A FEW MONTHS BACK: so i bought my beardie some horn worms, she didn't want them because she's picky so i just... waited for them to die... three of them did but one pupated. I set him up in a 29 gallon and prepared for my moth. my basement's cold so it took him a few months to emerge, and unfortunately his wings had not properly developed. He was weak and i had to help him get rid of some of his remaining cocoon. I named my beautiful hawk moth when he was still a larva: Gregory. as he was disabled and could not survive on his own or fly, twice a day i would hand feed him sugar-water. he gradually grew stronger and never lost hope. he was always very calm and handle-able. by the time his end was near, he was actually able to hover above ground! but then things changed... he lost all the fluff on his abdomen, his wings seemed to be disintegrating (probably from a lot of flapping), and he was weak. but still he ate. then one day I came to feed him and found a wonderful surprise! He (she) had laid eggs! of course I knew they were infertile since she had not mated, but still it was exciting. after that things continued to go normally, until one day. basically i fed Gregory like normal, ran to the bathroom with nausea/cramps and forgot to put Gregory away. I found her passed away the next morning. If you read this far damn, sorry for wasting your time. anyway so I will always remember my dear Gregory, and even though I love all my pet bugs, none will top the bond I had wit Gregory. Thank you for reading.
Aw, that was a nice story! Please don't apologize for wasting people's time. Many people enjoy stories like this and the ones that don't aren't going to be harmed at all by reading it anyway.
Emily is actually the reason i now own 3 snakes and finally, after 6 years, built up the courage to hold my 6yr old corn snake. My son won Professor (xmen) at a snakesgiving event from our local animal store and my husband has been caring for and handling him almost exclusively for the past 6 years. I watched how to tame an aggressive snake on repeat for 3 hours and then binged all of her other videos. The next day i got up the courage and held him for 2 minutes. The next day i held him for about 10 while my husband cleaned his enclosure and now i handle him all the time. Emily has given me the confidence and knowledge to be able to care for my snakes if my husband were to unexpectedly pass (heart problems so its a real possibility). He surprised me with a baby ball that i handle and enjoy daily, on my birthday and i surprised him with a ball on our 6yr anniversary.
FOR PEOPLE LOOKING INTO CRICKETS: be very careful and DO NOT leave them with your pet unattended. Crickets are surprisingly good at and efficient at killing their predators, especially if its multiple crickets with one reptile. Trust me. It's a bad mistake to make. Exotics Lair even posted a video about a wild skink that got into his supply of crickets, and let's just say, the skeleton was exposed. Be safe, guys! Please don't leave any live food with your pets unattended!!!
That actually reminds me of this video where someone tried feeding a katydid to a lizard thinking it would be a nice treat....it was....for the katydid. It literally ate the poor lizards face D: It was all levels of horrible.
can confirm, crickets did that to my two frogs. the person looking after them while I was gone put too many crickets in there unsupervised, and when I came back their skeletons were exposed.
Crickets are surprisingly smart for being an insect, they attack the weakest part - the head. That’s why all the pets that died from crickets have their skeletons exposed. They don’t eat the body since it isn’t their prey
With all feeders it's best to buy farmed/captive bred ones, but it's especially important with hornworms! They can be super toxic in the wild due to their natural diets.
I was just about to say the same thing. Absolutely don't feed off wild caught hornworms, and don't feed captive hornworms you intend to feed off what they might eat in the wild like tomatoes, tobacco, etc. Nicotine found in tobacco and in the worms that eat the tobacco is toxic, and tomatoes are in the nightshade family for a reason. They sell premade nontoxic food for hornworms online that you can buy, which is the only safe way to go.
You can catch a few off your tomatoes, then raise them to make a bunch more. They like to accumulate alkaloids to make them bitter like soloninine and nicotine if wild fed. If you want to give them leaves, kale and pepper leaves are good. OK to let them munch on tomatoes as well.
i just wanted to say that i always see your thumbnails and i’m like “man i don’t have snakes but she is so kind that she makes me wanna learn for if i’m ever in a situation where someone needs help with their snakes” so thank you for that wholesome contribution to my day
So true! I didn't want a snake (my son does), but after watching Emily for the last few months, I'm like, "Ooooh, which snakes should we get first?" LOL.
Wow such a great video! I have yet to cone across a video that really broke down the individual feeders and their nutritional content like this. Brilliant job!!
I remember when I was little my mom took me to the pet store because I liked to go look at the animals and while we were looking around I saw the horn worm and crickets (feeders) and I asked my mom why they had the worms and when she told me that they were food for the reptiles I got so sad I bought one named him Timothy, took him home and fed him tomatoes. I took him everywhere with me I even took him on a family vacation to big bear once lol R.I.P Timothy you were a great friend 💕
I tried to breed a half-albino mealworm with a rosey red beetle, which was meant to be food for my gecko. I can't remember what I named them but they died. R.I.P..
the problem with keeping feeders as pets is that they’re usually mistreated beforehand/bred to die quickly because they’re meant to be food. I had a population of feeder silkworms and hornworms and they all died afterwards
this is so interesting! By the way, if anyone is looking for a great pet, silkworms are actually really fun to raise. It is very interesting, especially for kids to see them go through their life cycle (they are super observable) It is also fairly easy to take care of them when they get to about the size shown in the video. We used to have a shoebox lined with paper towels and a mulberry tree and that's just about all you need really. Freeze mulberry leaves to store them, and just feed them a butt-ton every day and occasionally change their towels (Their poops are solid by the way so very easy to clean, fun fact some use their poop in pillows in China, kind of like beans in a bean bag pillow as an analogy) It was very fun to raise them in our experience :) I miss the little guys sometimes.
4:45 That false chameleon looks like it's food XD 5:25 I feel bad for any worm chosen by the legless lizard. XD 6:05 That gecko smiles happily when eating his worm. :D 6:50 That false chameleon learned from the legless lizard previously. XD 7:35 Mighty False Chameleon vs Mighty Hornworm! :D 7:58 That legless lizard learns to paint with it's food! XD This video is satisfying... :D
me too, lol. my grandma had bought some and put them in the fridge in a container, i fed em to my leo, then i got up the next day and all was in there was the dead bodies of superworms, and the mealworms i had dumped in there, oop
I love your videos and they are always so interesting and informing, since I have found your channel I know so much more about how to take care of the pets I want, and hopefully will get :D
A helpful tip: most of these you can buy as fishing bait! We bought butter worms one time before a trip but got rained out and decided to see if our Leopard gecko Nova would eat them. One tuna can sized container was like 3$ and there's usually around 10 worms in eat
You should do a video discussing Spider Ball Pythons and what their situation is and such. I think it would help teach about the problems and why really they should stop being bred or less bred
Nah, the spider ball python topic has been beaten to death over and over and over, sick of hearing about it, so many people made videos that it made people care less about it, not more.
rdizzy1 I think that she discusses it it would get more to listen. She may not have the power to make them go but she does have a bunch of people who watch her videos (like nearly or over a million) some examples aren’t good but others are. You don’t have to care about the particular animal but others do
@@cherrytoothpaste5743 I mean almost anyone that watches this channel has already seen tens of other channels talk about it, it's a worn out topic, those that wish to not breed them won't and those that do will continue doing so.
My freind just got a baby bearded Dragon. I recommend this channel to her because you are always so helpful. I hope she will see this video and decide on the type of worm they will feed their new bearded dragon.
I adore feeder videos! Do you breed some of your own feeders? If so, it would be great to get a detailed video on how and which ones you breed. Many thanks 😊
I don’t own a reptile (to my great dismay) and don’t plan on getting anything that eats worms, but watching their videos always brightens my day so it doesn’t matter.
You know someone is an avid animal handler when they have dry palms lol. That shows how hands on and great you are with all your animals. Y'all do so much amazing work!
I think silkworms are not often used as feeder because they're essential in making silk so sericulture is more focused on that. I love silkworms though, they're so cute and feed a lot of mulberry leaves ♡♡
I know you were probably just joking but just in case don’t feed your reptile wild insects or rodents because you never know what parasites they have. But I’m sure you already know that.
LOVE THIS VID! I usually love your videos so it isn't really a surprise, but I have often wondered about the different feeder worms and nobody could really tell me anything other than, "Well that one is really good for them." So I thank you for the super helpful info.
I love your content, and I'm not that big on snakes. However, watching your videos are making think about maybe getting a slithery friend. Also, totally hip jacket lol
I had horn worms in my vegetable garden... I went out one day and all 13 tomato plants (yes I grow an obnoxious amount of tomatoes... I like salsa, don't judge me) had been completely eaten. Watching your legless lizard eat the horn worms made me happy...
I love how throughout the video we see Emily feeding her reptiles living worms like it's the most natural thing in the world. But then she accidentally tosses one on the counter and apologizes to it.
thank you so much for this video, i have an amphibian and research about feeder insects is so confusing and varying, but this video explains everything so well! you’re the best, as always :)
It's never been something I really looked into but I told myself someday I'll get a reptile and I'm VERY happy this showed up on my recommended thank you
Im so glad i have a local reptile shop. He buys from breeders, breeds his own, and has his own insect colonies. His hornworms are only $1 each! I believe he now does shipment in the US. 401Reptiles in West Warwick Rhode Island
