Feeding Nightcrawlers...

[DVirginiana]

Since I've been tong-feeding I've been getting Trevor to take nightcrawlers for the first time ever. Pretty glad since they seem to digest more easily than roaches and crickets. From feeding them to my snakes I know that a lot of them is just water. I'm not quite sure how many nightcrawlers would be the equivalent to her normal roach/cricket meals. For those of you who feed a lot of nightcrawlers, about how many do your pacs eat in a feeding? Trevor is a full-grown female.

[GrifTheGreat]

Since I've been tong-feeding I've been getting Trevor to take nightcrawlers for the first time ever. Pretty glad since they seem to digest more easily than roaches and crickets. From feeding them to my snakes I know that a lot of them is just water. I'm not quite sure how many nightcrawlers would be the equivalent to her normal roach/cricket meals. For those of you who feed a lot of nightcrawlers, about how many do your pacs eat in a feeding? Trevor is a full-grown female.

What ever she will take. I usually feed anywhere from 1 to 6 depending on the frog. 6 is plenty for an adult every come days or maybe 3. Like I said though it depends on the frog. They actually are more meat than you think. they just don't have any bone or cartilage.

[DVirginiana]

Alright, that's pretty close to what I've been giving her. About half the time she won't take food unless I aggravate her enough to snap at it so I've been trying to figure out a sort of 'minimum' of what I need to get into her to give her the right nutrition so I don't stress her any more than I have to. I hate having to annoy her into eating, but it's better than getting to the point I have to force feed. I've only done that once, and it's not something I want to repeat.

Good point, I guess they wouldn't be that different than insects nutritionally... I was thinking of how I have to feed my snakes about three times as often if they're on nightcrawlers, but that's compared to mice or fish.

[GrifTheGreat]

Alright, that's pretty close to what I've been giving her. About half the time she won't take food unless I aggravate her enough to snap at it so I've been trying to figure out a sort of 'minimum' of what I need to get into her to give her the right nutrition so I don't stress her any more than I have to. I hate having to annoy her into eating, but it's better than getting to the point I have to force feed. I've only done that once, and it's not something I want to repeat.

Good point, I guess they wouldn't be that different than insects nutritionally... I was thinking of how I have to feed my snakes about three times as often if they're on nightcrawlers, but that's compared to mice or fish.

Yeah worms are much less dense because of the lack of dense muscle and bone so they digest much faster plus their flesh isn't the same as mammals and fish.

Teasing her to get her to eat isn't really stressful. Eventually she may learn. She can live on 1 Per night or every other night since she's an adult, but if she will take more it won't hurt. Earthworms and Night Crawlers are very nutritious and have a good calcium/phosphorous balance, but dusting is still required for them to get more benefit due to the worms lacking bones to supplement calcium in the diet.

[arielgasca420]

My pacman loves nightcrawlers more than anything else. however, my pyxie has a really tough time because he licks them up and they are too heavy. Eventually he gets them but my pyxie gets really pissy with nightcrawlers and starts to huff and puff if he misses multiple times. In this case I cut the worms in half.
do you have cornsnakes?

[TeeRiddle]

I can't get Orion to take night crawlers successfully yet. I've tried dancing a piece in front of him and also lightly bouncing it on the tip of his lip and nose. He will start popping his mouth open very fast, but it's so fast I can't get the worm in there quick enough lol. I usually stop after a minute or two for fear of stressing him out too much.

[IvoryReptiles]

I can't get Orion to take night crawlers successfully yet. I've tried dancing a piece in front of him and also lightly bouncing it on the tip of his lip and nose. He will start popping his mouth open very fast, but it's so fast I can't get the worm in there quick enough lol. I usually stop after a minute or two for fear of stressing him out too much.

Like Grif said, teasing with the worms isn't actually stressful. I have sat and teased frogs for 7 minutes and they always take the worm in the end.....it's all about patience. Once they get a taste for them, they rarely turn down earthworm/nightcrawlers. I would suggest avoiding the red wigglers because the mucous they exude is dis-tasteful to the frogs. Most frogs van be trained to feed from the tongs......all of ours are from their first meal.

We have a couple of adult females that have put away 10 worms at a feeding (Rhubarb & Jello)........they are our largest girls.

[DVirginiana]

Good to know that type of feeding isn't too stressful. It's much easier than watching her for twenty minutes trying to get her to take prey on her own.

I can't get Orion to take night crawlers successfully yet. I've tried dancing a piece in front of him and also lightly bouncing it on the tip of his lip and nose. He will start popping his mouth open very fast, but it's so fast I can't get the worm in there quick enough lol. I usually stop after a minute or two for fear of stressing him out too much.

If I can get the tip of the worm up under Trevor's lip that's the best way to get her to take it. It might take several times of her smacking it away with her foot, but once she gets annoyed enough to move away, I know she's only a try or two away from grabbing it.

do you have cornsnakes?

Nah, all garters.