Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am the proud owner of a baby chinese crocodile lizard. she only just started feeding on her own and i was wondering how balanced a diet of mostly earthworms are. so far she will only take them in water witch makes dusting worthless. a breeder in germany told me as long as she's eating the worms you don't have to suplement. can you gut load? or are the o.k on their own? i'm just happy she is now eating by her self now. if anyone can help. thanks chris. a pic of my san estaban spinytailed iguanas

Earthworms are pretty high in calcium & seem to be the predominate food of Shinsaurus.

Agama International has some good cultural information:

http://www.agamainternational.com/crocodilurus.shtml

Reptiles magazine has another good caresheet on this species:

http://www.animalnetwork.com/reptiles/Breed_Profiles.aspx?aid=2263&cid=3684&search=
Link

thank you. i have read both and they were helpful. so was the worm info. i would still like to see her eat other things but she is still very young. what should i feed the worms? i buy "red wigglers" in the deli cup there in some kind of substrate not soil. i'll try to post a pic later. thanks chris a pic of another worm lover

Nice Electric eel! Here are a couple sites with red wriggler worm info relevant to composting. If you feed them broken egg shells, various greens(collard, turnip, mustard, etc.), that will improve their already high calcium content.

http://www.resourceconservation.mb.ca/cap/vermi.html

http://www.powen.freeserve.co.uk/Guides/WormCom.htm

A google search should yield many more results for vermiculture.
Link

I am working with Mountain Horned Dragons, Acanthosaura capra, and the mainstay of their diet is also nightcrawlers. I have had success feeding them roaches, silkworms, and occasionally, pinky mice. To cut costs a bit I have set up a tub for vermiculture. It's pretty neat because I toss most of my food scraps in to feed the worms and as they grow and reproduce they are fed to my babies.

I have tried both European Nightcrawlers and Red Wigglers and have had some success with both. I purchase my worms by the hundreds from kazarie.com/. Kazarie raises worms for fishing and for pet food so if you order from them specify that they are for pet food and you won't get the ones raised on horse manure.

Their site has a lot of good info on worms. Another really informative site is Happy D Ranch Worm Farm at www.happydranch.com. They have several good articles on vermiculture.

Bottom line, I agree with the other posts that the worms are a well-balanced food. I wouldn't worry too much if they turn up the nose at other offerings.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

yeah i feel better the more i've read. they do seem to be a "perfect food" i like that there soft and high in calcium. this is a pretty informitve forum and will spend more time here. thanks for the good info. i'll keep you guy's posted on my progress. and that was a good guess but it's my african lung fish. here is another pic. it's a bad one of my yellow phase pectanata

Sorry for the mis-ID--didn't have enough coffee. Very cook African Lung Fish. Very interesting animal. I may look into getting one. Thanks

Sorry, I didn't mean "cook". N/P

to late already cooked him thank's for the suggestion "good eatin" ha ha. i've had him for a couple years he was only a 3 in when i got him he's around 18in now. and a real neat fish? really more like a amphibian. got to run. chris