Keeping Worms Alive

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Levo

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I mail order my worms, basically for time and convience, I basically live in a city centre student flat so not many place to go digging.
But basically I have ordered 35 and they arrive in a small tub with dirt in, but the worms don't last too long alive. I was just wondering how to keep them wriggling so when it comes to feeding them to my axolotl they are still good to eat.
 
Take a small-medium sized container(tuppaware, icecream tub etc). Black out the lid and drill/burn holes for ventilation.
Fill with a 50/50 mix of topsoil and shreded newspaper, keep moist(use a spray bottle), place somewhere warm and dark.

If you're keeping them for more than 3-4 weeks feed with small amounts of plant based kitched waste(stale breadcrumbs, pasta, non acidic vegetable peelings, tea bags).
 
Lasher said:
Take a small-medium sized container(tuppaware, icecream tub etc). Black out the lid and drill/burn holes for ventilation.
Fill with a 50/50 mix of topsoil and shreded newspaper, keep moist(use a spray bottle), place somewhere warm and dark.

If you're keeping them for more than 3-4 weeks feed with small amounts of plant based kitched waste(stale breadcrumbs, pasta, non acidic vegetable peelings, tea bags).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice!

I have got a colony of Tiger Worms that are used for composting, will some of their compost do as topsoil?
 
It will indeed, all they really need is food, moist dirt and dark - exactly the same as your compost worms.
 
Where do you buy your worms? and what species are they?
The best worms for amphibs are lumbricus terrestris and these can be bought from places like worms direct. Only problem being that these companies usually feed their worms on cardboard....or more specifically, the glue contained within the cardboard. This has always concerned me and so for this reason i keep my worms in the fridge as this will stop the worms from needing to eat...it also allows them to be purged of any potentially harmful things like the glue. In my experience Lumbricus will not eat the same food stuffs and the regular compost worms either.....and also in my experience 99% of caudates seem to really dislike compost worms (dedrobaen spp)
 
I keep my worms in the fridge as well.
 
It really depends on the type of worms. Compost worms (Eisenia or Dendrobaena) will die in the fridge, but live happily at room temp. Canadian nightcrawlers (Lumbricus) will die at room temp, but live just fine in the fridge. Unless we know what kind of worms they are, we can't say how to keep them.
 
The worms I have are Red Worms Eisenia fetida I buy them from PetsClubUK for my axolotls. The tiger worms themselves are just used for composting and not for anything else because as is noted, they have a smelly toxin they release that amphibians don't like the taste of.
 
I was thinking about this too. I got red worms (I think) and on the box it says to keep it below room temperature. The bait shop had them in the fridge so I did the same. But there are about 50 medium worms in it and it will take 2-3 weeks before they're all eaten.
How do I keep them alive for that long?

Do I just leave them in the fridge? Should I feed them? Should I make a mini-compost and place somewhere warmer? Don't want them to grow either since my axie just barely can swallow them as they are and I don't want to cut them into smaller pieces (just barely learning to tolerate giving live food)
 
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