Thoughts on superworms...

Lisa Baker

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This is my fierce, yet so loving one year old Groot. I try to give Groot variety. Today he had large crickets, he loves to chase them down and munch on them, he also had a small piece of apple. I also do pill bugs, mealworms, earthworms, cooked chicken and cooked ground turkey. I also offer hard boiled egg, pumpkin puree, lettuce and strawberry.

Today I bought superworms for him, after doing research. I thought I was doing a good thing. But on other sites people are telling me they are dangerous for my EBT. What are your thoughts? I'm a first time turtle mom and Groot has thrived over the last 10 months I've had him. Please any thoughts I'd appreciate.
 

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Pastel Tortie

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Superworms are supposed to be much better than mealworms. My boxie is a little more than a year old, and she says superworms are fine and edible... although if they are too much over an inch in length, they aren't worth the hassle. Find the "small" superworms to feed her. It takes more looking to find the small size, but I found some locally at Petco. You may still have to disable some of the more feisty superworms to help your boxie out.
 

Markw84

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Superworms are good. The best thing I like about them is how long they take to pupate. You can keep them active at room temperature for many weeks without them pupating like mealworms do. This gives me a chance to gut load them by putting in lots of Mazuri and opuntia catcuts pads. They Feast on those and are extremely active. A healthy turtle will love them. I also tend to get the small ones as they are easier for most turtles to eat. Look at rainbowmealworms.net as a great source.
 

Lisa Baker

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Superworms are good. The best thing I like about them is how long they take to pupate. You can keep them active at room temperature for many weeks without them pupating like mealworms do. This gives me a chance to gut load them by putting in lots of Mazuri and opuntia catcuts pads. They Feast on those and are extremely active. A healthy turtle will love them. I also tend to get the small ones as they are easier for most turtles to eat. Look at rainbowmealworms.net as a great source.

I'm sorry but what are you gut feeding them with? I've never heard those names.
 

Pastel Tortie

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For a young box turtle, if you have any healthy commercial foods she won't eat, you can use those pellets to gutload the superworms. :D
 

Pastel Tortie

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Really? Like all the veggies Groot won't eat?
Absolutely. If Groot won't eat her veggies herself, then she can eat the superworms who ate her veggies for her. My boxie won't eat her veggies either...so far.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Why larger superworms are an acceptable diet item, not withstanding the C: P ratio concern. Gut load them with a high calcium diet, like Layena. The larger worms exoskeleton to guts ratio is better than small meal worms, more guts, better quality food, especially if they are guy loaded with a high calcium diet. So the worm become a vehicle for the layena, like the bread is the vehicle for the a sandwich.

https://www.reptifiles.com/feeder-insect-nutrition-facts-chart/

You might notice all the insects have a negative C: P ratio. they all need to be gut loaded. Some snake breeders do the same for the mice before they are fed out. It's why carnivores like lions will often eat the intestines of the prey, that how they get their veggies. Gut loading is very important.
 

Lisa Baker

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So I have a small colony of pill (sow) bugs that I feed raw baby carrots to. Is this considered gut loading?
 

Lisa Baker

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PJay

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Some good high calcium gut loading foods are turnip greens, mustard greens and dandelion greens. There are insects available on the internet that are naturally high in calcium such as dubia roaches and horn worms. My turtles stand at attention waiting for the next horn worm.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Some good high calcium gut loading foods are turnip greens, mustard greens and dandelion greens. There are insects available on the internet that are naturally high in calcium such as dubia roaches and horn worms. My turtles stand at attention waiting for the next horn worm.
Per the chart I posted both of these insect are 1:3 C: P, super worms are 1:18, much worse, but the gut loading will make the difference in both cases.
 

lisa127

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I feed mostly nightcrawlers with superworms for a change sometimes.
 

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