Hi Coley
Don’t forget that some hogs will visit several times a night, so your total may not be what you think it is. Some hogs just poo a lot, especially if there are other hogs around! It’s best to cut out the mealworms completely. Partly because if everyone was feeding some mealworms certain hogs could go around picking out the mealworms – as well as what they potentially pick up from under bird feeders.
Personally, I wouldn’t feed as much as 40% calci-worms either. The jury is still out on them, for me – there simply isn’t enough information about them yet, so I would keep them to a garnish on other food. There is some evidence that if fed with a rubbish diet (literally) calci-worms have lower amounts of calcium in relation to phosphorous, so it’s worth checking that on the ones you are buying. The risk is that people will try to find cheaper ways of producing them and in the process making them have less calcium.
Re. the slugs. Hogs don’t normally eat the big ones which come to eat the hog food. The good news is apparently those ones are actually good at breaking down dead plant material and it’s the small ones that do most damage to plants.
Good luck with the hogs – happy hog watching.
