Don't feed meal worms????

[Greenlove]

Ughh....So I have read some posts on here and the opinions are so left or right!!!! Never in the middle!!! I just read a post where a person said meal worms should never be fed because it binds up your frogs system like bubble gum What???? Then there are others that say yes to feeding meal worms. Okay, here's the deal. I bought meal worms the other day hoping to breed them so I can feed the baby meal worms to my froglets for some variety. When I say baby meal worms, I mean get out the magnifying glass and find their dinner kind of babies. I would never even try the mini meal worms that people sell, that's why I'm trying to breed my own so I can get the tiny ones. Crickets are the staple for my froglets. I also feed fruit flies. I don't want to feed meal worms every day, not even every other day. I just thought it would be nice to give them maybe 2 or 3 baby worms a week. Is this chitin stuff they are made of really that bad? Any one had personal experience, good or bad, with feeding meal worms to the smaller type tree frogs (Gray's, Pacific Chorus, etc.).

[UncleChester]

I've fed my adult Gray tree frogs mealworms with no problems. Crickets make up the bulk of their diet. Usually mealworms are about 10-20% of their diet, but in a month where my cricket supply is low, I've gone much higher with no trouble.

It took my mealworms several months at room temperature to produce young, so don't count on them for some time. However, they require as much attention as a compost pail to breed, and take up as much space, so it's easily worth it for some variety.

[Jace]

I've used mealworms as well, with no problems. When they are given in respect to a balanced diet like you are providing, then your frogs will love the treat and you will love the fact that you provided them with a variety. Best of luck with breeding!

[JeffX]

In moderation they are fine. In frogs/toads I never feed them more than a few at a time and very rarely do I even feed them mealworms. Freshly molted would be the way to go as well. The shells will be softer and easier to digest.

[SethD]

A lot depends on the type of frog you have. I wouldn't feed most tree or aquatic frogs a lot of mealworms, but I would be comfortable with feeding more to certain toad species. For example studies have shown that as much as 70% of some north american toads diets consist of hard shelled prey like beatles. Obviously a species that eats so much large, hard shelled prey in the wild is going to be a lot less likely to have digestion problems than species that tend to eat a larger % of smaller or soft bodied prey. Of course nothing should be fed to exclusion. In years past studies have shown even hard shelled adapted species tend to build up excessive fat deposits and have a shorter life expectancy if fed exclusively on meal worms(as was common many years ago). In short, mealworms are a perfectly acceptable food item for many amphibians as long as they are not fed exclusively and only make up a portion of a varied diet.

[Malachi]

mine love them and they are easy to dust , so its mutually beneficial to feed them sometimes.