The truth about mealworms

[In2Ice]

Can mealworms really eat through your chickens stomach? I read you are supposed to crush or remove their heads before feeding them to your chickens. I find this hard to belive. What is the real deal regarding this? Thx

 

[jomoncon]

If this were true, my ladies would have been dead a long time ago! They love mealworms, either dried or fresh.

 

[Stuart77047]

Also if their gizzards can handle sharp stones, I am not sure how much damage a meal worm could do. Especially if they have those same stones in their gizzard to pulverize the worms fairly quickly.

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Where did you read this, exactly? Heck, my chickens eat live centipedes and scorpions!

 

[AliciaM]

I was told this years ago when I had a turtle. But I was told only to do it on the superworms and if the animal swollowed the worms whole. Not sure if it was a "just in case" thing or they realy did try and eat there way back out..

 

[FarmGirl01]

I was told this to about superworms and feeding them to my bearded dragons. I really never believed it.

 

[quintinp]

Wow, I have never heard of such a thing. I guess it could be possible with a turtle, but definitely not a chicken. The worms usually get crushed to death just by being picked up in the beak of the chicken. As for the turtle, I don't see it happening, I have seen turtles eat, and they usually eat small bites, small enough to kill a worm.

 

[quintinp]

Oh, I was just looking on a bearded dragon forum, and there were 3 people who had said that they mistakenly fed mealworms to baby bearded dragons, and the babies didn't chew them, so the worm ate a small hole in the stomach causing an abcess. I guess it does happen. ???????????


Definitely not to a chicken though.

 

[galanie]

From what I've been able to find, this refers only to "super worms." Since I've never fed my chickens super worms (usually treated with a hormone to make them larger and never turn into a beetle) I can't comment on that. But the regular plain old mealworm does NOT do that.