Mealworms are superworms?

[camimom]

Ok, so I saw people talking about what they feed their chams. Anyway it appeared to me that superworms were different than mealworms. However yesterday when I was in petsmart I saw canned crix and hoppers, then a can o superworms. underneath it said they were large mealworms. So are they the same thing?
I'm sure this is a silly question, but It confuses me.

 

[carol5208]

No they are not. Do not buy any food that is not live. I know some of the pet stores sell the canned foods. Chameleons will only eat live prey. You can buy superworms from them and they can be gutloaded just like crickets which makes them a decent feeder. Mealworms are not the preffered food as they hardly have any meat to them and are mostly made of chitin, which is the hard outer exoskeleton. Mealworms should be limited in the diet for that reason as they could cause digestive problems if fed too much.

 

[camimom]

If they arent the same thing, then why did the can say it? I didn;t buy the canned food, I was just looking at stuff and saw it.

 

[melric]

When the worms turn into beetles they look completely different from each other.

 

[camimom]

Ok. hey, know where i can get flightless fruit flies online?

 

[jdog1027]

Ok. hey, know where i can get flightless fruit flies online?

I've been real pleased with Snail Tail Flies, which is one of the forum's sponsors. Adam is a real nice guy and answers your question and gets out orders promptly.

 

[camimom]

thanks. the only place that sells cham food near me only has pinheads small enough for Camo to eat. I drove 2 hours of of town yesterday for a doc appt, and went to 3 stores, and nobody had anything but crix.

 

[Psi]

There are:
Superworms
Mealworms
and Large mealworms

Supers are different from both the meals and large meals (those are both the same, they're grown up differently to get to a larger size)

 

[fluxlizard]

superworms is a common name, like blacksnake it can mean different animals.

Calling hormone treated mealworms superworms used to be the case looong ago, so the confusion now- they could possibly refer to these (small chance though).

Nowadays superworms nearly always refers to zoophobas worms.

Hormone treated mealworms (which grow big because of the hormones) are nearly always called giant mealworms now.