Absolutely – they love mealworms as a treat for sure!
Mealworms are the common name for the Darkling Beetle (Tenebrio molitor) and are found either live in pets stores or reptile outlets; or as dried mealworms in pet stores or garden centres (usually in the wild bird section).
Mealworms are yummy to gerbils whether fresh or dried – and virtually all adult gerbils eat mealworms with glee!
Mealworms Are A Great Gerbil Treat!
Although mealworms are a popular treat – they aren’t the most nutritious of individual foodstuffs – so need to be fed in moderation and as part of a balanced and varied diet.
Also, the live ones will burrow into the substrate to avoid being eaten – so only feed them live directly by hand so you can watch your gerbils enjoying them; or in a straight-sided dish so they can’t climb out (they can’t move vertically like caterpillars).
Some gerbil foods like Mr Johnsons Hamster & Gerbil already have dried mealworms in them – so no need to add more as a treat (try waxworms, locusts or calciworms instead for variety).
Obviously the dried mealworms last longer and don’t wiggle around – so many people opt for them for sure – however the live mealworms can be just as long-lasting – and more of an enrichment than just a food.
Mealworms – like most insects – have multiple lifestages. Also, many invertebrates are affected by temperature – and these are no different.
Keeping mealworms (the larval stage of the darkling beetle’s lifecycle) in a cool or chilled enviroment makes them stay a worm for longer – and they are often found in the fridges of stores for this reason. So by keeping your own live mealworms in the fridge or outhouse – you can keep them alive as ‘worms’ for longer too.
They have to shed their skin a certain number of times in their life – and being cold makes this happen more slowly – i.e. keeping them cool make them live longer. Cool, eh?
My Mealworms Have Turned Into Aliens?
As mentioned above – mealworms can only go through so many molts as worms before they are biologically triggered into becoming an adult – a beetle. However this transformation needs a time out.
Just like butterflies – the mealworm has to enter a state called the pupal stage to change into a beetle – so it become a pupa (like a cocoon but without all the fluffy stuff). It is the top lifestage in this image below:
Now, this pupal stage – albeit very strange to look at – is just as tasty to gerbils as the larval stage (the worms) and so even if you find your worms starting to turn, you can still feed these pupae to your gerbils as treats. Their nutritional balance changes slightly – but as they are only being fed as a treat – this isn’t anything to worry about in terms of your gerbil’s diet.
Anyway, so worms and aliens – all good to feed. Gerbils don’t tend to eat the adult beetles though – so make sure all the pupae are eaten before that happens.
You may find that young gerbils aren’t so keep on the live food – so if you are getting refused by pups or teenager gerbils – it doesn’t mean they don’t like mealworms – it just means they aren’t used to the taste or smell yet.
Just like kids with dark chocolate – no kids like it – but when they grow up – bingo!
Can I Breed My Own Gerbil Mealworms?
Of course you can – and it is very easy actually once you have got the cycle going.
You simply need the following:
- a ventilated small tub with a lid (like the tub the mealworms come in at the store);
- some wheat bran or porridge oats (frozen or baked first to get rid of the bugs);
- a piece of egg carton or half a toilet tissue roll;
- some mealworms;
If you keep this tub in a cool room (not near a heat source) and out of direct sunlight – then pop in slices of carrot sparingly (they literally only need one slice in the tub at a time); the worms will turn into aliens (pupae) and then hatch out as adults (white first, then red, then brown, then black – changing color as they harden up).
As long as you have at least 10 adults, you should have breeding and then egg laying (they lay eggs mainly on the egg carton/toilet tube) but they lay eggs all over – so don’t change out the substrate once you have beetles.
Within a few weeks – the larva hatch – but they are too small to see with the naked eye and need a couple of molts to be visible. You can often see the substrate moving even if you can’t see the newly-hatched larvae though.
Once you are happy they have laid enough eggs – you can set up a second tub and move the adult beetles only into the new clean one (otherwise they keep laying more and more eggs in the same space). Once the beetles are moved out, keep putting the slices of carrot in the seemingly-empty tub to feed the baby worms – although they eat less, so put smaller pieces in.
Then, before you know it – you will have your own worms – big enough to feed to your gerbils.
And the next lot hatching in your second tub already!
How Many Mealworms Can I Feed My Gerbil?
Mealworms are a treat – so like all treats – no matter how much your gerbils love them – should only be fed in moderation. Just like junk food.
One to 2 a week really is sufficient nutritionally – especially when other more nutritious treats are available all over the place.
Treats are called treats as they are usually high in an ingredient that isn’t good for your gerbil in large quantities – usually fat or sugar – as these two ingredients are what make things ‘tasty’. So be careful.
Also, even though many people don’t understand the nutrition aspect of feeding – mealworms are VERY low in calcium. Doesn’t sound too bad on it’s own you think – I can feed calcium in something else like Kale. And you would be wrong on both points.
Yes, you can feed more calcuim – but it won’t work on it’s own. The gerbil body has a limit of one thing if it doesn’t have a chaperone. So you can only hold so much of one thing in your body if it doesn’t have this friend – even if you really need it on it’s own. Without an exact same amount (or slightly more) phosphorus in this case – calcium just falls back out of the body – without being used. Even if your body really could use it – it is too slippery and is lost.
And – to make things worse: raw kale contain oxalates – that naughty oxalic acid in the background of the ‘safe gerbil food list’. Oxalates bind with calcium in the digestive tract – and so all that extra calcium you think you are feeding (even if you add wholegrains, nuts and dried peas for extra phosphorus to match it) is being stolen by the oxalates before your gerbil gets a look in.
And if there isn’t any calcium to pair up with – you could end up losing the phosphorus too?
Nutrition is much more complicated than you think – so never feed too much of one thing – especially if that one thing is called a ‘treat’. It’s a nasty trick!