Question re mini mealies.

16 May 2012, 15:55

I have had trouble over the past few months obtaining mini mealies from my regular supplier. Their answer was that their supplier (Pisces) had no mini mealies but just normals. I found this quite strange as as far as I know minis are just baby normals. Anyhow today they rang and said they had the minis at last. Went and picked them up and fed some out this arvo. Noticed when feeding that a fair proportion (nearly half) are different to what I normally get. They are dark brown to almost black, a bit flatter and get around a lot quicker than the normal ones. Question is this, are they really the same or two different types of worm and if so are they ok for the birds?

Any advice would be appreciated.

16 May 2012, 16:07

They are two different species. The smaller mealworms (which are the proper mini mealworms) are as you say, somewhat flatter and much quicker. They are great for finches

16 May 2012, 16:34

I believe they are great for finches , some may disagree. Interesting pices has sent you some, they are generally a bi-product of breeding normals, that is they get into meal worm cultures and are very hard to get rid of.They will eat the other mealworms and given time you usually just end up with the little fast ones.

16 May 2012, 16:44

DB,
I got them from the pet store who got them from Pisces. Packaged the same way as normal. Just found it unusual to have both in the one tub. So both are ok and should I separate them so that they don't eat each other?

16 May 2012, 17:14

I guess that depends on how long you keep them. Just be careful putting them in the fridge as i dont believe they are as tolerant of cold as normal mealies.On the up side they are far more tolerant of the heat (thats one reason i like em). If your batch only lasts a week or so they will be good but if your aiming at keeping at batch for months i would seperate them. I wonder if thats why pices had run low on mini `s ? They might have had there cultures over run with these guys.

16 May 2012, 17:33

Pisces have been out for a couple of months, & last order I got (last Week), I had to get 50g regular worms as that was all they had apart from 25g tubs. This is an annual occurance, & they keep the minis to grow out to adult size. It is very frustrating, as I have been buying them regularly for the last 10 years, & it has happened every year. As soon as they run out other suppliers soon follow, as the Pisces customers source elsewhere.

16 May 2012, 21:25

desertbirds wrote:I guess that depends on how long you keep them. Just be careful putting them in the fridge as i dont believe they are as tolerant of cold as normal mealies.On the up side they are far more tolerant of the heat (thats one reason i like em). If your batch only lasts a week or so they will be good but if your aiming at keeping at batch for months i would seperate them. I wonder if thats why pices had run low on mini `s ? They might have had there cultures over run with these guys.

I will split them, normals in the fridge, little brown buggers outside. Should be fun....not!

Thanks for the advice.

17 May 2012, 01:15

Since the little ones are so fast... could it be as simple as putting them on a flat surface, letting the little (flatter) ones use their speed to crawl away faster and then scrape them away into another container? Rather than picking through one by one

28 May 2012, 14:13

VR1Ton wrote:Pisces have been out for a couple of months, & last order I got (last Week), I had to get 50g regular worms as that was all they had apart from 25g tubs. This is an annual occurance, & they keep the minis to grow out to adult size. It is very frustrating, as I have been buying them regularly for the last 10 years, & it has happened every year. As soon as they run out other suppliers soon follow, as the Pisces customers source elsewhere.

I have been getting 1kg each week for along time via Pices but they told me today that they have no product to sell as they have the small worms that eat the mealy eggs right through their supplies. I am just about out so are there any recommendation on other suppliers.Frogs.org says on their website that they have no product available so details of any other supplier would be greatly appreciated. I was going to order gentles from frogs.org to help me get over the shortage but Australia Post took 4 days for the last delivery and apparently that is now the standard time to Cairns, via toowoomba of all places.

28 May 2012, 15:22

frogs.org have a vastly restricted supply thanks to Pisces too, I didn't get my last order in full either. Gents should keep ok for a few days in the post and may be better than nothing - use the express post option (a little dearer) and while not guaranteed next day I've had stuff from Cairns to Melb overnight so you might get lucky and have it in 1-2 days anyway. Top up with the smaller crickets too, frogs should be able to do that without any drama.

ARCade have a priority to zoos so consumers sit behind them due to ARCade's charter of not-for profit / fund raising and all that stuff hence their supply being restricted at present.