Off topic....hornworm disposal

jeff kushner

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I had the darndest thing happen yesterday! I still have a few of the hornworms, now 3-4 inches long so I decided to feed them to the birds. I lowered my feeders and placed on on the spar between them(you can see in pic). As I was doing this, I noticed one of my girls sunning herself, a large female Skink.

So, I tossed her a worm and amazingly it landed a mere 8" from her. She pounced on it and ran behind the pipe in the pic, to eat it. This pic was taken about 5 minutes later, AFTER SHE BROUGHT IT BACK!!!

WTH?

After I had tossed her the worm, I saw another medium-large female on the other side of the concrete step going into the garage so I tossed her one too.....she actually tracked it in flight and ran to the top of a stack of pavers and nearly caught it mid-air! She too ran out of sight to eat it.

After the 1st female returned her food, I walked over to where the 2nd one had disappeared and sure enough, her worm remained untouched too although she was no where in site.


I went back to the 1st and tore the worm into 3 pieces.....big girl came to inspect but did not eat them.

I have never had a reptile return food, anyone else?



I apologize as always, for the pics..I suck at taking picsworm 2.png

worm.png
worm 3.png
 

Maro2Bear

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Interesting..... maybe a bit too rare for them. Or, they only eat Horn worm with a chilled Chianti?

We have a good amount of these skinks too. Always fun to watch.

Resting on the Coconut
5930DB94-8174-4ED8-A596-84D7D6084171.jpeg
 

wellington

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They must like them well done not rare lol.
Possibly what Maro2Bear said. Not a regular food for them but went for it like crazy cuz it was a proper food item shape and it moved.
Also possibly too big for them to swallow and once you broke it up, it no longer moved.
Pretty funny though
 

jeff kushner

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Yeah guys....it was the weirdest thing I ever saw! I agree, either they were too large or maybe they just get nasty tasting when they are larger?

Darn strange.....watching a lizard of all things, bringing back a food item. She set it down, then backed up two steps or so as if to say " Here, you eat it!"

Then, when I tore it up for her...she actually came right back to see what I had exchanged it for....then she just stared at me, ruefully!

LOL
 

ZEROPILOT

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I'm more sure than ever that they were originally fed on something toxic...nightshade, tobacco, etc..
Here they are called Tomato hornworms.
They DO eat the toxic leaves of Tomatoe plants.
However the ones used for feeding pets eat a diet of Mulberry leaf mush.
 

ZenHerper

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Here they are called Tomato hornworms.
They DO eat the toxic leaves of Tomatoe plants.
However the ones used for feeding pets eat a diet of Mulberry leaf mush.
Yes, they should!

I'm just not sure these have...turtles and skinks won't eat 'em? Too weird...
 

ZEROPILOT

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Yes, the should!

I'm just not sure these have...turtles and skinks won't eat 'em? Too weird...
These guys love them.
But I can't vouch for the flavor!
 

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