Mealworm questions?

OK so i have been breeding my own meal worms for a yr or so now and im doing pretty well.
My main question is?
If i were to go through all my worms and get just the ones freshly shed, ( all white and almost clear) would those be ok to feed to younger dragons even if bigger than normaly suggested.
I would think that since they just shed and are all soft you would be able to fee a bigger size mealworm to a smaller dragon with no problems cause no exoskeleton?
So in theary it would be like feeding a baby dragon a hornworm if no shell correct? may not be as nutrition but no exoskeleton means no impaction ?

Hi Matt...I wouldn't go much bigger,but yes,I have used fresh shed ones,just be careful they aren't TOO much bigger.If in doubt,cut them in half.

Cool, i was thinking if nothing else it would be good to take those white meal worms and crush them into a goo and spread on the repti cal pellets.
ither way i have been smashing heads so they dont eat through babies.
Thanks Angie
Im also hoping this will encourage faster growth if have to work less to digest mealworms.

Originally Posted by Bearded Ambitions

Cool, i was thinking if nothing else it would be good to take those white meal worms and crush them into a goo and spread on the repti cal pellets.
ither way i have been smashing heads so they dont eat through babies.
Thanks Angie
Im also hoping this will encourage faster growth if have to work less to digest mealworms.

Mealworms will NOT eat through babies. This is an old wives tale. The worms themselves shouldn't be too big because of the components of the exoskeleton, but they WILL NOT eat through a bearded dragons intestines.

The worms are either killed from the crunch, or they are killed from the stomach acids that digest food. Not to mention there's no way to breathe once you've been swallowed.

Please trust me. This is a very common myth that way too many people believe.

Maia is exactly right...I can't tell you how many times I have to explain that at the reptile shows.

By the way,the cutting in half is just to give the baby a smaller prey item...too large can cause impaction no matter what it is.

If you are breeding the worms yourself why not just use the baby worms? They are fine shed or not (in a reasonable quantity)