Meal worms from a petsmart?

[Kris5902]

I was thinking about getting mealworms/“super worms” from my local petsmart and raising more of them to give to my chickens as treat... has anyone started with these before and are they good for chickens? I’ve seen mealworm threads, but the petsmart markets them as superworms... is this the same thing?

 

[Melky]

I only know of the bug company mealworms that are live for reptiles. Probably same thing as dried mealworms. I just do dried and buy in bulk from Amazon.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

My chickens go nuts for live meal worms... What makes them 'super' is that they're really large...
You want to have your flock at your feet and avidly watching your every move? Start getting them real live meal worms.

 

[TheBeardie]

I have two bearded dragons and I order 1000 crickets every two weeks from Armstrong crickets. I found that I save money and time ordering insects online. I'm also an hour away from the nearest pet store that I would trust to get crickets from. And you can't get mass quantities of any bug in a petsmart.

Just realize that you could develop an allergy from breeding(at least this is true for roaches and crickets I'm not sure about mealworms), from all of the dust, poo and body parts in the air.

Check out the worm section of Armstrong to see if appeals to you.

https://ga.armstrongcrickets.com/collections/worms
I'm also from Florida so it might pop up as the Georgia farm.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Crickets too! I've gotten crickets for my flock before, and letting them all go at once when the crickets are frantic... I've never seen a funnier sight!
Chickens love protein, especially fresh, and they love to hunt!

 

[Melky]

My flock loves crickets too but they just get those free ranging from the yard and when they cross into their run. Those I do not need to buy.

 

[centrarchid]

I get them in bulk from a vendor specializing in wild bird supplies for backyard birders. My preference is to use live meal worms, the chicken certainly prefer live. Getting them in bulk is usually far more cost effective than in small lots like used for pet reptiles.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

... is this the same thing?

My understanding is that they are just from different species of beetles.

Also the superworms have x-ray vision and don't care for kryptonite

Actually, I did a quick read up on this a while back and recall that one or the other was easier to raise (required simpler set up, and less steps) and had better protein content, etc.

I don't recall the specifics, but I think I came away with the idea that mealworms were the better alternative to raise.... but if you google it you'll find a bunch of parrot/frog/snake/turtle raising folks that know all about it.

I just did a quick search and found this which might help you if you search the latin names:
mealworms = Tenebrio molitor
superworms = Zophobas morio

 

[Kris5902]

Thanks for the excellent advice as always! The labeling at the pet store is vague at best... I was just in picking up my cat food and saw them and thought “I wonder if my chickens would like those? Are they ok to feed to them?”

The crickets sadly aren’t in season here anymore, I look forward to watching my girls hunt them next summer though!

 

[MissChick@dee]

Mine love all kinds of worms dried & live. I order boxes of live crickets for Christmas!!