Superworms; fact or fiction?

[OnlineGeckos]

I agree that whatever feeders people use, it's up to personal preference. No one should be telling others what they should/shouldn't feed their geckos with. Even with the incident that happened with my gecko, I still use superworms. So that thread someone linked where I reported internal bleeding with my gecko, it was simply to raise awareness, not to scare people away from using superworms.

With that said, understand that most people don't report these things in fear of being laughed at or knocked down. Speaking of reputable breeders, when my gecko went through the internal bleeding incident, I consulted with a very reputable and long time breeder & member on this forum. She said she knows others that have bumped into problems with supers, just that it's often not mentioned here because people are quite opinionated on this forum. So just saying, even if something doesn't happen to you, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen to others. Or that if you don't hear about it, it doesn't mean it's not happening, because breeders aren't the first ones to go around telling others that they had death in their stock.

Superworms are fine to feed, they are especially good at getting female breeders to gain their weight back after a long breeding season. Like I said before, I don't know about this whole superworms eating through the stomach claim, it has never happened to me. But what happens more likely than others is superworms biting and causing injuries to geckos, be it the eye, mouth, throat, or stomach. If you have a gecko that feeds well and knows how to chomp the food good, then you've got nothing to worry about. This gecko that got injured, I watched her eat the worm and she almost swallowed the worm in whole, without chomping it and definitely didn't crunch the head like geckos usually do when eating superworms. So chances are the worm bit down good somewhere on the way down and caused some pretty serious internal bleeding. This could've been avoided had I been more careful and perhaps broke the super's mandibles or simply smashed its head. This particular gecko does tend to get overly excited and swallows the food in whole rather than chomp on the food for good. So I should've known better.

 

[JM_Daniels]

Clearly, there are those who have fed superworms for years and never had an issue, but then there are those who have had some scary experiences.

Technically, even just one incidence of a superworm causing internal bleeding is enough to prove that the risk real and NOT fiction. However, the many experiences of those who have been feeding superworms for years without problems indicate that the risk is quite low. As others have mentioned, it is very simple to eliminate risk just by crushing the head of your supers prior to feeding.

 

[GeckOG]

It's a total myth, one of my leos bit a giant meal worm and dropped him and you could see the guts leaking out and the meal worm was pretty much dead at that point...same would go for a super worm, I'm more worried about impaction that's why i wont feed supers.

One time i counted how many bites a gecko averages after grabbing them, about 6 chomps before they swallow the worm..if the worm somehow survived that the stomach acid would take care of the rest...done deal

 

[j&k lemmy]

The only problem I've had with supers is supers eating other supers
So I just feed regular mealies
I'm considering hissing roaches as feeders......I just need to get over my roach aversion to do so
I grew up in a home with the German pest type

 

[Tongue Flicker]

Just making my post,

For me its a myth/fiction..

My male sub-adult leo eats about 4-8 biggest sized superworms a night and never had any issues except sleeping a lot (14 hours a day) and form fat sacs lol

 

[Olympus]

I know this thread is old, but I saw it pop up so I thought I'd mention a fun fact. In Mary Roach's newest book, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, there is a chapter called "Diner's Revenge," where she and some GI researchers test out the superworm myth/urban legend. They conclude after performing several experiments that it's extremely unlikely to impossible that if a superworm survived the journey into the gut that it would then proceed to chew its way out.

I think, in my humble opinion, that something like blood in stool might be attributed to sharp superworm parts (say, a mandible scraping against the stomach lining, etc.) that wasn't chewed thoroughly or didn't digest entirely. Because the worms are long dead by the time they reach the gut, they're not particularly hardy.

 

[geckobrochill17]

I've read a few threads around the internet and the general consensus seems to be that it is "impossible" for superworms to eat their way out of a reptile, but I have FOR SURE seen it happen to a hatchling bearded dragon. I do not raise dragons, just leopard geckos, but I visited a friend who had just acquired a baby beardie. He had bought superworms to feed it. It had been eating mealworms from a dish at the pet store. He hadn't fed it before I arrived. It ate three supers and we stopped feeding it. We heard banging and rattling in the tank about 20 minutes later and the little dragon was thrashing around, twisting onto its back and opening and closing its mouth. We had no idea what was really happening and thought it was having a seizure. The dragon stopped freaking out and laid down in a corner with part of its belly against the glass. There was a tiny moving lump on its belly. 5 minutes later, superworm jaws broke through the skin and its head emerged. Baby dragon died on the way to the vet. The vet said she had never seen this happen before with any reptile, but it was definitely what happened in this case. The other two worms were dead and crushed up in the stomach. The vet said it must have delicately swallowed the worm whole, and that it was very rare and unfortunate.

I can personally say it was one of the grossest and most disturbing things I have seen happen to a pet. It was like the scene from Alien, it just popped out of the dragons stomach all slimy and wriggling. The whole ordeal was just a few hours from consumption to death. I do not doubt it is extremely rare for any reptile to swallow a super whole and for it to survive a trip to the stomach, but after this personal experience there is no way I could in good conscience feed supers to my geckos.

 

[Matt_pole]

Wow... I don't know weather I could function after seeing that. I believe I would probably have extremely graphic nightmares for months.

 

[lisa127]

I've been feeding my leo's superworms. But I bought the small size ones from Mulberry Farms. They are not much bigger than large mealworms.