Hi Tim Wood
Thanks for that information – very interesting and sounds logical. I’m not sure which hedgehog care sites you are talking about (BHPS and Hedgehog Street, which I tend to think are pretty reliable, recommend meaty hog food or cat/dog food). Or what you think my ‘advice’ was – my thoughts about the matter have been misconstrued/misrepresented in the past. But yes, it also seems the calcium can vary largely in calci-worms depending on what they are fed (even disregarding any potential problems with digestibility). Some are apparently fed, literally, on rubbish. Sadly I don’t know the answer to “Is there any new update on calciworms ( black soldier fly larvae) and their digestibility?” From what I’ve seen much research about insect larvae, etc. seems to be geared towards them being used for i.e. cattle feed or even as a potential protein source for humans.
Although some people seem to think calci-worms are a better alternative to mealworms (for hedgehogs) because of mealworms having a bad phosphorous/calcium ratio, but there is the other possible question of calci-worms potentially not being good for hogs by having too much calcium in them. That, potentially, could cause problems to hogs, as it does with humans – i.e. kidney stones, etc. I think more needs to be known about any potential harms.
So, to clarify, my feeling has been and still is that we don’t know enough about calci-worms, particularly in relation to hedgehogs (i.e. for me, the jury is still out) and so, as it is not necessary to feed hogs any extras on top of meaty hog/cat/dog food, my feeling is that calci-worms are best avoided and that it is best to stick to the meaty hog food, cat or dog food or cat/kitten biscuits – and water to drink, of course.
If you do find out the answer to your question, I would be interested to know.
