I just heard that meal worms can eat through the stomachs of turtles? Is this true.
Meal worm ?
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I've been wanting to post a question if meal worms can be fed whole to EBTs or if the heads have to be cut off....I've read both...
I would doubt that's true. Mine snap them in half or so almost immediately. I would suggest using superworms instead of mealworms though.
Thank you.
Yeah mealworms won't eat through a boxies stomach they have very string stomach acid as well as above stated never seen a box turtle eat a meal worm whole, always a bite bite chomp swallow lol. Some lizards will eat them whole and I can see where they can probably do damage even then it's gotta be rare.
One thing I will say tho. I fed a box turtle a meal worm and the turtle attacked it from behind. Meal work was chomped half way and just so happen to reach around and chomp on the turtle right above the eye and left a real nasty bump. I always recommend if you feed meal worms to cut heads of especially for babies because those jaws are no joke. I would believe if it didn't happen to my little girl threetoed. I like to past the info down tho
One thing I will say tho. I fed a box turtle a meal worm and the turtle attacked it from behind. Meal work was chomped half way and just so happen to reach around and chomp on the turtle right above the eye and left a real nasty bump. I always recommend if you feed meal worms to cut heads of especially for babies because those jaws are no joke. I would believe if it didn't happen to my little girl threetoed. I like to past the info down tho
It is a myth. Mealworms do not eat through the stomach of lizards or turtles. If you put a mealworm in liquid, it dies quickly. Besides, as stated above boxies tend to bite a mealie several times before eating it. When I give my boxie mealworms sometimes the worm is dead before he swallows it. And there is no need to cut heads off of mealworms. Superworms maybe, but not mealworms.
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No they don't eat through the stomachs but if it is one of the main things you feed it the shells around the mealworms can become hard to digest and in some cases impaction
lisa127 said:
Bigger meal worms can possibly fight back, all depends. I never cut the heads off for adults, and never feed mealworms for my babies so no need for it. And yes they are a little tougher to digest and it really should be part of a diet not the diet
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Thank you...I'll check into getting some of those. Do you have a preferred place to order them from online? Thank you.
Thank you; good info.
kimber_lee_314 said:
Thank you; good info.
Millerlite said:
lisa127 said:
I use to breed mealworms just cuz it was cheaper, never bred superworms, don't they become flies? Or maybe that were waxworms idk, my box turtles would eat the Beatles too. Lol
Millerlite said:
Super worms and meal worms are both the larvae of types of darkling beetles. Wax worms are moth larvae.
Phoenix worms/Calciworms/Reptiworms/Soldier Grubs all refer to Black Soldier Fly Larvae.
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I raise. My own mealworms for my box turtles , and turtles not because its cheaper but because they are what they eat most people give them potatoes , I give mine fruit veggys of all kinds. I don't want them raised in chicken meal , I use oat meal w/o hormons, chemicals, or poison substances . I know what I'm feeding and its not cheaper .
I have never heard of this, and I always feed them to my adult Box turtles. I never feed them to hatchlings any more, because I threw some in a vivarium that I had two hatchlings in and they didn't eat them, and they turned into beetles and they ate the two hatchlings. It took all of two days. When I dug them up to feed them there was nothing left but two totally empty shells.
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