Calcium

Leighton's thread of some time back about Peely's prolapse and treatment, set me off wondering about calcium deficiency - i tried clicking on the suggested link but the page was down each time - what i really want to know is, if i don't have an earthworm colony to enrich with calcium, how else can i get Snork to have some? i'm presuming she aint gonna nibble a piece of cheese, or relish a paddle in milk!

Ok....so no answers to that one eh?

here's another then;

what's the rules for keeping a worm colony alive? i sent for a tub of the lil critters from worms direct, and followed their instructions ie keep them in the fridge...but within 10 days i had a tub of dead worm slime

so, those of you adept at farming worms - how do you do it? where shall i keep them, in what shall i keep them and what should i feed them?

Charlie, I feed earthworms to mine fairly often. I buy a small tub typically (75mm dia x 25mm deep). It lasts a week when feeding 6 large adults. Can't be bothered to farm or grow or even go into garden and dig a few up. They are cheap enough and avialble at any angling shop and quite a few pet shops too.

If you vary the diet often enough you shouldn't be too bothered by defiencys. Like us, all they need is variety and a balanced diet. They should get all minerals and nutrients they need from that.

Good luck

I thaw out any frozen axo food I have, add phosphorous-free repcale, mix, and refreeze. I then cycle this "enriched frozen entree" into the weekly feeding schedule.

Hmmm, that's a good idea!

Also, if you're in dire need of some calcium-ing up, feed butterworms!

I'm not entirely sold on the butterworms' calcium levels as the units are odd.

Ed

when i was at school we had a wormery which was a tub with lsyers of soil then sand then soil etc. so they stay alive then and keep themselves occupied by mixin the soil and sand together.

is it safe to give them cheese? and food like that....i once gave an axy chocolte. he seemed to like it ...

Jenny, they would probably never encounter cheese or chocolate in their natural habitat. And considering all the chemicals in chocolate (mainly caffeine and sugar), I wouldn't feed mine chocolate.

Ed, have you done any research on the calcium levels? or know of any? I'd be curious. Rumor has it that earthworms are still higher in calcium than butterworms overall, but butterworms have more calcium per weight.

The units for butterworms are not calcium by weight but ml of calcium per 100 grams of worms.
All of the other food animals that have been analyzed to my knowledge are in either % (drymatter or as fed) or by % per kcals of usable nutrition. This makes it very hard to compare the usefulnes of butterworms to any other food iten. I did e-mail the company to ask about the units but have never recieved a response. There also isn't a phosphorus ratio there so you can determine if the the ratio of calcium to phosphorus is correct (between 1 to 1 and 2 to 1).
The calcium levels of the earthworms are totally dependent on the calcium level of the soil in which they are maintained. The higher percentage of calcium in the soil the higher the calcium level in the earthworm. Earthworms (leaving butterworms out for the moment as phosphorus is not listed) are typically the only feeder invertebrate that has a positive calcium to phosphorus ratio.
The point that needs to be remembered is that the nutritional needs of amphibians have not been determined to the extent that those of people or even cows or sheep have been determined.
With regards to calcium we know that the ideal ratio of calcium is usually about 1.5 to 1, with a vitamin A to D3 to E ratio of 10 to 1 to 0.1. Other than that we do not know the dietary minimums or maximums. The reason for this would be the requirement that you take several large groups of animals anf withhold the selected nutrient, necropsy the animal and document the effects then slowly increase the nutient in question untill the pathology of deficency goes away, but you keep increasing the levels until toxic symptoms, and conditional deficiencies appear. This has not been done for a number of reasons.
At this time most amphibians respond well within the parameters established for the studied mammals with some documented exceptions in Bufonids to vitamin A.

If it seems choppy sorry. I tried to be brief.
Ed