'Houdini' boycotts panfish worms...

[infernalis]

Now here is where I am utterly confused, please bear with me.

Xena, Casper, Athena, Red, Princess, spot, Zig and all the babies born in this house have all had and ate with no ill effects pan fish worms, many for extended periods of time.

With no forums to guide me, no experts to ask any advice of, only my observations in nature and information found on Herp sites, not knowing any better, I have fed this for years.

Now I wonder if maybe our house is not built over an Indian burial grounds? Have I accidentally killed them all, and now I am caring for un-dead zombie snakes?

So far our Corn Snake seems to be the only one that has a taste for human flesh.

Sorry about the goofy humor, But now I do have to wonder about the worm thing......

It just seems to me that if these worms were as bad as what I have been reading as of late, Then I should have seen a dead snake in there somewhere.

[KITKAT]

It just seems to me that if these worms were as bad as what I have been reading as of late, Then I should have seen a dead snake in there somewhere.

The worms in the photo you showed below, are NOT red wigglers. I know them really well.

Red wigglers are STRIPED... meaning that each segment has a dark red stripe that runs along the top of the ridge, and the valley that is created between the ribs is yellow.

If you do not see the stripes, it is not a red wiggler.

Like this:

[infernalis]

Thats more specific than "Panfish" worms.

I have caught plenty of panfish on Canadian crawlers too, so they must be panfish worms also.

Now that I have something new to think about / worry about, I just made sure that there are none of those nasties in my worm bucket.

Found some teeny baby crawlers, the Radix babies really liked them.

[Stefan-A]

Red wigglers are STRIPED... meaning that each segment has a dark red stripe that runs along the top of the ridge, and the valley that is created between the ribs is yellow.

If you do not see the stripes, it is not a red wiggler.

Unfortunately that's not always the case. The "yellow valleys" do indeed give away Eisenia, but if a worm doesn't have the striped appearance, it doesn't mean that it isn't an Eisenia. You still need to go by how large it is and where it is found.

[LyrisFlame]

The worms in the photo you showed below, are NOT red wigglers. I know them really well.

Red wigglers are STRIPED... meaning that each segment has a dark red stripe that runs along the top of the ridge, and the valley that is created between the ribs is yellow.

If you do not see the stripes, it is not a red wiggler.

Like this:

Ya know, Kat's right! My neighbors are vegans type things and they do vermicomposting; when picked up, red wigglers squirt out this nasty yellow stuff. These "panfish worms" don't.

Yeah, these are the worms in the plastic tub I bought at Wal-Mart that is labelled "panfish/trout worms". They don't always do the yellow discharge thing, though.

It might be helpful to add this to the articles/feeding section so people know what exactly a red wiggler is, with pictures of the good worms and the bad worms. That would probably be really helpful for people with new snakes.

Anyhoo, I tried cutting up some trout this morning. I just sliced portions of the whole fish (skin, flesh, bones) into worm sized pieces and put them in a dish and left it there. Houdini is a little upset because I took away his super secure log aka "the magic disappearing hidey hole", but he also must be hungry so we'll see what he does. I really hope he likes fish. That would make life so much easier.

dekaybrown - I wish I could hand feed this snake like that! That would be awesome! Maybe some day, when he grows up...