Stomach acids are more than sufficient to kill superworms. The only time I can see a superworm surviving in the stomach is if the dragon was really sick or something is neutralizing stomach acid to the point your dragon can't digest food. Thus if the superworm doesn't just drown in the the fluid it could eat its way out of the bearded dragon's stomach. But, to be honest at this point the dragon is so sick the probably wouldn't have even eaten the superworm on its own. Thus highly unlikely a superworm could survive long enough inside a dragon's belly to eat its way out.

Only time I have seen a picture of a bearded dragon with what looks like superworms coming out of it, it was very emaciated and dead looking (probably for longer than a few days) and it did have a superworm half inside a hole chewed out of it. However superworms do eat dead flesh...there was no way to confirm that dragon died from the worms itself, or if the worms were just taking advantage of a free meal.

I have fed bearded dragons superworms for years without any trouble and they are pretty good at killing the worms with their teeth so they are already dead before getting to the stomach. So no need to cut off the superworm heads. Just feed slowly if your dragon is the sort to gobble up live prey fast. Since your dragons are full adults, with a complete salad they can do well with superworms only though I still recommend giving some crickets (gutloaded 24 hours before feeding), silkworms, hornworms, butterworms or roaches for variety as well. Butterworms are a great feeder worm as well, very high in calcium and dragons seem to love them.

Incidentally superworms are Zophobas morio and most mail order places will tell you that is the kind of beetle larvae they sell. Kingworms tends to be the name given to steroid pumped mealworms but I have heard the term used for superworms too.
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PHLdyPayne

[ Hide Replies ]

• Mealworms/Giant Mealworms/Superworms?! - lillesspetz, Mon Jan 5 17:05:31 2009
• Giant Mealworm ARE mealworms! BUT! - lillesspetz, Mon Jan 5 17:09:26 2009
• RE: Giant Mealworm ARE mealworms! BUT! - BiggerBalls, Mon Jan 5 19:00:56 2009
• RE: Giant Mealworm ARE mealworms! BUT! - BDlvr, Tue Jan 6 03:16:37 2009
• RE: Giant Mealworm ARE mealworms! BUT! - kmartin311, Tue Jan 6 09:16:13 2009
• RE: Mealworms/Giant Mealworms/Superworms?! - PHLdyPayne, Tue Jan 6 13:25:50 2009