first time feeding supers.

Hey guys! so lately little charm is becoming Big charm lol and so she has been eating like 12 to 16 meal worms at one sitting. so i decided that she seems to be big enough to try some super worms. i was worried they might be to big for her and she would have troubles swallowing them. but i figured seeing how she is about 6 months now that she would be ok, so i ran to the local pet store and got 20 supers worms. when i got home i put them in some oat meal and put fish food and carrots on top and let them eat for about 5 hours and then got charm out, she saw the 2 i had and went strait for them. she ended up eating 3 ( i think she might have wanted to eat more but i thought 3 was more then enough for a first try lol) anyways she is very full and happy in her nice warm hide right now.

anyways now that i have rambled on, i have a couple questions about supers and mealies.

ok so my friend had found a garter snake and when she asked a petstore owner if she should try feeding it meal worms the guy told her that meal worms can eat the snake inside out because it doesn't really bite them it just swallows them. is that true? it made me worried cause i know charm chomps them a couple times but she doesn't have a really strong bite so i know they are still alive when they go down. and the thought of super worms being in her alive scares me lol i know its silly but is there any truth behind my worries?

my other question is should i be feeding her meal worms and supers or just supers now? i know variety is a good thing but is there enough of a difference between the mealies and the supers that i should feed both kinds? and aren't the super worms better for her because it is more meat and less shell?

Some swear to the stories of superworms eating through their gecko's stomach, but majority that use superworms never have that issue. So as with everything, you have to make that judgement call yourself as the pet owner.

If you have a gecko that isn't a prolific hunter and does not chomp on the head of the super, and seems to struggle while eating it, then maybe the gecko isn't ready for the super. Most geckos know to crunch the head of the superworm, killing it instantly. If not they chomp the body a few times while swallowing it. They end up dying anyway due to their guts being punctured. So watch how they eat, if the gecko is a good eater she'll do just fine.

If you can get your gecko to eat the superworms, there's really no reason to feed mealworms anymore. Supers are easier to gutload, they can be kept in room temperature and they won't go anywhere (won't pupate) as long as there are other worms around. Plus yes their chitin is easier to digest than mealworms.

I do highly support feeding geckos a variety diet so if you want to go for variety, switch it up off and on with some crickets or dubia roaches. Switching between mealworms and superworms won't be a good variety.

Good luck!

I've never heard of that before....

I would doubt it, (as Mardy says) most leos will chomp the head of the superworm before swallowing it. I always "stun" my superworms as well, by squeezing their heads with tweezers before feeding them to my leo. It doesn't kill them, but makes it a bit easier for my slower leo :P

As well, generally wouldn't stomach acids kill the worm if it was still alive after being swallowed?

With switching over, she might have a bit of extra "water" to her poop this next time around.

thanks for all the feed back guys! i was looking into ordering some dubia roaches and maybe some silk worms. silk worms are so annoying tho lol so its a bit harder to get her those often. but its good to know i can just work the mealies out of her diet.