Feeding and Nutrition :: Red wigglers?

[reptilegrrl]

I sometimes feed my turtles nightcrawlers. I am thinking of starting a worm farm this winter, growing red wigglers to feed them.

Then I saw this article: http://www.gartersnake.info/articles/00 ... rms_.phtml and it's got me a little paranoid.

I know a lot of people feed red wigglers without problems, but seeing this makes me a little nervous- any input?

[marisa]

Interesting article. From what I read, nightcrawlers are different from red wrigglers and are safer? I'm actually not sure what the difference is between them...

I do give my turts a worm or two occasionally, but I've never fed them nightcrawlers, superworms, red wrigglers, anything large. Although I know that any live food carries with it the chance of parasites, my thinking is that the smaller the food and the lower it is on the food chain, the less chance there is for it to contain toxins and/or parasites. (This goes pretty much for fish I eat as well.)

I pretty much dig worms up from the ground (no pesticides around here, I assure you). They look much healthier than worms you'd buy and they do sound like they're at least more like the leaf or soil worms mentioned in the article, which, I'm glad to see, are safer.

I have, however, on occasion bought worms from Walmart, again, the smaller ones, not the nightcrawlers. And take them out of whatever that substrate is and put them in a container of dirt I've dug with other "food" I've added, so at least they're (hopefully) picking up some nutrients before they're being given to my turts. Unless I decide to grow my own and monitor their diet, this is the best I can do to minimize risk (I think).

[reptilegrrl]

I've often fed my turtles nightcrawlers, either bought from the store or dug from my won (also pesticide-free) backyard.

It looks like I am going to go with European Nightcrawlers. They are a composting worm and also safe for reptile feed.

My turtles really love nightcrawlers, and they are a great source of calcium and protein. Any nightcrawler is as close to the bottom of the food chain as you can get without being a bacterium: they consume rotted vegetable and soil matter.

Composting is really just gravy for me with these guys: my goal is a cheap source of nightcrawlers for my turtles. I will of course be feeding them only good vegetable scraps from my own kitchen.