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Worms!

Dee&Dio

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
8
So I had bought. My baby silkback from a pet store. The guy at the store gave me some worms to feed it. Well 5 days into having the little guy I noticed it was not eating anything! No greens,roaches, crickets nothing! Well I come home from work today went to go say hello to the little guy and he looked like he had passed! Upon further inspection I noticed a worm coming out of its mouth ( head first ) took the little guy down to the vet to get a cause and well the worm and eating it's way back up through the dragon. So for everyone with baby beardies. I recommend you either crush the heads of worms or don't feed them any worms at all while they are young. Just to be safe I would also recommend crushing the heads of all insects before feeding to your baby beardies.

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Canicke

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oh no ! what a horrible experience! I hope you are both ok now ?
 

Dee&Dio

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
8
The lizard is in a better place now I'm alright just really deabting in getting another one just a tad bit older

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BrookeE

Juvenile Dragon
3 Year Member
Messages
199
Wow. That is terrible. I am so sorry to hear this! I hope you're okay and try not to let it get you down too much. Nature is nature and theres no way to know everything or expect the unexpected. Ive heard rumors of things like that happening but wasn't sure how true they were, so Im glad you shared this story.

If you're up to sharing a little detail, I am curious to know what kind of worm, how big it was, and if the worm was fully intact (as in, not bitten in half or anything)?
 

Dee&Dio

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
8
Little deatails I was given milworms for the baby at the pet store the guy said that's what they were feeding them
Well with all the research I did I knew baby's could not eat milworms so I bought some little roaches and crickets.. Well as days passed the eating became less and less. I figured I was mainly stress as it was just moved to a new home so I let the time pass. Doing a little more research I found out that baby's tend to eat things whole so it was recommend to crush the heads of insects so they don't eat there was through. ( not to much crush just enough to keep the insect body alive but the head out of commission) so I started doing that. Well I was thinking all day at work today that it's time to start bringing the little guy out to get used to me and the house. Well I got home so the tank and knew something was up cause it was not in the "spot" so I checked under the hide to find the little guy turned over with a milworm crawling ( head first) out of the mouth. So I grabbed tweezers and pulled about .5 of an inch of a WHOLE intact milworm. Just to get a final word I took the little dude to the vet and we are going through inspecting the body we notcie a movement in the belly. The vet then asks what my plans for the little thing was and I said I just wanna know why it died. So the vet and guy open the belly to only find 2 more about half in. Whole intact worms still in the belly that had eating their way through most the insides leaving just bits and pieces of organs. Very sad sight but also very knowledgeable.

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Dee&Dio

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
8
So yes the rumors of worms being able to eat it's way out is def true. Keep yours beardies safe and crush the heads!

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BrookeE

Juvenile Dragon
3 Year Member
Messages
199
Ive heard that if a mealworm or superworm is left in the enclosure with a beardie it can actually crawl into the beardies vent and eat its stomach and such. So they dont actually have to swallow it whole to have the live worm inside them. And i know pet stores are horrible about just throwing insects in and walking away. So its possible that that could have happened too.

Well, thanks for the insight. Its always good to learn from things like this. Good info to have since I like to buy babies. Like I said, sometimes stuff just happens. I hope youre not blaming yourself. Not much you could have done in that situation.
 

Dee&Dio

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
8
For a sec I was putting the blame on myself. I figured i over did it and stressed it out. Until we got a look inside. See I never knew about the leaving the worms in the tank part. I never left any food or water in there anyway. ( unless it was greens and that came out that night) so now I have a strong feeling it was the pet store side of things. Nature works is odd ways that's for sure.

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Canicke

Super Moderator
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I am sooo sorry that your little guy passed. I missed that. I currently have 2 adult beardies and have had 2 other adults. never had a baby. and - got 3 of the 4 off of craigslist. my girl is now about 8 - had her for 3 years - and is a love. my boy is about 2 and kind of a rascal. I don't know what kind of life he had previously, but im guessing there wasn't much interaction - he's learning how to chill on my shoulder, but this is a process. I've had good luck, but it would be advisable to have a vet check.
 

Hdrydr31

Bearded Dragon Veteran
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Oh my what a horrible experience for you and the poor little one.. Yea they do tend to not fully chew things when they are really little they get soo excited about eating..I wish more education was out there to stores and I every time I come across new beardie owners I lead them in the right direction.
Feeding times I always count the feeders I put in the bowl and never leave them in overnight..
I have seen a dragon that a superworm had been chewing their way Into a very weakend on treatment dragon :( it was found and the dragon survived.. Adults are much better about chewing things and typically will bite things in half..

Very sorry it happened but as stated nature is nature and things happen sometimes. Glad to hear that you are still wanting to get another just a bit older..
 

PatsyB

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I'm sorry this happened to your little guy.

I have seen healthy beardies eat worms though and there is no way that worm is surviving inside it. They first get crushed with the teeth and then the stomach acid digests it. If you've ever put a superworms in plain water you see they stop moving pretty quickly. My guess is there was some underlying condition that caused this to happen. For some reason he wasn't chewing his food. Also for some reason his stomach acid was neutralized so that it wasn't digesting. This could happen if he was at some point kept on calci sand. I wish the vet would have done more investigating and testing instead of putting the scare into everyone and saying that the worm did it.

I did have a friend who had a dragon that was very sick and she missed a super worm in his tank. She woke up the next morning to find the super eating a hole in its side. It had smelled that the dragon was weak and easy prey.
 

Dee&Dio

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
8
Yea I wish they had done a little more investigating as well. I do know they were keeping them on sand at the pet store that that's probably a big factor as well

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