Reptile & Amphibian Forums

any of you give your beardies earthworms??? i checked about 4 or 5 different places and it said they were okay. Z is only 11 inches snout to tail so of course i cut those big suckers up. when he pooped yesterday though i swear he pooped out a whole piece of worm. like 1/2" long. freaked me out. are they not easily digestible??? because if that's the case my little boy won't be getting anymore of them.

amy

I fed Red wigglers to my beardies when they were young. Didn't care for them much though. My Dragon has only eaten a night crawler once and he was real hungry I think. So, are they OK? I think so. Are you feeding your dragon to many and he/she can't digest them properly? I don't know!

feeding too much of something is not a phrase in z's vocabulary...lol.
actually, the earthworms are about 6 inches long and i cut them into about 3/4 inch pieces (the yick factor is enough to kill me). he usually will eat 3 pieces that size.

amy

Worms eat the bacteria, protozoa and fungi on organic matter.
I wouldn't want to feed that to my beardies..

Just because they eat the bacteria doesn't mean they are bad.
Cows eat grass, which we can not, yet we eat the cow.

They are able to utilize the proteins in the bacteria etc. and they break it all down. Worms are very nutritious and fed to many animals. I used to grow my own worms to use in home made fish food for very expensive Discus and cichlids without and problems, in fact, all benefits.
I even tried to feed them to my Dragons but they just didn't like them. I wonder if you raised hatchlings on them, if they may like them from the start. I know most dragons get in their little grove and don't like change for the most part.

I'm going to give it a try. I have some hatching as we speak (dragons that is). I'm going to see if I can get them started on worms and compare the growth rate compared to ones feed pellets, ones feed pellets and mealworms. The ones I feed the worms to will also be fed the pellets. And all will of course be fed the veggies.
I have stopped feeding crickets because of the parasite load they carry so I can't compare to them.
I'll keep everyone updated on how it goes. I'm guessing that they won't want them from the start though, but I'll still try.

Joel R

I remembered reading this on a site about about invertabrates as food..
The common earthworm, Lumbricus vulgaris, and its larger cousin, the "nightcrawler," Lumbricus terrestris, are easily acquired for feeding reptiles. They require little care and their soft bodies are easily digested. Earthworms are very high in protein (over 70%), low in fat (less than 15%), and high in carbohydrates (around 14%) when compared to other invertebrates commonly fed to reptiles. The calcium and phosphorous levels vary based on the food items in their diet. Earthworms may be infected with Bacillus thuringienis and several yeasts and fungi.
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