Nutritional difference between mealworms and adult darkling beetles?

[Shijadi]

So I've got a pretty decent colony of darkling beetles going after ordering a bulk of 1000 mealworms, and the number of fresh beetles I get a day is growing larger and larger. I decided to filter through what beetles I had and saved the darker ones, while I experimented and fed my leos some of the white to lightish brown ones.

They LOVED them. It was nice to see them hunt outside of the food dish world. And the beetles move more quickly that the worms, which I'm noticing is triggering a better feeding response, and the don't travel to the next dimension like crickets do when I put them in the tank.

I was curious to find out if darkling beetles had any difference in nutritional value compared to their mealworm offspring. They have proven very easy and inexpensive to raise, and my leos seem to love munching on them.

 

[kvnsu]

Hi Shijadi

The shell to meat ratio for darkling beetles are higher. Therefore the amount of time and energy your gecko will use to chase and digest the beetles is not worth it. The freshly molted white beetles are fine to add a variety from time to time, but should not be fed every day.