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Hatched mealies

S

SirKevin

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I hatched my first mealies recently (I only noticed them yesterday)...and to date, I have only really kept a few big pieces of celery in with them; I'm thinking a bunch may have died due to insufficient moisture.

So I need some help getting the other ones going.

Firstly...if I can only see a few mealies, is that to say there aren't tons? I had probably about 20-25 beetles and I have heard they can have extraordinarily large numbers of babies.

What should I feed the babies? I fed them a bunch of celery yesterday that was cut up into a dozen or so very small pieces. Should I bury some of the celery too, or just the mealies will be able to get to it?

Lastly, do I need to separate the beetles from the mealies in order to ensure the largest number of mealies possible survives?

Thanks!
 
I assume that besides the celery, you also have some edible stuff that they're buried in. I don't think the celery provides much besides water, so if your substrate isn't pretty nutritious, the celery won't provide much. Here's what I do: I keep the beetles in a small critter keeper for about 4 weeks. Then I transfer them to another critter keeper and let the original one alone for the mealies to grow. By the time I'm ready to put the beetles in their 4th critter keeper (after about 12 weeks) the original container of mealies is about big enough for the geckos to eat. For substrate I go to the food coop and buy bulk grains including soy flour, oats, unsalted nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, dried alfalfa leaves, dried spinach, dried beets, spirulina and whatever else looks good. I make a powder in the blends and keep the stuff in the fridge so it doesn't get infested with grain moths. When I make dinner, I put the vegetable parings in with the bugs and worms, making sure not to put stuff in that will generate a lot of mold. So far, I've been able to raise healthy mealies this way.
 
I have them in chicken mash, which is essentially a natural chicken food. I've used it as my mealie gutload for a while now with no issues.

I did take all of the beetles out so the mealies can have everything to themselves.
 
mites

what kind of mites? i had some little white buggie things barely visable in mine and just figured they were some kind of grain bug... they didn't seem to harm anything,,, yet and i haven't seen them since.. like i said they were sooo minute that you had to strain to see them and they seemed like they all died off.. i don't think these are the same mites that would infest a reptile.???
 
i would put apple or potato peices (They love carrots too, and good vitamines in those) in instead of celery, they can get it if you lay it on the surface of the bedding. I would also take out the adult beatles, if they arent getting enought to eat, they will redily eat the eggs and babies and even each other! I've seen them do it! So to ensure that you have lots of good healthy mealies, do like the other's said and get a good quality bedding, add better fruits and veggies, and remove the adult beatles after you first see baby mealies in the container. Avoid putting too much fruits and veggies in, or you could get mold, and remember to take out the old peices when you put in new ones (tap on side to remove worms!). I have a two tub system, but im not religious about it, and tend to buy 1000 mealies every 6 months to supliment my own breeding, if I was more attentive, I know I could avoid those twice a year orders easy, cause with me just casually breeding them, I still get lots of babies that grow up healthy.
~Mia
 
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