Can Degus Eat Mealworms? (5 Quick Clear Facts)

One of the most frequently asked questions about degus is on whether it is alright for them to eat mealworms. This article provides the answer.

Can degus eat mealworms? No, degus shouldn’t eat mealworms. Degus are strict herbivores, whose digestive systems weren’t designed for foods like mealworms. Eating mealworms for degus may lead to digestive problems.

Granted, there are people who try to give their degus mealworms as occasional treats, but that is not recommendable.

Are Mealworms Safe For Degus?

Mealworms are not very safe for degus to eat.

Eating mealworms can be cause for major digestive problems in degus. In any event, degus are strict herbivores, which makes mealworms unnatural food for them.

Do Degus Like Mealworms?

Degus usually don’t like mealworms. When mealworms are offered to them, most degus will tend to more or less ignore them.

However, if a degu is particularly hungry, and mealworm is the only food available to it, it may proceed to eat it. Thus there are people who have experience feeding degus mealworms that way.

All in all though, mealworms are not ideal food for degus.

Can Degus Eat Mealworms?

No, degus shouldn’t eat mealworms at all.

After eating mealworms, a degu may end up with a bad stomach upset.

Unlike other similarly-sized pets, which tend to be omnivores, degus are strict herbivores. Therefore mealworms are not natural food for them.

Having said that degus shouldn’t eat mealworms, it follows that there is really no question on how many mealworms can degus eat. Even the question on how often can degus have mealworms is moot.

All that is because the degus shouldn’t have mealworms at all.

Can Degus Eat Mealworms In The Wild?

In the wild, degus usually don’t eat mealworms.

It is worth always remembering that degus are strict carnivores. Therefore in nature, they thrive on plant-based foods, not on animal-based foods like mealworms.

To the extent that degus normally don’t eat mealworms in the wild, it follows that the mealworms are an unnatural food for them. Even pet degus shouldn’t be fed on mealworms.

Can Baby Degus Eat Mealworms?

Baby degus shouldn’t be offered mealworms as food.

When a baby degu is offered mealworms, that may be the cause for stomach upset – usually with the main sign being very bad diarrhea. The baby degus may have a difficult time surviving the dehydration that follows such diarrhea.

Due to that fact, it is not proper at all to offer baby degus mealworms.

Can Adult Degus Eat Mealworms?

Mealworms are not a proper food for adult degus to eat.

It is not possible for degus’ herbivorous digestive systems to properly digest mealworms. Since mealworms are an unnatural food for degus, they can lead to stomach upsets.

Therefore degus – both adult and baby degus – should be offered mealworms as food.

Is There Any Type Of Mealworms Degus Can Eat?

Mealworms can be live, dead or dry frozen. What we now seek to figure out is whether any of these types of mealworms is proper food for degus.

We start with live mealworms.

Can Degus Eat Live Mealworms?

Degus shouldn’t eat live mealworms.

Since degus are strict herbivores, they may not even know what to do with the live mealworms. Therefore you shouldn’t offer live mealworms as food to degus.

Can Degus Eat Dead Mealworms?

Degus shouldn’t be offered dead mealworms. People who offer their degus dead mealworms as food tend to notice that the degus have stomach upsets shortly thereafter.

This means that dead mealworms are not good food for degus.

Can Degus Eat Freeze Dried Mealworms?

Degus should not eat freeze dried mealworms.

The freeze dried mealworms are not natural food for degus, which are strict herbivores. Eating mealworms can cause lots of discomfort to degus, with diarrhea being a common outcome.

Therefore degus should not eat freeze dried mealworms at all.

Final Verdict – Can Degus Eat Mealworms

Degus shouldn’t eat mealworms. Unlike other pets of similar size, and which tend to be omnivores (capable of eating both plant-based and animal-based foods), degus are strict herbivores.

Therefore animal-based foods such as mealworms are not suitable for degus.

Offering degus mealworms may lead to stomach upsets, with diarrhea usually being the main symptom. Such diarrhea can in turn lead to potentially life-threatening dehydration.

Therefore degus should not be offered mealworms as food.

As a pet lover, make sure to learn about pet more and give your pet degu a good and comfortable life!

Rajkumar Ravichandran

Welcome to Learn About Pet. My name is Rajkumar Ravichandran and I love all pets, travel, and amazing food. I write about my passion and personal experience caring for multiple pets in this blog! ❤️