large meal worms and chameleons

[labomb]

I purchased some large mealworms for the first time to feed to my veiled. actually they look more like superworms than meal worms. the pet store owner told me to cut off their heads before feeding them to my veiled because if they aren't killed while eating they can eat their way out of the chams stomach. is this true? yuck yuck yuck! :medzoomey

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

There is alot of myth surrounding this but I think its garbage. If they are not killed while being eaten, the stomach acid sure will kill them! Some people are more careful however, ie: they feed only freshly molted worms.

C.

[SerpentLust]

No it's not true. Urban Legend from what I've seen. Also my skink eats supers, mealies and other types of worms without any harm to him.

Jenn

[DragnDrop]

There's no need at all to crush their heads or cut them off. That story is a myth, honest.

If you feed an insect of appropriate size to a healthy cham (or whatever), it's not going to
chew it's way out. This is a myth, it shows up every so often on every forum. Feed the proper
sized mealworms, zoophoba and other bugs and wormy things to a healthy herp, you won't have to
worry about finding it has chewed it's way out. Have you ever watched a gecko or cham eating a
mealie or zoophoba? They usually aim for the head, and chew it first. Once the head is crushed,
the worm has no desire left to eat it's way out of the diner's body. Even if they don't grab the
head first, the body gets enough bites taken out of it and enough puncture wounds to kill it.
Inside the stomach, there's no air, just digestive juices ready and waiting to do their thing.
When the body has been chewed, mangled and otherwise mutilated and swallowed, the insect doesn't
have much left to chew it's way to freedom. Mealworms, superworms and all those others can't
hold their breath - they have no lungs so there's no way they'd survive for long inside. You can
prove that by putting a mealworm in water, see how fast it dies. Even crickets don't live long
in a water dish, imagine how well the bugs and worms fare in stomach acid, pH around 2.0 or 3.0.

The old wives tale about mealworms chewing their way out of the gecko have been around for ages.
The only way it could happen is feeding an excessively large worm to a near dead animal that
didn't have the strength to chew or bite them enough, and died right after the meal. Most likely
the myth started with a worm finding a dead body and taking advantage of a free meal by
burrowing INTO it. Mealworms, zoophoba and crickets are a staple diet even in the wild. As far
as I know, no one goes around chopping mealworm heads, crushing cricket mandibles etc.

Remember there are no Faeries running through the wilds pinching insect heads off for the herps.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/3110/321itsamyth.jpg

(Of course there aren't Faeries doing that!! The real truth is....

Little rabbit Foofoo Running through the forest
Finding all the mealworms
And pinching off their heads .........


(I just had to. sorry ;) )

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

LMAO Hilde! That rabbit thing is hilarious.

C.

[labomb]

LOL that is a good point. well I had cut the head off before y'all's feedback and I was grossed out by the head that stayed alive and active for a long long time. But as you say, the acid in the stomach should kill it if isn't killed by the crushing and chewing. but to stay safe I think I will continue to cut off the heads because if it were going to happen, you can count on it happening to my crazy guy.
He's spoiled rotten and it's a wonder he doesn't expect me to chew his food for him.

BTW, the petstore guy also told me they put these worms in hotdogs!

[newticus]

i remember when there was this huge myth about mealworms in mcdonalds hambergers. I think we worked it out, that it would actually be more expensive to use mealworms, and more healthy, so mcdonalds couldn't possibly be using them. ^_^