I decided to start a mealworm colony to save money and trips to the pet store.

I simply bought a container of 100 mealworms and put the in a bin of wheat bran, oat bran, and whole oats. I feed them mostly radishes since that's what I have a surplus of in my fridge. I put the pupa and beetles in a different container.


I have a few questions on gut loading and nutrition.

Is there something I can feed mealworms to make them more nutritious? Is there some sort of vitamin supplement I can sprinkle in their bedding?

Or is there a type of fruit or veggie I can feed them to increase their calcium content?


I only have two sugar gliders so I can imagine I could potentially have too many mealworms for them and may end up giving many to the birds or perhaps sell them online for cheap. But it will still beat buying mealworms haha.

What's the best things to feed them and the best way to keep them?

Just make sure the mealworms don't dry out. Part of the reason for putting veggies (in your case radishes) in the colony is to provide moisture. I use baby carrots, some use potatoes. I don't thing it matters that much as long as they have a source of moisture. I would probably keep the beetles and pupae in with the worms. They don't eat each other.

As far as gut loading, the only vegetables that provide calcium are greens, which wouldn't work. We use to raise crickets to feed bearded dragons, and gut loaded them. At the pet store, they should sell something for gut loading. I just can't remember what it's called, but it was kind of a blue gel like stuff. Allmost like clear blue jello.

Hope it helps.

Meal worms are offered to gliders more as treats and not their nutritional value. You do not need to worry about gut loading them.

Be careful putting any vegetables in for the meal worms to eat and for moisture. Always put them on a plastic lid of some sort (butter or yogurt lids work well) to keep the moist veggies away from the oatmeal or other bedding material to prevent mold from growing in your meal worm bedding.