Live Mealworms

I am so grossed out by these things that I can't even post a picture.

I bought live mealworms for Niko yesterday at Petco - totally uncertain if he'll eat them or not. So as I check out I say to the guy at the register "I hope my hedgehog eats them!" to which he replies "you can return them if he doesn't." Sweet! I can return live mealworms if my picky hedgehog who only eats dry cat food doesn't like them.

So then my friend comes over, and before heading out to eat yummy crepes with some more friends, we try one out. The scene is: Niko on the coffee table and a gross huge mealworm crawling around on the plastic lid from the tub it came from. Niko sniffs around, walks around, looks straight at it with his nose almost touching it...! and keeps sniffing around and walking around. Walking over it, I think he even stepped on it. Okay, this is ridiculous, thankfully I can return them.

After eating yummy crepes, another friend also comes over to watch Niko (live Friday night entertainment!) So now there's three of us, watching Niko ignore a big gross mealworm and see other mealworms try to crawl out of their tub. Ew.

Eventually, the mealworm crawls out of it's plastic lid towards Niko's nose. Suddenly, it's like instinct kicks in and Niko snatches it with his mouth, chomps a few times, the three of us are cheering because it's the most action we've seen out of Niko all night... aaaaaand then he spits it out. Ignores it the rest of the evening. I wonder how much Petco will charge for one missing mealworm from a tub of 12?

Okay, we call it a night, and I put the dead mealworm in Niko's food bowl just to see if he'll eat it overnight by accident thinking it's cat food. This morning, it was in fact gone. Hmmmm - okay, so before I go return the remaining 11, let's just see what happens with another live one.

Again Niko ignored it at first. I get totally grossed out because it immediately crawled out of it's plastic lid and was moving around fast everywhere. Niko starts to get excited. He attempts a chomp! but the mealworm gets away and Niko looks a little bewildered (hey Niko, look left, he went that-a-way). He sees it again, another chomp! no, now it's crawling over your foot. Ew ew. Eat it Niko! Eat it! Eat it! (I'm seriously chanting/screaming this at Niko because I think the mealworm is so gross I just want my little bug killer to get rid of it for me). Eat it! Eat it! And he does! Whee! Gross! Whee! Ewwww...

And he actually did eat it this time, not just chomp and then spit it out. I guess I don't have to return them after all.