Ob has recently discovered that he likes dried mealworms and will wolf them down faster than you can blink!

I far prefer the dried worms for my gerbils, for one it means I don’t have to interact with them on a weekly basis to feed & water them in between being fed to my gerbils and also means I have no chance of discovering a colony of large ugly beetles living in my tanks should any escape!

The nutritional values for dried insects is also much higher than feeding them live, as live insects mostly consist of water (often around 50% of the body weight) with negligible amounts of protein, vitamins, etc. Feeding freeze-dried insects means that the water content is drastically reduced.

I remember many a year ago my dad gave our hamster, Scooby, an earthworm from the back garden to eat. She ate half of it then went to bed, leaving half a worm writhing about in the bottom of her tank! I suppose that early experience helped to put me off feeding ‘live’ again. :P