Hi all, I am new to this site, but a long-term keeper of turtles and other herps. These days I have a small reptile family of two turtles and a snake.
My turtles are a red-eared slider and an Ornate Box turtle. They both live in my backyard- the RES in a pond and the Ornate in a pen (he gets supervised time out of his pen when I'm in the backyard.)
When it comes to live food, my guys eat lots of brown snails (collected from my own clean yard) and the occasional earthworm that I find in the yard or garden. They both love live foods, especially my Ornate box- as is typical of his species. It is hard to find earthworms for purchase around here that are reasonably priced, and I confess I worry about the cleanliness of them. In the interest of keeping them in worms, I have been considering a small worm farm. I already do some composting and have a big veggie garden, so the compost would be welcome, but my main goal in this would be to make worms for the turtles to eat.
So in my research about worm composting, I have come across some sources saying that red wigglers, the most commonly used composting worm, are toxic to reptiles. All of these are internet sources which point to another internet source- I can't find any solid veterinary or scientific info about it. Does anyone have any thoughts or information about this?
I've been considering farming the Giant Redworm, also called the European Nightcrawler here in the U.S., instead of the usual red wiggler... a bigger worm would be more appetizing to my turtles. I haven't come across any info saying that these guys are toxic... but I haven't found any saying they are safe, either.
Do any of you feed red wigglers or giant red wigglers? Do you have any information on their toxicity? I am not willing to risk my turtle's health- I've had them both for a long time and they are precious to me.
Thanks!
