Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi.

I was wondering if a staple diet of Red Worms, dusted with a vitamin-calcium supplement, would be nutritionally sufficient for a toad? I would supplement the diet with other feeder foods such as crickets, but I would like the worms to be the staple food.

Here is the nutritional breakdown of Red Worms:

Moisture 84%
Protein 11%
Fat 2%
Ash 2%
Other 2%

Any input will be appreciated.

Thank you.

jayhawk

The problem with many of the redworms available in the USA is that they are Eisenia foetida and most herps reject them due to the acrid yellow secretion.
On top of that a staple diet in earthworms was shown to cause muscle development problems in bullfrogs (while not a toad, it is still close enough for me to be concerned about a steady diet of annelids for any anuran). (see Modzelewski, E.H.; Culley, D.D. Jr.; 1974, Growth responses of the bull frog, Rana catesbiana, fed various live foods; Herpetologica, 30(4): 396-405)

I would suggest that you can use them for a major part of the diet but not as the staple part of the diet. Supplementing them in that fashion should be fine.

Ed

Hi Ed,

Thanks very much for your detailed response. I agree that it is not worth the risk to use the Red Worms as a staple diet. I will use crickets as my staple and supplement with the occasional Red Worm.

Thanks again.

jayhawk

Based on that article it should be okay to use the redworms for a least 1/3 of the diet (the control group was fed equally on fish, earthworms and crickets and had no problems with growth).

Ed

Hi Ed.

Thank you for the additional information. You've been very helpful.

jayhawk

I've been keeping FBT for a year now, feed about 60% "red wriggler" worms and 40% dusted/gut loaded crickets, all toads are in good health but no eggs...I'll try changing that ration in favor of bugs...

There are definitely different kinds of worms being sold as the same thing- look in the container and if the worms look skinny or sickly then take a pass.

Finding exactly the right size crickets is a challenge, I have one independent LPS that has them just right, they call them "small", as opposed to pinhead or 1/4's