I have been reading a lot on meal worms, and I see they can only have a very specific amount per day, but I was wondering why. If they eat a lot of insects in the wild, shouldn't they be able to eat a lot in captivity? Every time I feed mine meal worms, they always want much more than what they are supposed to have. That is why I am asking.

In the wild, they wouldn't probably stumble across a pile of meal worms the size we have in stock for them. lol And they have more exercise etc gathering and eating and playing. (And many sources say that the wild glider lives only about 1/2 the life span of the well cared for captive glider)

The meal worms are fattening!

Now last night my guys had a big feast, as "wild" as I could make it. I have a porch full of june bugs (they like to "catch" them),a meal worm farm ready to harvest (all put individually into things that they have to work at to get them out or climb around alot to get at them), several kinds of glider edible flowers in bloom (zip tied to the sides of the cage), some fresh exotic fruits that I just cut in half and put in there (in hard to get to places)... it was a foraging braganza for them last night. They had alot of calories, but they were "actively eating". Nothing came easy for them in that meal. AND THEY LOVED IT!!!

(I still put in their HPW Complete and I still offered the veggie mix that goes with it... but those things were hanging in a kitchenette from the center of the cage as well)

Remember too, these little guys are like kids - they won't eat what they NEED, they'll eat what they LIKE.

A lot of the consumption of insects increases for wild female gliders during the breeding season so that they have enough protein to support themselves and their joeys. It is not necessary to obtain high amounts of protein all year long nor is it healthy as too much protein leds to it's own issues. Captive gliders get a set amount of nutrients with a balanced nectar replacement so the need for extra protein and fat is not typically needed. Mealworms contain a lot of fat, it would not be wise to feed too many mealworms.

Sources:
Andrew P. Smith "Nitrogen Requirements of the Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps), an Omnivorous Marsupial, on a Honey-Pollen Diet"

Nutrition of Insects

Mine LOVE mealies so much but I hand feed them each 5-10 mealies every third day before they go to sleep for the day.
If I put them in for foraging at nite my early riser will go find all of them and eat them up before the other 2 get up for the night. Plus they would fill up on those and not eat their mixture.

If the mealies are bigger they get fewer than if they are the smaller ones.

If I tried to give them 1-3 it wouldn't be enough. I actually give them each a little vanilla yoggie drop to let them know it's the end of mealies or they try to come out of the cage and jump in the mealie bowl to look for more.

zoo, i learned not to have the mealie bowl close to the cage the hard way, one night i was leaning in passing out mealies to the cage of 6, when 3 of em grabbed the edges of the bowl and tried to tug of war with me. they were so funny!!

They certainly know what the meal worm bowl looks like. Mine see me approaching with it and start going nuts.

mine know what it looks like and what noise i make when i come with it. i make a little kiss kiss noise. i can do that from the other room and they pop out of the pouches and start going nuts

I like how they have us "trained"!

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Originally posted by karensink

zoo, i learned not to have the mealie bowl close to the cage the hard way, one night i was leaning in passing out mealies to the cage of 6, when 3 of em grabbed the edges of the bowl and tried to tug of war with me. they were so funny!!

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The mealie death grip. Yep, been there done that. There is no prying those little fingers off the mealie container. (I put a set amount in a separate container now.

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The meal worms are fattening!

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I'm curious as to how they compare in fat with the eggs that are often included in some of the glider food recipes.
When I did a search, the results I brought up paint mealworms as actually lower in fat that some other choices.
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june12/edibleinsects_05-07.html

Are there any factual caloric measurements?

100 grams of Egg contains 10.6 grams Fat
100 grams of meal worms contains 12.72 grams Fat

Keep in mind that the eggs we generally feed our gliders are mixed with other ingredients that are mostly lower in fat so the whole mixture will have much less fat in 100 grams of the full mixture.

BML has 3.55 grams fat in 100 grams of the combined ingredients.
Original HPW has 1.65 grams fat in 100 grams of the mixed recipe.

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Originally posted by Candy

100 grams of Egg contains 10.6 grams Fat
100 grams of meal worms contains 12.72 grams Fat

Keep in mind that the eggs we generally feed our gliders are mixed with other ingredients that are mostly lower in fat so the whole mixture will have much less fat in 100 grams of the full mixture.

BML has 3.55 grams fat in 100 grams of the combined ingredients.
Original HPW has 1.65 grams fat in 100 grams of the mixed recipe.

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Awesome facts thank you. I feel better about including mealworms as a small part of their diet since the fat content is not way out of line when compared to eggs. It would be helpful to know how many mealworms (I have mediums) are in 100 grams of mealworms.

You can get a gram scale and weigh a specific number of meal worms and calculate how many would be in 100 grams.

Figure out how many meal worms weigh 1 gram together then multiply by 100.

my best guess is 10 medium meal worms would be about 1 gram so 1000 would be 100 grams.

Just keep in mind if you feed your gliders too many mealworms, it will reduce their appetite for the staple, fruits and vegetables you offer as dinner. If they eat LESS of the staple, they will also be getting LESS of the vitamins and calcium provided by the staple.

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Originally posted by Candy



Just keep in mind if you feed your gliders too many mealworms, it will reduce their appetite for the staple, fruits and vegetables you offer as dinner. If they eat LESS of the staple, they will also be getting LESS of the vitamins and calcium provided by the staple.

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Grain of salt. I can eat all the chocolate I want but actually end up eating a balanced diet overall. It might take a couple days to balance out sometimes.
One certainly sees dreadful looking gliders who have been in poor situations, but I'm wondering over the course of weeks if gliders may balance out their intake just as many critters (and people) often do when offered nutritious assortments of foods daily.
I'm not talking about plunking the glider down in a tray of mealworms, but do think that the frugal doling out may not in fact be necessary.