is rainbowmealworms.com good?

[chameleons707]

has anybody had any expirience with them this is my first time buying feeders online and found rainbowmealoworms.com being the cheapest one with good reviews but what do you guys think? since i yet still dont have my chameleon. i wont be buying yet. at first i will be feeding my chameleon just crickets for around 4-7 days and then order a variety of insects and worms they have there. i will be purchasing hornworms,waxworms,mealworms and thats it from rainbowmealworms.com and the crickets i will be buying from my local petstore and the dubia roaches from amazon(200 nymphs 4 $18). i will be breeding the roaches,hornworms,and superworms. for horn worms i will not be feeding them to my chameleon since its still going to be a baby but im going to breed them. what im going to do is buy 12 ct. baby hornworms raise them and let the moths breed and by then my chameleon will grow up and i will be feeding the moths offspring to my chameleon? get the idea? and for dubias i will seperate around 50 and provide with heat and everything to start a colony and feed the rest to my chameleon. and as for the superworms i will be breeding 100 of those superworms and feed the rest to my chameleon and by that time i will be haveing beetles laying eggs and making a colony. is this a good way to start off like? and is rainbowmealworms really a good website? to me seems perfect but im not sure what do you guys think??

 

[Sanababit]

Well cant say nothing about that website, but there are some sponsors here that sell all types of feeders and are willing to help you with breeding instructions, i only breed crickets, altough its relatively easy, they take time to grow to a decent size for my chameleon to eat

Sana

 

[fluxlizard]

I used rainbow many years ago and they were great at that time.
If you check the sponsers of this site and purchase from them, you will find very similar prices and services and be supporting the chameleon forums with your purchase.
Members often put roaches up for sale in the classifieds here also.

As for your plans- I don't have experience with hornworms, so I don't know anything that can help you there.

I breed five species of roaches, crickets, superworms and mealworms. The supers I struggle with and am trying to replicate Bert Langerwerf's setup this time around to see if I have better luck (he was the original abreeder of these for lizards).

I think maybe the main thing you might need to be aware of is that it can take several months to get most feeder colonies established and producing well, especially when starting with a limited number. You might want to plan for a 5 month gap before you have a colony you can harvest from regularly.

 

[chameleonfrenzy]

I actually live relatively close to rainbow mealworms in Compton and I go there once a week. I have never had any problems with any of the insects I get from them, all healthy and alive! As far as the website I don't know since i don't order from there but as far as quality goes, two thumbs up from me.

 

[xraygirl]

Lately I've not had very good luck with their silkworms and hornworms, so I don't purchase from them again.

 

[chameleons707]

what do you mean they come alive and they die on you or do you mean they come dead?

 

[laurahlove]

I ordered 500 mealworms from them once, started up my mealworm breeding colony they pupate really good and are really good feeders.

 

[chameleons707]

oh and where online can i buy cheap dubia roaches???!

 

[happiness]

I've ordered superworms from them on eBay. Received many more than I ordered. Was very happy.

I just purchased 150 hornworm eggs and food from 2 members here on the forums. Received extra food and extra eggs (they all hatched). Good price too!

 

[happiness]

I breed five species of roaches, crickets, superworms and mealworms. The supers I struggle with and am trying to replicate Bert Langerwerf's setup this time around to see if I have better luck (he was the original abreeder of these

If youre having problems breeding superworms, you should try the plastic drawer method. The top drawer has a screen in it, the beatles lay the eggs and the eggs and babies fall through to the second drawer. I bought the big cotainer at Walmart for about $14. Works great. Lots of YouTube videos on it.

 

[fluxlizard]

If youre having problems breeding superworms, you should try the plastic drawer method. The top drawer has a screen in it, the beatles lay the eggs and the eggs and babies fall through to the second drawer. I bought the big cotainer at Walmart for about $14. Works great. Lots of YouTube videos on it.

The problem I'm having I think has been related to humidity. Bert and a few others claimed that the eggs and little worms had to be kept humid and they used damp sawdust to do this. I've been trying what everyone on youtube has seemingly been doing successfully and going dry and I can hardly get anything to hatch. But I'm not sure if that is the end of the story or not- I grind up my ingredients into a flour- another possibility is just using plain bran or oatmeal. But this time around (3rd time in a year of trying) I'm just using damp sawdust- of course I have no idea how damp the sawdust needs to be, so it may take a little tweaking yet, and maybe the flour consistancy is just dehydrating my hatchling worms or something in spite of fresh fruit being available? In the past I rotated my beetles into a new tub 1x per week. If you are an expert- I'm all ears and would appreciate any good tips on hatching these guys. My heat tape is set at 80- I may have had a little too much heat this spring also- I was trying 84, but the surface temp on the substrate was much cooler- I had a couple of inches thick of my "flour" in the tubs.

 

[chameleons707]

I've ordered superworms from them on eBay. Received many more than I ordered. Was very happy.

I just purchased 150 hornworm eggs and food from 2 members here on the forums. Received extra food and extra eggs (they all hatched). Good price too!

really how can i look for people who sell them on the forums? and are they really cheap? how much did that cost(150 hornworm eggs and food)

 

[happiness]

really how can i look for people who sell them on the forums? and are they really cheap? how much did that cost(150 hornworm eggs and food)

Go to the main forum page where it shows all the categories.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/forum.php

Scroll all the way down, you'll see a blue bar that says "Chameleon Classifieds"

Click on Chameleon Food below that. You'll see posts from forum members selling food. I'm not sure what members take as payment but an easy payment is Paypal and is probably the most used. I spent $30 total for the 150+ worms and a good amount of food but you'll have to raise them if you want to do it that way. It's always the cheapest but takes a lot more effort.

The problem I'm having I think has been related to humidity. Bert and a few others claimed that the eggs and little worms had to be kept humid and they used damp sawdust to do this. I've been trying what everyone on youtube has seemingly been doing successfully and going dry and I can hardly get anything to hatch. But I'm not sure if that is the end of the story or not- I grind up my ingredients into a flour- another possibility is just using plain bran or oatmeal. But this time around (3rd time in a year of trying) I'm just using damp sawdust- of course I have no idea how damp the sawdust needs to be, so it may take a little tweaking yet, and maybe the flour consistancy is just dehydrating my hatchling worms or something in spite of fresh fruit being available? In the past I rotated my beetles into a new tub 1x per week. If you are an expert- I'm all ears and would appreciate any good tips on hatching these guys. My heat tape is set at 80- I may have had a little too much heat this spring also- I was trying 84, but the surface temp on the substrate was much cooler- I had a couple of inches thick of my "flour" in the tubs.

I'm sorry to hear your having trouble with them. If I was putting that much work into trying to breed them, I think I'd give up! I'm no expert, these babies are from my first attempt at breeding superworms. Though, this method has me doing very little to no effort and you never have to rotate your beetles. They don't even get extra heat! The room is around 70-75F and they sit in oatmeal. Whenever I feed my superworms and other bugs, I feed the babies and beetles as well. I don't have that many beetles but they are producing quite a bit of babies. Sometimes I'll go a few days without feeding the babies, I'm not sure if this kills mine off but they seem to be surviving anyways. I'll throw food in and leave it in there for a long long time, I figure if I throw any food away, I might be throwing out babies too. (I guess that's where the mites come from!!) The babies usually fall through the screen, but it looks like a few grew too big and never made it through. It took a while before I started to see babies, maybe you are giving up too soon? Did you use a lot of beetles?

& The 3rd drawer can be used for the grown superworms. I took the bottom drawer out not too long ago to have a water tray for my plants (it worked great ) I think its time to put my adult superworms back in the tray. Also, Walmart sells a smaller drawer for a little cheaper, I decided to get the bigger one for the few extra dollars.

 

[chameleons707]

has anybody bought from abdragons.com? im thinking of buying this when i get my chameleon plus it has free shipping! and for around 2 more dollars they give you 100 more!http://abdragons.com/dubia-roaches-small-3-8-and-under/ but what do you guys think??

 

[happiness]

If it's a sponsor on the chameleon forum, then you can trust them. (ABdragons is a sponsor) I haven't ordered from them before but I'm sure they're great.

At the top right corner of the chameleon forum, you can click on "VIEW OUR SPONSORS" in green to check them all out.

Sounds like a pretty good price. Free shipping is always nice. You should maybe consider buying adults as well to get a colony going! Then you'll never have to buy them again since they have a lot of babies! They have an average of 20-30 live babies a month (I guess this average depends on the condition they are kept in, the more heat they get, the more action!)

 

[chameleons707]

You guys are so helpful! And yess since I'm buying 300 of those I'm going to save some aswell for breeding with proper heating and stuff. And I'm going to purchase 25 large roaches that I'm going to purchase with my veiled chameleon and hopefully breed those sooner since they are large. And maybe theres a good half and half ratio of males and females right??

 

[happiness]

You guys are so helpful! And yess since I'm buying 300 of those I'm going to save some aswell for breeding with proper heating and stuff. And I'm going to purchase 25 large roaches that I'm going to purchase with my veiled chameleon and hopefully breed those sooner since they are large. And maybe theres a good half and half ratio of males and females right??

I'm not sure about the half and half ratio. It depends on who you are buying from and if the roaches are randomly picked or not. You could end up with more males than female (not so good) or mostly females than male (what you want). It should be specified on the page whether they're random or what not. (depending on where your purchasing it). Maybe you can email them and ask if they could give you more females than males since you'd like to breed them yourself.

It says on ABDragon ..

Dubia Roaches 7/8" and up come with a 10% Over Count. They have not been sexed and THEY ARE NOT ADULTS.

.. So it would be a random ratio. If your chameleon is big enough and you end up with a whole bunch of males, you can feed some to your chameleon. 100 roaches to adulthood, you'd HAVE to have SOME females. I only have about 20-30 females total and I have a lot of babies. Even if you only had 30/100 females, you'd be fine. I'm not sure what the males will do if they are overpopulated.. I hear that you shouldn't have more males than females. (3 females to 1 male) Not sure if that's a problem.

I forgot to tell you.. Another thing to worry about .. is your chameleon may or may not like roaches

2 out of 3 of my chameleons will not even look at them! My veiled chameleon LOVES THEM! Actually, she'll eat anything. Not sure what the other 2's problems are. I guess they got a taste of silkworms and that was it :'(

 

[chameleons707]

i messaged lll reptiles (where im buying my veieled chameleon)and they said they feed there chameleons worms and crickets and occacianolly roaches. but yess ive heard that some chams dont like roaches but what im going to do is from my local petstore buy enough crickets for the week along with some superworms and purchase 3-4 tiny nymph roaches(50 cents each! overpriced) and see if he eats them fast. if he seems to be interested in them alot i will be purchasing the 300 baby roaches again he wont really get bored of them since his diet will consist of crickets superworms hornworms and as staple roaches but ehh lets see if he really likes them! lol and im thinking of leaving a comment when buying my veieled chameleon saying " one that loves eating roaches" i know this sounds stupid but do you think it will work?? and if he does love them how can i speed up their growth rate to get them to adulthood and how long will it take?? is feeding superworms daily bad for them or not? its probably a 5-6 month old cham and 6-9 inches(medium veiled chameleon) thanx!

 

[happiness]

i messaged lll reptiles (where im buying my veieled chameleon)and they said they feed there chameleons worms and crickets and occacianolly roaches. but yess ive heard that some chams dont like roaches but what im going to do is from my local petstore buy enough crickets for the week along with some superworms and purchase 3-4 tiny nymph roaches(50 cents each! overpriced) and see if he eats them fast. if he seems to be interested in them alot i will be purchasing the 300 baby roaches again he wont really get bored of them since his diet will consist of crickets superworms hornworms and as staple roaches but ehh lets see if he really likes them! lol and im thinking of leaving a comment when buying my veieled chameleon saying " one that loves eating roaches" i know this sounds stupid but do you think it will work?? and if he does love them how can i speed up their growth rate to get them to adulthood and how long will it take?? is feeding superworms daily bad for them or not? its probably a 5-6 month old cham and 6-9 inches(medium veiled chameleon) thanx!

I think that's a good idea to leave the comment for a chameleon that loves roaches.

The only thing I know is that heat helps with the breeding process, I'm not sure about growth. It takes a while to get babies. I purchased roaches that were a little before the adult age myself. It took a while for them to get to adult and maybe 1-2 months before I started seeing little babies. I posted about it earlier on the forums around the time I first joined.

The Superworm question.. I think you'll get different answers for that. It may also depend on how you gutload your superworms.

 

[chameleons707]

Oh really? And yess I'm leaving a comment saying about the roaches. And as for superworms I will be feeding them dark greens and carrots.so should i also buy a roach colony kit thingy?If he likes roaches, They are quite pricey!! Around 20 roaches for $30+. Do you know somewhere online where they sell them cheap?? I can get around 300 small roaches with just $30