Feeding Earthworms

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 24 Feb 2003, 09:54

Hello Folks,

Has anyone out there had any experience in feeding "garden varriety" earthworms to thier cats? I have read a little bit about it, but have never taken the plunge of trying it out. I'm curious as to success in the matter.

Thanks

Mika · Post by **Mika** » 24 Feb 2003, 09:59

Few years back i kept Arius seemani catfishes in my tank. Mostly i fed them with earthworms. I didn`t bother to chop them. I threw them in tank and Arius loved them. You have take care where you collect them. Don`t take them from near traffic or some other polluted place.

coelacanth · Post by **coelacanth** » 24 Feb 2003, 11:44

Ben wrote:Has anyone out there had any experience in feeding "garden varriety" earthworms to thier cats? I have read a little bit about it, but have never taken the plunge of trying it out.Thanks

One of the best foods available. Whole, chopped, minced, whatever. Just collect them from somewhere you know hasn't had any chemical treatment. If your garden is rich in them then rejoice!
I get mine from the edges of a cemetery a couple of minutes walk away. For some reason the soil is really rich there!

Post by **Silurus** » 24 Feb 2003, 12:12

It is also a good idea not to feed the worms immediately after you dig 'em out. I kept mine in a small, bare plastic tank for some time to allow all of the waste to flush out before feeding them to my fish.
My electric cat loved them and would slurp them up like spaghetti.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 24 Feb 2003, 12:28

Thanks folks, some funny stuff there, the cemetary thing really made me laugh, got some funny looks at work busrsting out laughing first thing in the morning

.
I shall try some worms tomorrow. Though things are frozen solid here now, I have a good supply in the form of an indoor worm compost bin that my folks have at their house. I'll be paying them a visit on my days off, so I'll get myself a little yogourt container of wrigglers

Durring more temporate months, there are plenty out in the woods where I am building my house in the spring.

Thanks for the advice folks

coelacanth · Post by **coelacanth** » 24 Feb 2003, 13:35

Ben wrote:Durring more temporate months, there are plenty out in the woods where I am building my house in the spring.

If you're on PEI, another very reliable source of food for Tatia, Syno. nigriventris and others that feed on surface food during the summer months would have to be the Blackfly. Sacrifice a member of your family as bait, and use a fine mesh net to collect them. Ten minutes in a bag in the freezer to stop them escaping and hey presto, grade 1 protein!

Just don't let the 'bait' sneak on any repellent, a lot of it is highly toxic to fish, even trace amounts can kill.

Zack · Post by **Zack** » 25 Feb 2003, 02:14

I feed my fish earth worms all the time. I feed my cories chopped earth worms and my pictus/pimelodella gacillus/striped and chocolate raphaels all get whole live ones. They love them. I just collect mine wherever i see them but then again i live in alaska so most other places you should be more careful. I usualy put min in a tee cup or a saucer so that they dont immediately burrow into the gravle. This way the fish get them before they have a chance. Also another way to prevent them from burrowing is to only drop one in at a time to make sure they get eaten.

wayneminot · Post by **wayneminot** » 25 Feb 2003, 03:10

silurus your suggestion on not feeding them until they have emptied theyre bowels has a flaw in it I think wouldn't the earthworms have some protien from what they had just recently eaten? If so you would be taking that out of the worms. Just a theory but I think its a valid one.

S. Allen · Post by **S. Allen** » 25 Feb 2003, 04:09

I, like you guys feed eartworms, and as I'm lazy and I live in a climate so dry that the lizards carry around bottled water, there aren't a great wealth of worms, so I just buy from a bait shop. I originally tried chopping them up but it was a mess and the fish do the job just fine themselves. I haven't tried with the smaller plecos, but the larger pseudacanthicus takes them with some hesitation. The stingrays love them, sometimes they swallow them whole, when they're feeling lesiurely they'll sit and chomp a 1/2" off, chew it, then suck another half inch in and start over.

What's in the belly of a common earthworm is a mixture of probably about 95% water and dirt, with the odd bit of deads vegetation, they live through the process of ingesting large amounts of soil, and letting their stomach get the small amount of nutritional value out of it. in nature, that is, as to compost worms, I dunno. But the first thing a worm does when a ray bites into it is take a big dump, great if you need potsoil in your tank, but rather unsightly on sand ;)

Post by **Dinyar** » 25 Feb 2003, 14:24

I fed earthworms for quite a while. There are many sources on the Internet where you can buy them from if you can't readily find them in your backyard. I set up a small compost bin filled with peat moss to which I would add vegetable scraps from the kitchen. The earthworms did just fine, and would have survived and multiplied indefinitely if I had not been feding them to the fish faster than they could multiply. As it happens, I have many fish, and hence a large a demand for earthworms. After a while, it became too much trouble and I moved on to lower effort and lower cost live and frozzen foods.

Dinyar

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 27 Feb 2003, 07:22

Ahhh, sounds like you've been to the PEI country side in the summer months! Blackfies aplenty! that's a great Idea! My dogs tend to gather them in ther ears when outside in July, perfect source! Thanks

coelacanth wrote:
Ben wrote:Durring more temporate months, there are plenty out in the woods where I am building my house in the spring.
If you're on PEI, another very reliable source of food for Tatia, Syno. nigriventris and others that feed on surface food during the summer months would have to be the Blackfly. Sacrifice a member of your family as bait, and use a fine mesh net to collect them. Ten minutes in a bag in the freezer to stop them escaping and hey presto, grade 1 protein!

Just don't let the 'bait' sneak on any repellent, a lot of it is highly toxic to fish, even trace amounts can kill.

S. Allen · Post by **S. Allen** » 27 Feb 2003, 09:36

Grr... I printed another reply but it was eaten

*gagging in response to Ben's post* Working for a vet I watched inch and a half grubs be extracted from a dog's flesh, but thank god our climate for the most part thwarts insect and parasite problems, even fleas and heartworm are improbable here.

and, in response to the ancient fish's response... if that was crude i apologize, but I can't think of any other term. I certainly haven't stopped feeding earthworms cause of it, as they're fatty and the rays like them. even as much as I have to ward the faster eaters off the slower ones with a pair of aquarium tongs.

Feeding Earthworms

Feeding Earthworms

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