Quote Originally Posted by Selkielass View Post
Does anyone here add reptile vitamins to worm food to 'gut load' as they do with crickets? I'm going to make a fraction of this recipe up at a time to maximize freshness, but I'm open to suggestions for improving it.
Yes, I do gut load worms but often people don't give worms the credit they deserve when it comes to nutrition. Many people are worried about calcium but earthworms often have MORE calcium (or about the same) than a mouse with bones!

And then there's salmon. Most people think of salmon being more nutritious but it's not true. Calcium is much lower and the amount of energy (calories) is also much lower than worms!

Gut loading worms is easy. First off, a good compost provides much nutrition. Secondly, all you have to do is sprinkle some powdered reptile supplements into the compost. It ends up inside the worms. If your snake will eat garden slugs, collect them in early morning after they've had a good meal of greens. Much calcium and iron in them at that time.

I prefer to stay away from a main diet of worms not because of nutrition, but because they are rather expensive if you have to buy them, and they go right through the snakes quickly, and make a big stinky mess.