Can I feed these things...

D

dawn

Guest
Now that it's spring I can dig up all kinds of things; however, I'm not sure what everything is.
Can I feed these things to anyone: (i.e. newts, different species)?
This first one is very small, it's a closeup. Rolled up, it's smaller than my pinky-nail.
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This next one I know is a slug, but is this kind OK?
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This next one is a tiny white worm. I don't know if it's a different kind of earthworm or if it's just such a tiny baby earthworm that it's white.

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The last picture is your quintessential "creepy-crawly". I don't want to feed my newts anything that might bite them.However, I have a lot of these and if I could feed them to the gang, it would be nice variety.
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Finally a question about Pillbugs (which I actually AM able to identify!)
Are their shells too hard for newts?
When I read about mealworms I read to take their head off because
they can bite and also their outer layer isn't so great anyway. So wouldn't a pillbug pose a similar problem (as far as the exoskeleton goes)?
Thanks to all you bug experts.
My gang is really enjoying the spring worms. They must be extra tasty, because they eat them with more enthusiasm than the stuff I get out of the fridge. They must be the fresh asparagus of wormdom.
 
The first one, millipede (not sure what species) give off a horrbal smell and would probably be distasteful. The slug should be okay but let some other people comment, I'm also pretty sure that the worm will be good. Lastly the centipede, these have very sharp mandibles and could hurt your animals. I have been bitten by one and I bled. I am not sure about the pillbugs.
 
The first one i wouldn´t use them. They have very hard shells, and there are poisonous species, or bad tasting ones. The slugs i think are an amazing option, dunno if the rest will agree, but i used to feed small ones to the newts i caught when i was a child and they loved them. Even my bombinas adore them with passion.
The centipeds i would never use them. They bite, and the bigger ones are poisonous and hurt as hell. They are very fast. I´m sure newts and salamanders eat them in the wild...but why risking your newts to be bitten when you can give them inoffensive earth-worms??
Hope this helped you a little...though it´s just an opinion of course.
 
I am in the middle of a millipede superhighway and my garage is infested with these things(ugh), but when you crush them they crumble to dust, so I don't think that there are many nutrients inside them. As for pillbugs, i think if you start your own culture, the young baby pillbugs will have the calcium but with a softer still-forming shell. I have never tried to feed these to my newts because I feel that they are too hard regardless of whatever the fact may be. It just puts me off.
 
That's why I'm asking. I certainly won't use either of the first or last now, thank you for the input!
About the slugs, I vaguely remember that dark ones aren't good and light ones are? or is that wrong, or just which is more likely to be eaten?
I've tried to feed slugs to my hedgehog, which are supposed to like slugs. He won't touch them.

Lastly, about the millipedes, how do you know that they taste bad? (ha ha)
 
I think all that could be fed is the slug. Centipede would bite a newt to death. Millipede would give of harmful fumes that Your newts should smell. (only humans and primates are immune to the smell of these chemicals)I don't know what the worm is?
 
I read a pretty scary thing about millipedes. I read that if a person was stuck in an unventilated room with a lot of millipedes the person would die. I am not sure about the credibility though.
 
Be careful with the slugs - when I was a kid, I found a bunch of slugs to use for fishing for rock bass(I've moved on to bigger and better things. I picked up a orange tinted slug that looked the same as all the black and white ones we have around here. Somehow I managed to get my hand near my face and touch my lips - wow were my lips on fire or what! The orange slime left on my finger by the slug was very spicy, so I advise against these ones, but they look almost the same as the common garden variety so watch out. I have only had good experiences with slugs and newts otherwise.
 
Mmmm, a spicy slug. I wonder why you can't get 'em on tacos. Hehehhehe
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Yep, Be careful because some slugs such as (I think it is the banana slug) Have extremely strong slime that would glue a newts mouth shut.
 
Well, I don't think I have to worry about any banana slugs here in New York, eh?
 
wow check out the post times...right on..twice! I was thinking about giving my local mexican restaurant a call
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Tell me about it chat would be sweet!
 
I used to be on chat for at least two hours chatting with others like Andrew.
 
i catch two type of millipede's in my yard that i put in my tanks. one is flat,softer bodied and has long antenae while the other has a harder rounded exoskeleton and more a domed head. neither grows longer than 1 1/2in or thicker than say a qtip. i never seen my frog or salamanders eat them but they make great cleaners of waste.

pillbugs/sowbugs/woodlice/slaters whatever you find and call them are great in my opinion. they make up a large part of my pets diet. i had to buy some online recently since they ate so many off. i rarely find any that grow to their full size in my tank. they molt regularly while growing so they should be easy digested and i think only once have i found some undigested parts of the fully grown bean sized hard as a tank shelled pillbugs in my marbleds feces.

slugs - not sure about the colors and edibility thing. i was leery of slugs since i read about parasites they carried, but those where mostly parasites passed to deers. i've since re-added them to my pets diet although i've never been a fan of the them(think i spend most of my childhood pouring salt on them)

the centipide is a definite no-no. i've had the softer bodied house centipedes crawl into my tanks(and silverfish too i'm sure the occasional spider makes it into the tank too and become lunch!!) and i assume they get eaten and can't do as much harm as there outdoor cousins.
 
In my experience slugs can be a wonderful addition to a salamanders diet. I have experimented with various local species (SW Virginia) and have found all so far to be taken with gusto. A friend is has been temporarily holding my group of T. kweichowensis and has been primarily feeding them slugs out of his yard. Last week the females started laying and so far we have about 50 eggs (most of which seem viable). I am in no way suggesting that it was the slug diet that triggered this but after three years of keeping this group this is the first breeding.
Chip
 
I guess the slug species are very different in the states than in europe... Here where i live there are mostly four species. The huge black ones (extremely big for any newt), the huge orange ones (the same, plus they seem to be extra-disgusting), the small black ones(delicious and nutritious hehe) and the small cream ones(very small, and taken even by juvenile helveticus with passion).
Forgetting about my past mistakes with being too young and catching wild helveticus, i have to say most of them only ate slugs. No worms...no crickets....nothing but delicious slugs.
I´ve also heard of ppl culturing them at home. If i had access to them right now they would be the prefered food for my marms.
 
If you find that the slug is in fact an edible species for your pets, instead of feeding it, try culturing it instead. Slugs are a great source of protein and are extremely easy to keep.
 
I find so many when I garden, I'll just collect them. When I was digging up worms earlier today I already found 6, of the dark black ones. But I already fed my newts this morning so I'll wait till next feeding day. Now I know where they live.
 
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