What does everyone feed their worms?

[leah]

For those of you with worm farms for your axolotls, what are you feeding your worms? Since these are mainly what my axies eat, I want to make sure I'm feeding the worms as well as possible. Right now they get bits of veggie compost- lettuce, cucumber/carrot peels, bits of apple, the odd piece of soaked dog food and oatmeal. Would it be beneficial to also use the gut-load powder I sprinkle on my cricket food (not the calcium powder you sprinkle on crickets, this is for the bugs to eat,) or am I varying things enough without it?

 

[kim]

Leah,

All I mainly feed my worms is cooked potato.. they seem to love it and it goes quick.. I do though add any leftovers from dinner, and ive heard that egg shells are good for them for calcium.. I normally just sprinkle the surface once every few months with calicum powder.. just to give it a little extra..

 

[alan]

Ready Brek!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&hl=en&q=%22Ready+Brek%22

 

[jennifer]

oatmeal

 

[claire]

i just fed mine carrot peelings and potato peelings.they loved the carrot.

 

[jennifer]

I assume we are talking about earthworms? I use all kinds of fruit and vegetable scraps plus ground up egg shells. If I want to gutload store-bought worms, I feed them salmon pellets.

(I don't mean any offense by this, but there is a "Live Food" forum where this probably belongs. I know it's scary for the axolotl folks to venture out of the axolotl forums, though.

)

 

[cynthia]

I never thought about feeding the worms salmon pellets. Excellent tip, thanks.

 

[alexander]

The feed of my earth worms is sour cream (fat 10%). I breed 4 species of earth worms a long time. All forefather of the worms were collected near Moscow (Russia).

 

[cynthia]

Welcome to the forum Alexander.

I had no idea worms would eat sour cream, thanks for that tip as well.

(Message edited by cynorita on February 19, 2005)

 

[michael]

I feed mine shredded newspaper, salmon pellets, dog food, shredded carrots, and sprinkle a little vitamins on top. Mostly they get newspaper and salmon pellets. i bought a paper shredder just for the worms. I bring some in for the winter and keep some outside in a tub. The ones outside get more vegetables and things that might tend to stink.

 

[alexander]

Thank you, Cynorita! (Truth to tell, I visit www.caudata.org since 2001 as unregistered visitor).
I see that many terrariumists use all kinds of fruit and vegetable scraps as feed for the earth worms.
But I must warn about the danger of the feeding of worms by banana rinds. The earth worms eat it very well but newts who eat these worms are sick (as a rule).
I think that the cause of the newt's illness are tropical bacteriums.

 

[jennifer]

Welcome, Alexander, I am glad you have registered. I know your website.

I have fed banana peels to my worms for a long time. (The banana peels are about 25% of the total food I give to the worms.) I feed the worms to the newts. In fact, some of my newts have eaten a diet of 100% home-grown worms for months at a time. I have not had any problems. But thank you for the warning, perhaps I will use fewer banana peels.

In my experience, melon rinds are the worms' favorite food.

 

[alexander]

Dear Jennifer, I am very glad to know that my website is "world-renowned". Truth to say, I cannot give a lot of my attention for my site now... because my wife "presented" me next daughter 7 months ago. But in spite of everything I have just started a new project: www.caudata.ru/registry . I'll be very glad to know your opinion.
But let's to return to the earth worms! Most probably that bananas go on sale in Russia from Afro-Asiatic region and in USA from Latin America.
Do you know that dead earth worm turns into poison for the newts. Traders of newts fling in aquarium earth worms but forget remove from aquarium superfluous worms!!! The worms perish and begin to rot... the nets eat them. And as a rule the nets perish during 1-2 weeks. What can you advise me in this situation for the rescue of the newts...

 

[jennifer]

I have never experienced newts suffering from eating dead worms. This is surely something to avoid. I don't know how the newt could be saved. The worms I use (E. hortensis) stay alive in the water for several days.

Congratulations on your daughter. Your registry project looks very promising.

 

[leighton]

Interesting thread, this. We feed our worms on oatmeal, and have hundreds of little thread-like young to show for it. Thanks everyone for your tips on feeding - that's a new use for my shredded paper, and eggshells - I've been looking at ways to get more calcium into our axolotls' diet.