Earthworms??

[Dragons & Balls]

Do earthworms have any nutritional value?

[tHeGiNo]

I do believe they are fairly high in protein, but low in calcium as they have no exoskeleton.

[andrea88]

Other way around gino...
High in calcium and low in protein.
:p

[BWSmith]

They are nutricious, but I would only feed them to animals that prey on them in the wild. I only feed worms to Ringnecks.

[Dragons & Balls]

why not feed them to beardies and leos?

[BWSmith]

At le3ast around me, I am too worried about chemicals in the ground for WC worms. Even the ones you buy from a bait store were bred for bait, not for food. So I don't trust them either. But I figure that if a Ringneck lived in my yard, he was eating worms from my yard, so he should be fine.

[garterguy]

also they are good to feed garters

[eyespy]

Worms bought from bait shops are normally chemically harvested, they pour something thick and slippery like dish detergent into the ground. The worms have to surface so they don't suffocate and are therefore easily captured.

That's safe and legal to use as bait because the amount of soap ingested by a fish and then by the people who eat that fish is so tiny, but you don't want to give any of your pets a steady diet of soapy worms. Get your worms from a worm farmer who raises his own wormbeds chemically-free and not kept on acidic peat moss or paper with ink on it and those worms are much safer.

They are nice and high in calcium and even though they only have about the same amount of protein as crickets it's more "bioavailable" because there's no chitin to digest and so more is actually digested. Earthworms are too rich for bearded dragons because of that, all that protein as a staple has been linked to fatty liver disease, much like feeding pinkies.

They are terrific as one part of a varied diet but not the best staple for omnivores like beardies. For insectivores or garter snakes they can be given more frequently as they process proteins better.

[Dragons & Balls]

Thanks eyespy!