Reptile & Amphibian Forums

now this may be a dumb question but i was wondering, has anyone ever heard of a reason not to feed earthworms or ants to beardies???

Plenty...parasites, toxins (some ants have alot of those), pesticides.
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PHLdyPayne

I have heard of people occasionally feeding earthworms, but you would need to be absolutely sure that the ground (all surrounding) had no biocides in it (pesticide, herbicide, etc.) The worms themselves are surprisingly "clean" all by themselves.

But a note on ants - most species of ants release formic acid so unless your beardie ate it right away (like if it climbs on its head or something) you could have some trouble from bites, plus, b/c they are social insects they can tend to "swarm" - not a good thing. An interesting bit of trivia: birds pick up ants in their bill and rub them into their feathers (releasing the acid) to help control mites. Tells you something, huh? other than that nature is pretty darn cool

just my 2 cents,
lele
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BTW:

some reptiles do eat ants; they have adapted to do that.

"Horned Toad" lizards of north america are almost 100% ant eaters I think... and are hard to keep captive due to that.

also *IF* dragons in the wild eat ants (they might) they would be able to eat only some kinds that occur in the wilds of the outback.... as the toxins in ants from different places varies the wrong ants could be very bad for a dragon!
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Earthworms are supposed to be very good for them. They contain alot of calcium.

Ants, on the other hand, have a symbiotic relationship with a micro organism that lives in their gut. While this organism is harmless and even benificial to ants, they are not so good for some other animals.

Wendy
Scales

My petstore got some earthworms one time....i tried giving them to my beardie and she was terrified because when she bit them in half they kept wriggling! It was too funny!

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