Why not composting worms?

[morg]

Update on the worms from the above.
They arrived,and I have succesfully fed them to my tigers+ sharp ribbed, I cannot try them with my others as I ordered mixed sized,but even the smallest are too big.
I tried cutting them[no yellow fluid], but they were still too fat.
I am going to breed the largest of these I have to get lots of small worms for my smaller newts+ sals.
You can buy small worms from the company so I may do that while I am waiting for these to breed.
First indication though is that these worms are fine to feed to caudates.
I think thats about as far as we can go with this worm discussion,or is it?

 

[john]

Sounds good - I'll give them a ring. Thanks again for the info.

 

[Jennewt]

Here are the results of my worm experiment. I started with 3 kinds of worms: E. fetida, E. hydei (these two may or may not have been correctly sorted, the supplier wasn't sure) and E. hortensis (alias Dendrabena). I fed them for several days on grain and kept them in coco-fiber bedding. I tried feeding them to almost all my newts at the beginning of feeding, so the newts were reasonably hungry. I fed each variety on separate days, and each variety at least twice.

About half of my newts ate all of them happily. The other half either did not eat them, or only sometimes ate them. The variety of worm did not matter. There were no differences in preference between these 3 kinds of worms. It appears that none of these worms were as universally palatable as "gray" nightcrawlers.

As Morg noted, the E. hortensis did not produce any yellow liquid. However, when chopped they had the same strong odor as the regular redworms.

Sadly, I don't think any worm that is suitable to "culture" is going to be a perfect newt food.

 

[rob]

I know this post died a while ago, but I wanted to add in some things I found. I have a culture of redworms that I've had going for a long time. My tigers used to eat them all the time...as many as I'd give them. Also my fires and my spanish ribbed's still eat them regularly. My male mandarin will only eat them and the two females will not (he is missing an eye and will eat about anything I hand feed him though). My cynops orientalis will not eat them if they're chopped and under water, but if they're chopped and above water they go crazy for them (very very weird) and my rough skins, as always, will eat anything I put in there.

I've found them to be a very successful food source, seeing as only my two female mandarins will refuse to eat them no matter what.

How is everyone elses cultures going now, a year since this first post?

Rob

 

[jennifer]

I have a tub of redworms that I started with the leftover worms from the experiment above. I feed them with kitchen scraps. They are convenient because they come in all sizes and are always available. I have found that some newts will eat them whole, but not chopped. I have some little spotted sals that gobble them down.

You might want to keep trying with the mandarins. Mine refused to eat ANY kind of worm, even nightcrawlers, when I first got them. Now they are eating earthworm chunks from my fingers. They have also eaten redworms, but the redworms get loose in their terrarium too easily, so I don't use them much.

 

[rob]

I'll keep that in mind. ALl three will readily eat nightcrawlers from me, just redworms is what they're worried about.

I have many cultures of different food going currently actually..most of it geared toward if I have larva to care for. I have microworms, vinegar eels, flightless fruit flies, white worms and redworms. I have some daphnia cultures coming on Wednesday. I think I have a large variety for my guys...combined with live worms, crickets, and frozen foods from hakari, plus the occasional order of black worms from my local store and hatching some brine shrimp in my home made hatchery...I think I'll be set.

Rob