Cut head off worms?

[brian]

I have 2 tiger salamnders for over a month now, and have relied on crickets for food. I want to try feeding them worms because the cricket's chirping drives my girlfriend nuts!
My tiger salamnders are just like i have read. They are voracious, beggars,and really beautiful if you ask me. I feed each individually with tweezers beacuse i dont want to leave any uneaten food roaming about to gnaw on them.(crickets and worms could easily hide in the moss of my tank) i dont know how much of a concern this is, but so far i have really only used tweezers to feed them. Another major reason for the tweezers is because i dont want them to eat the moss along with their food.

I have been told that you should cut the head off of certain worms before you feed it to your animal. The fear is that the worm could burrow out of your animal's stomach! I have also heard that this is an urban myth with no evidence, and the reptile/salamnder etc.. can easily digest a melee worm or other type of worm.

I was originally going to post this message in a different forum ,but there, a guy wrote decapitation is neceassary because his reptile was killed from a superworm burrowing out.No one posted after him.
Could someone please explain this once and for all? Sorry so long. Thanks!

 

[carmen]

Hi Brian,
no, it's no myth... meal worms, super worms and the like have strong enough jaws to eat through soft tissue. This is assuming the worm is swallowed whole.

Pinch off the head before feeding if you're really worried about this. Because this type worm has an exoskeleton that might turn off some predators, pinching off the head, or otherwise exposing the innards will help entice feeding.

Good Luck!

 

[benjamin]

Earth worms are incapable of killing your sals, and it's actually probably a good Idea to have them roaming around the tank as long as it's not too wet and they can't drown. Earthworms are probably the ideal caudate food.

Crickets have been known to attack and mutilate reptiles, but this is only when they are not eaten, and I've never experienced/read this about amphibians.

Melee worms should be decapitated, but not because they can burrow out of your animal, rather because their large hard mouth parts can cause indigestion. Also Melee worms are pretty heavily plated all over the body and aren't the easiest things for sals to digest. Wax worms should also be decapitated for the same reason; however, their bodies are soft.

If you're really worried about your salamander getting hurt, stick to earthworms.

 

[edward]

Hi Ben,
There are documented cricket attacks in Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry and I have see wounds caused by crickets on a couple of caudates over the years.
While meal worms (generic including Zoophobas) have strong jaws neither species is really a risk to damage the caudates. Actually, crushing the heads or cutting them off, releases some of the body fluids and seems to increase the palatability to the animals.

Ed

 

[ira]

i lost a pair of t. shanjing to cricket attacks back in '97. so yes, it does happen and its pretty horrible when it does, which is why i dont feed any of my caudates crickets.

 

[leanne]

I have a method of getting Fatboy (my blotched tiger salamander) to eat something other than only crickets, just to make me feel better about his diet, that he is getting enough calcium....I thread a cricket on a string with a needle, through the neck area, and this keeps him alive. Then I thread an earthworm or nightcrawler onto the string, right next to the cricket, so when Fatboy goes for the cricket, he inadvertently eats the worm as well, and since there is about only one inch of thread in his mouth, I gently pull the thread out as soon as I know he has both the cricket and worm in his grasp! For a treat, I occasionally string a decapitated mealworm or waxworm with the cricket as well.
Here is a photographic illustration of the process

:

 

[joan]

Fishing for salamanders. That's a great idea though. At least you know he's getting a balanced diet.

 

[leanne]

Yes, he is so picky

----he would never eat a worm before my trickery, heh heh...and I was always concerned about trying to give him a varied diet, you know?

 

[salamandernewbe101]

Brine shrimp ,
Hi , I just got brine shrimp eggs last evening i put them in water with aeration light but no heat we do not know how we would get the temp up to 82 I hope this dose not effect the brine shrimp eggs at all . How do you know when your salamanders are eating ( I have salamander larve bye the way .) Also how long dose it take for them to hatch ? And I got shrimp pelltes for them to eat