Mealies growing really big suddenly?

[Moppel]

Hi, I'm new here, and I have a question about my mealies.
I've been breeding regular mealworms for going on three years now. They were always around 1-1.5" long, the biggest ones.
I use wheat bran as bedding for them, which I buy at the feed store.

The feed store has recently switched the brand of wheat bran they carry, and suddenly my mealies are growing gigantic. I know it's the new bran, I have 6 colonies and not all of them are switched over to the new bran yet. Those that got switched have grown huge. I mean HUGE. They are also a lot more active. Their color is still the same, they're just humongous.

Do you know what part of the bran could cause that? And are those huge ones nutritionally okay and safe to feed?

The tag from the bran bag says "Wheat Mill Run. Guaranteed Analysis: Crude protein min 15.50%, Crude fat min 3%, Crude fiber mx 9.50%. Ingredients: Wheat mill run".

Any advice? Thank you!

 

[mecoat]

Sounds like there's maybe some kind of growth hormone in there or something. Can you show a pic of the new size and old size together with something else as a comparitor?

I know some of mine grow faster than others (in the same bedding), so it might just be they like the new bran more than the old so are eating more (or it keeps the heat in better, so they grow more...).

Are those giant ones still pupating and turning into beetles?

 

[Moppel]

Thank you for your reply! Sorry it took me so long, new job, weird hours.
I took some pictures, my phone is seriously color challenged though, they are NOT that dark, they are all a light, shiny, golden brown. They do still pupate, and as you can see, the pupae are huge too. The worms in the container are a couple of the original ones, and the rest are the new ones. It's probably obvious which is which, same with the pupae. I do not keep any of them in those containers, that was just for taking the pictures. I really appreciate you taking a look! I'm trying to get the pictures added, my dinosaur laptop is acting up.

 

[Moppel]

 

[mecoat]

Hi

As a Brit, I'm not sure of the size of the coin you've used.

Making an assumption on the size of the coin, I'm not seeing anything much more than the normal variation I have in my colonies. It's probably just that they like the new food more than the other and eat more, so grow more, or something similar. Or it allows them to get warmer. Or it's higher in protein for them to grow well...

 

[Moppel]

Oh, sorry about the coin. It's hard to see the difference in the sizes in the pictures, but the "new" mealies are now big enough to easily climb out of the mealworm feeding dish. One of those with the sides curved inwards to prevent that. They are longer, and much thicker. They also feel a lot stronger, the way they struggle when picked up. And they are much more active.
But if it's all good, then that's awesome. Just wanted to make sure there is nothing wrong and they can be used for feeding. They are definitely way too big for my Leos, but I have friends with chickens who love those. I have to leave for an appt now, but I'll measure them later, to give an exact size. I didn't consider that the coin might not be appropriate.

 

[mecoat]

More active mean more interesting for your leo. Unless you've got a baby leo, he should be able to handle the bigger ones too. You shouldn't feed anything bigger than the gap between your leos eyes, but that's width, not length, so the additional size shouldn't be an issue. He just might eat less of them, as each one is more filling.

 

[Moppel]

Oh my goodness, thank you for clearing that up! I've had them for about 3 years now, and I always read the size of head thing and all that, but never knew that means width. I've always been wondering if I'm slowly killing them. I have two Leos, and they LOVE to eat, especially the female. They will eat whatever I put in their bowls. Since the big mealies are now climbing out of the bowls, I've been feeding the slightly smaller ones. They sure do love the big ones though. I feed them every two or three days, since they have some pretty chunky tails and I need to keep that in check. I give them between two and four mealies each, depending on the size of the mealies. I can say that before I fed them "home grown", they were really pathetic looking little things, not thriving at all, especially the male. He's a terrible hunter and only tried two or three times to catch one, and then gave up. Not anymore. They really do thrive on home grown mealies. And my male's hunting skills have greatly improved over the last two years, he doesn't give up anymore either. I guess these worms are worth the effort.

Anyway, I measured them, and they go up to 2" in length now, roughly 5 cm, and about 5 mm thick.

I also found a couple of darker ones this morning. I know super worms are dark, but I also know that that is a totally different type of worms, and as far as I know, mealies can not morph into super worms. I have not bought any worms in about 2 1/2 years, so I know I didn't accidentally buy super worms. Any idea why there's some darker ones? All the mealies I have come from the initial batch of mealworms.

 

[mecoat]

OK 2 inches is very large, much larger than mine, although from your pictures, they still look like the same size as mine, based on when I pick mine up.

In terms of going dark - I think you'll find those ones are probably about to shed (I have dark ones too_, so don't worry about that.

I've attached some pics of a few of mine. The blue lid is 3 1/2 inches diameter. The orange spoon is the kind of spoon that comes with the Cadbury "Egg and Spoon" at Easter. The grey lumpy thing is part of an egg box. I've tried to use a few different things in the hope of finding some sort of scale that works.

Didn't have too long a rummage to find a dark one of mine, as I'm short of time right now. Hope these pics help you.

 

[Moppel]

Thank you sooo much! The majority of mine look like the one on the egg crate. Now I feel better, thank you!

 

[mecoat]

Thought that would be the case. were you perhaps getting carried away with the 2 inch length measurement (2 inches is the length of my little finger)?

 

[Moppel]

Nope, that was the correct measurement, I redid it a few times on different mealies. Do you have different inches maybe? I don't know if they're different where you are. I know pounds are different (the weight). Either way, not all of them are 2 inches, those are the biggest ones. They are all at least 1.5 inches. And chunky.

 

[mecoat]

Maybe our mealworms are different? I know we can't get some feeders to to the possibility of adding invasive species, so maybe we're using different species?

2 inches is about 5cm here, not sure that even our superworms get that big.