets just a little cold at night, no lower than 50° but hopefully they don't die. Meal worms are gr8 for this time of year

That substrate is "BRAN". I went to the "Grain Bins" where farmers take their grains during harvest, etc. That's where I went & got 50 lbs. for $16,00, So, it will take you some time to go thru it, but that depends on what you are raising. What I don't know is how LONG do you have between putting them in, breed, etc. Guess I'll go to fellow Exotic feeds for the exotic animals.

I save a bit of money with mealworms. Since I only have one gecko right now, all I did was I used the old tank of my gecko's and filled it with unflavored oats, a carton, and some fruit/veggies that I change out a ton to create a breeding colony. So that's super helpful, since they do pupate super fast. I do need to get some more crickets and maybe even the bigger worms.

I believe the bedding is some sort of sawdust. Here in America I buy mealworms and they come with sawdust

The beding the crickets came in is wheat bran

#leapordgecko the oat thing the crickets are on is fluckers food for crickets and they sell it in America

My mealworms come in some yeast looking stuff possibly some insect pellets?

Also if you DO keep crickets, a good food to give 'em is left over repashy/pangea - if your gecko didn't eat it all give 'em the dish

Can you please make a video of you purely taking your leopard gecko(s) outside or handling them

Buy a sterilite or rubbermaid bin, cut a hole in the top and glue window screen onto it, the same will work for the mealies, and superworms too I use 12-15L sterilites for between 200 and 500 superworms. I use a slightly smaller size for the mealies, and just let them breed away. Why not breed your own mealworms? It's too easy not to, throw them in a container with a 5-8cm layer of oats, mix in some quality dog food, and tropical fish flakes (or whatever gutload you use). Give them a potato, or some veggies/fruit as a water source, mix the oats around once or twice a day so it doesn't mold, and they take care of the rest. You can use the same husbandry for the superworms but with a deeper layer of substrate, they won't pupate unless separated into individual smaller containers though. You'll always have a supply of gutloaded food available is your cricket supplier is short, or you mess up an order.

I know this is off topic but I'm getting a crestie and I want to buy live plants for his terrarium but I don't get lots of sunlight in my house and I was wondering if I could use a lamp instead?

The containers you have in your video for your mealworms, where do you get them?

I think the stuff is wheat germ. And with the waxworms they normally wake up after 30 to 45 minutes.

Rebecca, to let you know the crickets bedding is wheat bran

Where do you get your supply from , i like the fact it’s all compact ??

I usually keep my mealworms in the fridge and put them in a separate container with carrots and other veggies for 24ish hours before feeding them to my tarantula.

When I put wax worms in the fridge, I take them out and leave them to wake up for a few hours before feeding and then they move around a lot more

Hi, can I use a heating cable inside the terrarium under eco earth as a primary heating source for a leopard gecko, instead of a heating mat?

You can use oat bran or wheat bran but I have found that it easier to get oat bran or if you don't mind getting a big bag then you could get wheat bran. I just found that tesco sell a 600g bag of oat bran.

How large of a container should you get for crickets, like 2-3 feet long or something

what website do you get your live food from ??

Where do you purchase your feeders from?

The weird flakes seem similar to the ones my mealworms come in which im almost positive is Flukers High Calciam cricket food. Hope this helps

I've fed my crickets with cucumber, but it doesn't look like they're eating it. I got a hold of the melworms and crickets yesterday, I get my leopard gecko in 2 days.

Hello i have a question, how do i provide crickets with water?