I went to Petsmart today to get some wax worms for my Chinese Water Dragon and I was looking at getting some super worms and the guy that works there told me that if I feed these to my Chinese Water Dragon I need to first cut the heads off of the superworms before feeding it or the worm would try to eat through his stomach and that they will try to eat through the container they are kept in in is this true? I never know what to believe coming from someone working at PetSmart, because from my experience most of them do not know what they are talking about. I have never heard of this before....anyone else heard of this?

Big steamy load of you know what. It's an urban legend. Superworms are just fine, they are a staple for my Leopard Geckos and my bearded dragon, and I leave the heads on.

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~*~Lacey~*~

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omg they still tell that tale, lol
Just like she said, that is bull

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

Not gonna happen, i agree with everyone else here, other than adding a bit of variety to his diet, the main reason to I feed animals superworms is that they are so active, and provide stimulation for my pets.

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"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."

i have had super worms eat their way through a fast food takeout dish but I dont think they are still alive enuf to eat through their stomaches......

i hate petsmart -.- they tried telling me that to ,there little reptile sections looks so bad =( ther leo's and AFT look so poorly taken care of...and the kids that work there have no idea what there talkin about half the time yay for petco

Hey, I interview Monday for a job at the local Petco. As far as petco's go i've definitly seen worse, seen better, but seen worse. If only I could talk them out of selling igauna's, and heat rocks.

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"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."

I got the same load of doo about chopping the heads off for my frogs. I think they tell you that, just to cover their own butt, "just in case"

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

there is some fact with fly maggots...know of one or two cases where animals that do not crush their prey (ie. frogs) the maggots ate through stomach lining! But as for the super worms....hahaha feed away! besides no risk...your chinese water dragon will crush the insects anyways!

By the way...super worms can feed through biodegradable material...know of them being sold in cotton material bags and eating through once getting warm. They will not eat through a hard plastic container though

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I did research on the effects of acidity on invertebrates, and you would be surprised how difficult it is for them to survive a pH of less than 4, let alone a common stomach acid with a pH of 1.5-2.5, the worms would not live long enough to make it to the stomach.

The only animals I have heard of eating their way out are maggots and beetle larvae from carrion beetles; they never actually make it to the stomach, they actually grab onto the esophagus or the back of the throat and eat, but I highly doubt that there are any animals like that at your local feed or pet store. Generally like was said, the worms would be crushed prior to their actually being a problem.

As per the legend, I have seen reports of scientific data that spread that rumor, however they are way out dated, basically what happened is they would find dead animals and see maggots feeding under the skin near the stomach and assume that they ate from the inside out, actually what happens is the fly dips in on the dead animal and takes a bite and lays a few eggs, the larva then hatch and naturally dig to evade predators, once they have dug in, they start eating from the inside, that way the trail looks as though they have eaten from the inside out; which they have, but after the animal died.

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“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny…'"
- Isaac Asimov



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