getting a lot of leopard geckos fast, need help with feeding

I'm getting 8 adult female leopard geckos from someone, and I need to know how many mealworms I should order and what size, and from where. Some of them are kind of skinny so I need to fatten them up, they are possibly gravid. I don't want to get too many because I don't want the worms to turn into beetles. If someone knows how much an adult female gecko can usually eat that would help. Right now petco has 50 mealworms for $3 I believe. I don't know how far 50 would go with this many, and I want to order some online. I know I can get them from reptilecity, big apple herp, LLLreptile, are they any better sites than that? Reptilecity is the only one I've seen with smaller quantities than 500... If I put them in the refrigerator will they stay a mealworm and not a beetle for longer? I also have pinkies I can feed to the geckos, would this help with nutrition and to gain weight? If you could at least answer one question please do so

Thanks in advance

I regularly order from Rainbow mealworms. I would order a couple thousand to start off. You can always refrigerate mealworms. This slows them down and makes them last for a while. Make sure you read up on gutloading your feeder insects. I would forget entirely about buying 50 cup containers of mealworms. Once those 8 females get settled in they should eat 50 in a single feeding if not more!

Thank you very much! That's exactly what I needed to know. I've read up on gutloading and dusting already. What size mealworm do you think I should get? And do rainbow's mealworms prices include shipping?

Figure about 5 - 10 mealworms (I'm talking about full size mealworms, not babies which tend to come in the petstore cups) a day per lizard; probably 10 since your guys sound like they'll be needing a lot of feeding. It usually takes about two weeks or so for them to start morphing into beetles. So with 8 geckos eating 10 a day and mealworms lasting about two weeks, you'll probably need about 1120 wroms every two weeks. I order my worms from: http://www.bcrcricket.com/mealworms.html . They sell 1000 count for $5.55 + shipping. I'd start with an order of 1000, and if you run short, up your next order.

-Alice

I get my mealworms from the wormman there price is 1000 Mealworms $11.75 includes shipping. http://www.wormman.com/pd_mealworms_shipped.cfm

I get around 10,000 for 30 something shipped next day from Rainbow. Remember you can order more than you need and simply place a few hundred or thousand in the fridge! Also I usually stick to mediums because they grow so fast I can leave a few thousand out gutloading without them turning into beetles before I've used them. Also just wanted to let you know Supers are another excellent alternative. Once your gals get really going they most likely will eat them as well.

not to cause a problem but are you sure that all 8 of these leos will eat mealworms? i have a leo that will not touch them and would literally starve to death before he'd eat one believe me ,i've tried to convince him that he likes them ! LOL

Oh yes they eat them, I just got the girls today. They came with a small mealworm colony where I have to dig for them, but luckily I'm getting 3k of mealies in the mail soon

I would look into some Non Climbing roaches, Start off with 500 blatta lateralis(SP?) and let them breed for a few months and you should have more than enough feeders for even more geckos.

RE: the "digging for mealworms"...

Solution:
* 2 Critter Keepers
* 1 Mesh Tank Sceen
* 2 large bowls (1 for 'garbage', 1 for 'food')
* Tweezers/feeding tongs to pick up stubborn objects (mealies, sheds, whatever)

1) Place mesh screen over EMPTY mealie tank #1
2) Dump a small portion of of FULL mealie tank #2 over the top of the screen...bang on the screen a little and teeny mealies/substrate should fall through, back into lower tank.
3) Pick out any skins/dead things/pupae/old substrate etc, dump into "garbage" bowl
4) Pick out the fattest mealies (usually at the bottom, hiding ), dump into "food" bowl(s)
5) Flip screen over & dump excess into lower tank #1
6) Repeat until satisfied

I'm sure a sieve or small-holed/mesh collander might work just as well...

It takes me almost no time to do this now, keeps the mealworm substrate fresh, and lets you pick out the fat, large mealworms from the rest...I don't refrigerate mine and as long as I pull the biggest ones out for feeding, I can go for a few weeks without having anything pupate on me.

Hope this has been some help!