superworms dangerous to reptiles

[LeilaNami]

I had a lady tell me today that her vet told her not to feed her beardie superworms because it caused his recent impaction...he's a full size beardie at 22"

 

[Kuro]

i have two beardies and they love their supers! will fall all over themselves to get one.

what they told is a myth and also beardies have strong jaws(i should know since my big female bit me once!) so i never worry feeding the supers

 

[burmish101]

Maybe the persons beardie got impacted because the person fed it WAY too much. With beardies your supposed to feed them insects after you feed them veggies, they might have just fed them a ton of superworms with no veggies for fiber to push it through. I've never had a problem feeding superworms to anything, but I have had turtles poop out bits of shell before so i'd recommend not to load your herps stomaches to the brim with them.

 

[Kimo]

I have many herps and inverts and never ever had any problems with superworms, they are lower in hitin compared to T.molitor or meal worms, so better evade those them Z.morio. They can be easily digested, but are not high in protein as roaches or crickets, it shouldn't be staple diet, but is good to give at some basis in addition to roches or crickets.

 

[DireWolf0384]

Superworms eating their way out of a stomach? That's a load of BS. As stated before, Reptiles are used to eating all sorts of things including Ants and Wasps.

 

[LeilaNami]

i have two beardies and they love their supers! will fall all over themselves to get one.

what they told is a myth and also beardies have strong jaws(i should know since my big female bit me once!) so i never worry feeding the supers

oh yeah I know. Vet probably diagnosed with out the full detailing of the care she was putting the beardie through.

 

[dendrobate]

How about just not using superworms at all. I personally have only used meal worms as a stand by when other feeders were not available,and i always cut the heads off.Worms are fatty and likely are like feeding a big greasy hamburger to your pet."Mcworms"

 

[ZergFront]

ummmm...

I REEEEALLY don't see that happening. Not after the loud crunches I hear my lizard do eating them. Hehe.

Actually I'm planning on setting up a breeding terrarium for a couple of the ones I have. My Chinese water dragon doesn't like the beetles at all(the escapees hid under the water bowl and grew). They reek too much. I had picked one up to show my mom and even with three hand washes the stench wouldn't come off. >.<

 

[pandinus]

i believe the myth comes from the fact that they do have some powerfull jaws, and i'm always having to throw out containers at work because the superworms manage to gnaw holes in the lids and escape so while they have pretty tough jaws, that does them no good if the are dead.



John

 

[Matt K]

Interesting that this thread got revived from last year....

But yes- HUGE MYTH to say the least. Superworms will die before they can chew thier way to freedom. Also true that they are rich in protein and fat, and my opinion is the protein does not offset the fat content at all, so they are a rare treat (so are mealworms). Waxworms I never touch anymore because I have read research papers that showed how the waxy products (beeswax or paraffin) can accumulate in the reptiles liver eventually causing liver disfunction in the long term and possibly lead to liver failure.

 

[MorbidPh8]

I have read about this myth as well. Seeing them chew there way out of the container they where in kinda freaked me out. I always smack there head with my tongs so they can't burrow any ways. The trick is to hit them just right so they still wiggle but can't burrow. I call this retarding my worms.. lol My g/f cracked up the first time she saw me do this. lol

 

[SandyMuffinCakes94]

cut their heads off or cut a slit in its head so it twitches but will later die in the stomach

 

[Kirstie420]

Ok... I jus got a today gecko a Lil over a month ago n everything was fine I got the superworms to try something different from crickets and I put some in the dish and a few days went by n he wouldn't eat them so I took them.out and gave them away... That was a couple weeks ago now yesterday I went to feed my gecko and he had 2 huge wounds on his tail that look like something was eating away at him I cleaned the cage and found 5 of them auperworms they must have got out the dish and they were <dang> HUGE 10x bigger than they were wen I put them in the dish idk what to do or what its from someone plz help

 

[Arachnomaniac19]

The larvae probably bit him. Just keep it clean and make sure they can't get out.

 

[truecreature]

Superworms causing problems might be rare but it does actually happen. I've heard of a bearded dragon having issues (no idea where the link is so feel free to take with a grain of salt) and someone else posted about their experience with their leopard gecko here - http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...eding-caution-zophobas-morio-cricket4u-4.html

So yep, I crush the heads of all superworms just in case. Not worth the risk

 

[Mattkc]

The biggest danger of just feeding superworms (or mealworms) to your lizard is the real possibility to cause the digestive track to get impacted from their heavy exoskeleton - do not feed these worms exclusively to your pet! Always mix up their diet when possible for better health.

 

[ALUCAI2D]

i had bought some superworms for my tokay gecko and got them home to try them and they were oily 1st time iv'e ever tryed them so that was a turnoff.put them up went to p-etco for some waxworms and was telling the lady bout how i didn't care for superworms and she said they could eat through the stomach of a reptile.anyone ever heard this or is she a fruitloop.

Yes. The bearded dragon probably has to be very young or sick but it can happen. I had never heard of anything like this and I've been using superworms for a long time. But I Googled it today because I just buried a dragon this morning that had a hole in its stomach and a live superworm nearby. I wouldn't have imagined that the worm could survive the stomach... but from what I'm reading if their stomach acid is weak or they have a bacterial infection it's rare but it can happen.

 

[Warwick555]

I have two Tokay's and they absolutely do not like any type of worms. I tried super, wax, meal, and horned. All the super and meal worms did was burrow and turned into beetle which was cool, they all lived together in harmony for about 6 months then they died off...I kinda liked the beetles in there. But overall I just stick with pinkies, crickets and dubias since that's all they really like. He did eat a pray mantis and a massive moth I caught, but I don't like feeding wild caught food due to the risk of insecticides.

 

[Warwick555]

There's an article about a superworm fed to a Leo and it regurgitated it the next day and kept bleeding internally for a while link below:
http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...eding-caution-zophobas-morio-cricket4u-4.html

I have two Tokay's I keep together male and female without any problems, if I remove her he calls all day and night and I can't sleep at all because it loud! They just had a hatching and I'm waiting on the mate any day now. They all refuse any kind of worm, but they turn to beetles and mass produce like crazy so my viv is pretty much infested now with superworms of all sizes. I'll be taking them all out and change the dirt.

The only issue I have is the superworms are vicious, they'll attack my geckos and try to eat them and bite them. My new hatching is missing half his tail because he doesn't try to run, just let's them eat at him. I had to get new soil. The adults move right away, but the hatching let's it happen. I'll never get superworms again

 

[mantisfan101]

If a tokay gecko can manage to eat snakes and other geckos(search it up), I'm sure that some chitin from a little superworm won't hurt at all.