Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Have moved my 3 hatchlings to an even smaller box in an attempt to maximize their ability to feed. I am going to place a small plate and place their worms in it. even in the first rearing box ( a recycling bin with some compost) they lost many more worms then they caught. the small worms are getting hard to come by and I need to make the most of them. ANY suggestions would be appreciated. they are very shy and any attempt to actually place them in front of the food item definitely puts them off. Do mos of you hunt your own worms, buy them (i,ve heard there are some problems with this) or use alternative food sources??

THANKs

Hi,
Just wondering what the known problems are with feeding bought worms?
Thanks.

Ryan,
It is thought that some earthworms raised for fish bait may contain herbicides or even pesticides. It is recommended that earthworms be purchased from sources specifically oriented towards raising herp food. Do I do this?...no. I have a local grower here and know how their worms are maintained.

FlatsFeet,
I feed my turtles purchased and captured insects, in just about every variety you can imagine.

By far, the best method that I've found for feeding hatchlings less than 3 inches in length is to leave them in small sweater boxes for an hour or so with the food item(s). Sometimes I put them in shallow water, sometimes I don't. Earthworms usually have to be chopped well so that they don't escape. For some reason, when they reach around 3 inches, they eat in their enclosures just fine.

Hmmm, I figured that was the worry. Those thoughts crossed my mind as well, though I do feed night crawlers from bait shops. Whether or not this is a problem, only time will tell.
Thanks!

Ken,
Thanks very much for the advise. I might go ahead and order some small crickets, try and find a place that raises their own worms. 2 of the 3 hatchlings ate a small worm this AM. At this point all 3 are in a plastic sweater sized box wthin the main pen. (At least they have a shot at finding the prey items in there.) I am very curious about what if anything these 3 have eaten over the last 9 months==== I suspect sow bugs and maybe some small insects in the pen.

JOE

I have also heard that night crawlers sold at bait shops are sometimes harvested from beneath rabbit hutches and can carry a heavy parasite load as a result.

In the south I know they also get them from the cleaning out of chicken houses,this can open another can of worms with salmonella. Sorry for the pun

We get them from a guy that raises them in peat moss with mixed in fruit and vegetables.

>>I have also heard that night crawlers sold at bait shops are sometimes harvested from beneath rabbit hutches and can carry a heavy parasite load as a result.

That's the one I've always heard. Because I need food for them I've been doing that anyway & so far no problems at all.
With Janie having gotten sick she's been tested twice in the last couple of weeks, she especially loves those nightcrawlers sold as bait- not a parasite to be found in her.
I'm still waiting to catch a sample on the rest of them but they've been eating "bait" too for the last 2-3 years, so far no problems.
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PHRatz

I buy earth worms from Petland Discount. They sell them especially for feeding turtles. Also I have an indoor compost bin, and raise red wigglers. The hatchlings love them as they are much smaller than the earth worms, and easier for them to eat".

.

one of the concerns i,ve heard is that bait shop worms are sometimes obtained from rabbit farms where they are found in the
manure and are therefore loaded with bacteria. sounds like lots of people buy their worms and don,t have any problem.

you might try wax worms or small mealworms (though some have said turtles don't digest mealworms well, being passed through the digestive system whole, and some say waxies are too high in fat). Wax are pretty easy for them to get their mouths around. If even wax worms are too big for your little turtles, chop up the wax worm and place it in shallow water with your hatchlings - that's what i did when I got my first hatchling last fall.

thanks chelonian, Sounds like a good idea. think the waxworms might not be as fast as red worms. How did you come by your hatchling???

JOE

Mine was a CB that relatives bought from a Kingsnake ad online.

Waxies that are not chopped up may be to big for a little turtle.... that's why I suggested chopping them up. But a chopped up wax worm becomes a smear that sticks to whatever you cut in on, hence the suggestion to scrape the chopped-up wax worm where it suspends/floats, and the little boxie can get to with his/here mouth.

I've had better luck with blackworms than with any other live food for brand new hatchlings. They sell them for tropical fish food at most pet/fish stores. They come in small plastic cups and need to be refrigerated. You just drop a glob of them in front of their noses and they can't resist. I've recently started buying nightcrawlers from the sporting goods section at Walmart for my adults. They're huge and you get 24 for $2.79. I was paying that much for a dozen at 7-11. As for the concern over feeding bait worms to turtles, I've been doing it for many years and have never had a problem with parasites of any kind, but I've always bought them at the large chain stores, not the mom-and-pop bait shops.