Pushing the gross-out threshhold

[g_k]

i cut up my first earth worm the other day!

maybe people sjould get a little drinks fridge to keep the live food in?

 

[chris_dishmon]

i dont think you should force an animal to live by our morals many have vegetarian cats/dogs ok for th3e dog not healthy for the cat)

that's good you don't cause that's just wrong. just cause somebody won't eat a hamburger doesn't make it right for them to force lettuce down they're dog's throat. that is animal abuse and just as unhealthy for animals as it is for humans.

 

[Ed]

Chris,

All because someone feeds a vegetarian diet to a dog, does not mean that the dog is being forced to eat lettuce or any other unbalanced diet. Dogs can obtain all of their essential nutrition from a meatless diet and there are balanced formulated diets out there that can be purchased.
Some carnivores (like cats and North American Opossums) require essential amino acids not found in vegetable based diets (taurine) but if the missing amino acids are added into the diet do quite well on them (however not all cats will eat the diets and unlike dogs cats may starve themselves into significant medical problems if they refuse the diet and should not be forced if they do not choose to eat it).

If you wish to continue this discussion you can pm me directly as this is off topic for this thread.

Ed

 

[audrey]

For me the worst part is cutting up a worm to feed terrestrial juvies - I cut off a bite size piece and the worm convulses and starts making a "run" for it - then I feed the piece and then come back and find the escaping worm and cut off another piece while he's convulsing and begins to make his get away again..... and this continues until I've cut him all up and fed him to the newts. I know it's just a worm and this happens in nature ect. but it just makes me feel mean that I can't put him out of his misery before chopping his body up!
I am so happy when the juvies get past this stage and eat something else!

 

[Otterwoman]

Hey Audrey,
Here are some tips on cutting up worms: it was something I had to learn to do. I asked about it and I got a lot of great tips here:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24861/75310.html?1168481478
Dawn

 

[audrey]

Thanks Dawn, thats really interesting

Hey Audrey,
Here are some tips on cutting up worms: it was something I had to learn to do. I asked about it and I got a lot of great tips here:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24861/75310.html?1168481478
Dawn

 

[newtsrfun]

Ok, I have a good one:

We found a baby bird a few years back. It obviously wasn't feeling very good, and seemd to have some strange bumps on it. As I was holding it, the bump on the top of it's head seemed to swell a bit, and then a maggot started to wiggle out of the birds head... In all about 5 came out, that still makes me sick thinking about that...

 

[chris_dishmon]

Ok, I have a good one:

We found a baby bird a few years back. It obviously wasn't feeling very good, and seemd to have some strange bumps on it. As I was holding it, the bump on the top of it's head seemed to swell a bit, and then a maggot started to wiggle out of the birds head... In all about 5 came out, that still makes me sick thinking about that...

i wish i could find a puking icon.

 

[jewett]

Jeff, I wonder if they were cuterebra, a type of fly maggot that I see on occasion at work. They are pretty gross, and I think they are related to bott flies. Unlike the other maggots we see, cuterebra will infest healthy tissue and are only found in small numbers, unlike the normal and more common maggots we see that are found in diseased tissue and number in the thousands. I think they are also larger than common maggots. They form a bump like you described, or a small ulcerated little wound where they will poke their little "heads" out of now and then. And I agree - they are gross!
Heather

 

[Otterwoman]

As a nurse, I could tell you maggot stories that would curl your hair...

 

[fishkeeper]

I agree with people on the blackworms one!

I had a whole tub of them die...and being really busy by the time I got to them(I think 4 days after I noted they had died) they entire thing was brown and had a biofilm that looked sorta like creamy chocolate pudding on it. I decided to pour it down the sink. Dumb idea! It took quite a few hours to clear out the laundry room of the smell.

Btw, Ed, I love that first one! Gross! Ditto all the maggot stories too.

 

[Otterwoman]

Personally I would be more wary of the blackworms in my fridge if they can escape - a culture of their guts might frighten you.
=================
John, if you're reading this, I can't stand the suspense anymore. I've been trying not to think about this for days, but I can't stop! What's up with blackworms, and could they really maybe make me sick? Even though I'm a nurse, when I'm not at work, I don't wash my hands as often as I should, including after I handle my newts and their food.

When I was in the petstore recently, there was a mother with her two sons (high school, I think; you know, the kind of sons who are bigger than you and you can't tell them no anymore) and they were looking at the tray of live foods. The one said to the other brother and mother, "How much will you give me if I eat this worm?" (It was one of those worms that looks like a mealworm, but is slightly larger and has darker brown). They decided on ten dollars. Well, that kid ate the worm, chewed it and everything, as the pet store owner and myself stared in open-mouthed incredulity. To the mother's credit, she immediately handed over ten dollars, and then had to leave them there while she went to the bank to get more cash for their purchases.

===========
Hey, why didn't I get that nice box around your quote like everyone else does?

 

[Azhael]

After cutting up pieces of mice and rats for my snakes there´s no bug in this world that i can´t chop, or dead thing that i can´t clean...
I swear mice flesh smells a lot worse than rotten earthworms or anything like that :S

Oh and my ex house mate used to eat mealworms...

 

[dane_zu]

ive eaten bugs befor, nothing big, but I would eat one of those for $10 without hesitating

about the diing of the black worms reminds me of cleaning out the fridge and cleaning out the veggie drwaer and half the stuff is rotten and the bottom of the tray has a bunch of nasty juice in it

 

[Kaysie]

Lol Dane, I forgot about a cucumber in the fridge once. I attempted to remove it, but it was really just a cucumber shaped sack of rotten fluids. It was pretty foul.

 

[coendeurloo]

<snip>

===========
Hey, why didn't I get that nice box around your quote like everyone else does?

You should leave the "[ / QUOTE ]" code intact in the end (without spaces)

 

[Ed]

snip "After cutting up pieces of mice and rats for my snakes there´s no bug in this world that i can´t chop, or dead thing that i can´t clean..."endsnip

I had an ex-girlfriend catch me using the blender to make pinkie puree.

Blackworms can potentially be vectors for some unusual things (they are an intermediate host for
Dioctophyma renale (the giant kidney worm).

Ed

 

[Otterwoman]

I had an ex-girlfriend catch me using the blender to make pinkie puree.

Dioctophyma renale (the giant kidney worm)

I'd leave someone who did that with the food blender too.

I googled an image of that worm, eeeew.

And I managed a quote.

 

[mantighoul]

A few times there was a need to get shipment of live blackworms for a specific creatures for initial feeding. Like i said, it is not used very often, but each large batch of blackworms, I always clearly saw leeches mixed in, well looks like it is time to remove leeches. I have gotten batches plenty of times with out leeches, but I am not a pathologist or microbiologist with a super cool microscope so I cant tell what little nasties the dirty little blackworms may be carrying. I have heard horror stories about bad batches of worms/insect larvae eliminating whole herp collections. One more reason to inspire me into taking up some vermiculture(red wrigglers), that and not feeling bad about throwing away vegetable scraps (especially since i like to use the juicer).

Otterwoman, are you doing vermiculture at all? I think i heard you say something about it, what worms are you trying to culture?

 

[Ed]

the leeches that come with the blackworms are predators that feed on the blackworms. They don't feed on vertebrates (doesn't mean that they won't hitch a ride).

Ed