Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, Ed, do you think my kids would eat newly emerged cicadas, if I can find them before they harden up? One box turtle adopter already told me that her turtle has been indulging in a cicada or two with his slugs. My eels used to love wax worms, but now they're too big to even look at a wax worm. And just what about slugs? Think they'd eat them? Would they be harmful to an eel if injested?

Katrina

Hi Katrina,
Actually if you got a couple just after they molted so they are still soft I would be very surprised if they didn't try to eat them.
Even the large females at work still feed on waxworms and crickets if I put them into the tank. (They actually search the surface of the tank and hoover up any crickets the frogs miss and fall into the water.
I would expect them to eat some of the slugs species but I do not know which species have extra nasty secretions so it would be guess work as to which species they would accept.

Ed