# General Topics > Food, Feeders, Live, Frozen, Culturing, etc >  Can I feed my toad "Super Worms?"

## Stacia

I have an adult Western Toad who is about 4 inches. I don't have access to roaches locally and I am not willing to breed them myself as my family would have a major fit. He's eating large crickets, super worms, and earth worms 2-3 times a week and I dust his food once a week. I read on here that super worms can chew through a frogs stomach, which sounds a little far-fetched to me but if it has been known to happen I would be a little worried. I am fairly confident my toad will be able to handle the exoskeleton of the insects and super worms would only be given about once a week. Western Toads commonly eat spiders and beetles in the wild so I would imagine they are use to digesting hard bodied prey. Crickets tend to move a little fast for him though and they are a pain in the behind for me to tong feed with since their legs break off easily.

Is it okay for a my large toad to eat the occasional "super worm"?

How long do they continue to live if you cut off their heads? 

Thanks for your help!

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## Yusil

I was under the impression that Super Worms weren't the best nutrionally, but perhaps I'm wrong.

But with most things, generally you shouldn't get involved with things you don't know about. If your not absolutely sure, I'd stop and research first.

But, if he's been eating them for a while now with no incidents or problems, it should be okay. Keep a close eye on him any how, but it sounds like you've been feeding them to him for a while now, and nothing bad has happened yet, so perhaps it's fine.

Maybe someone else will chime in and give their opinion/knowledge  :Smile:

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## Stacia

> I was under the impression that Super Worms weren't the best nutrionally, but perhaps I'm wrong.
> 
> But with most things, generally you shouldn't get involved with things you don't know about. If your not absolutely sure, I'd stop and research first.
> 
> But, if he's been eating them for a while now with no incidents or problems, it should be okay. Keep a close eye on him any how, but it sounds like you've been feeding them to him for a while now, and nothing bad has happened yet, so perhaps it's fine.
> 
> Maybe someone else will chime in and give their opinion/knowledge


Thanks! Reading back through my original post I hope I haven't come off sounding rude at all. In truth I haven't had this particular toad for all that long but I have had previous toads of the same species that I use to feed meal worms and super worms to. I too agree that super and meal worms are not the best nutritiously and I would never use them as a staple diet. I use them more as "filler" foods every once in a while to reduce the amounts of crickets that I have to buy and keep every week. 

I have never heard of super worms hurting frogs and toads before joining this site so I never imagined there was any risk of them eating through a frogs stomach. I know that a diet filled with meal worms can lead to impaction and death but using them as an infrequent treat seemed okay to me. 

I just wanted to know if there was any truth in the belief that super worms can eat through a frogs stomach. Has this ever happened to anyone or is there any recorded incident? If so how can I prevent this from happening to my toad? Does anyone successfully feed super worms to their frogs without them being harmed? 

Just want to make sure that I'm not doing something terrible to my toad (: I don't want him to suffer as a result of my mistakes. 

Thank you!

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## Yusil

Oh no, you didn't come off as rude at all. 

And it's great you care for your Toad so much. I've never had a toad before, so honestly I don't know and plus, my frogs are like a inch and a half, so all I have are roaches and ants. I'm still learning how to culture flies, so until then, that's their main diet. The occasional baby pill bug here and there, but my culture is new, only one or two females have produced offspring.

But what I was trying to say is, if your not sure, whether or not a super worm can eat through you're toad's stomach, then it's best not to feed him them until you are sure. Even if someone does tell you they don't but your still skeptical, then you don't have to. 

Some people say sometimes you have to learn by trial and error and you said you've kept and fed toads super worms before. And because you're asking the question, I'm assuming they never ate through your toad? If so, then the same should apply here, but again if your not sure, you can always not feed them.

Culturing roaches is pretty laborious sometimes, but the result is worth it. I breed small roaches though and feed the even smaller babies/young adults to my frogs. Well, it's not so much a culture, as it is just a boy and girl roach I happened to find and bred by accident lol  :Smile:  .

Have you tried also feeding him wingless fruit flies? Although he'd probably need a dozen of those to be full. 

And also, if you buy crickets, you can probably culture them yourself, there's plenty of info on the web and I think here as well, and that way you won't have to buy as much, if any.  :Smile:  It's how I learned to culture pill bugs, but they're rather easy, since they don't jump or anything and is currently how I'm learning to culture flies.

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## Stacia

> Oh no, you didn't come off as rude at all. 
> 
> And it's great you care for your Toad so much. I've never had a toad before, so honestly I don't know and plus, my frogs are like a inch and a half, so all I have are roaches and ants. I'm still learning how to culture flies, so until then, that's their main diet. The occasional baby pill bug here and there, but my culture is new, only one or two females have produced offspring.
> 
> But what I was trying to say is, if your not sure, whether or not a super worm can eat through you're toad's stomach, then it's best not to feed him them until you are sure. Even if someone does tell you they don't but your still skeptical, then you don't have to. 
> 
> Some people say sometimes you have to learn by trial and error and you said you've kept and fed toads super worms before. And because you're asking the question, I'm assuming they never ate through your toad? If so, then the same should apply here, but again if your not sure, you can always not feed them.
> 
> Culturing roaches is pretty laborious sometimes, but the result is worth it. I breed small roaches though and feed the even smaller babies/young adults to my frogs. Well, it's not so much a culture, as it is just a boy and girl roach I happened to find and bred by accident lol  .
> ...


Awesome! I don't think I can culture any sort of food for my toad because my family hardly tolerates having a few dozen crickets in the house  :Frown:  meal worms are nice because they just sit inside a plastic container, don't make any noise, and can't escape like crickets and roaches. 

I use to feed my young Colombian Spotted Frog fruit flies but it would be impossible for my toad to fill up on any number of fruit flies I'm afraid. He ate three 4inch night crawlers last night for supper! Haha

Hopefully I'll get some more comments soon and some clarification on what to do about the super worms. I wont feed them again until I get a response  :Smile:  I'm thinking I might have to start cutting off their heads though, so that will be gross! But it will be worth it to know my toad is fat, happy, and safe from stomach gnawing worms!

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## Stacia

I have thought of another feeding question to ask you guys, so I though I would tack it onto the last one and hopefully someone will take a look and maybe have an answer  :Smile: 

I have had my toad (about 4 inches) for only a few weeks. The first week he didn't seem interested in eating anything but he's finally started eating and boy is he hungry! Two days ago he ate 4 earth worms about 4-6 inches long. Yesterday he ate 3 super worms (I chopped their heads off and gave them to him with tongs) along with 2 medium/large crickets, and today he ate 6 medium/large crickets dusted with calcium and D13.

Should I keep feeding him if he's willing to eat or should I only offer food once every 2 days or so? Do I need to buy additional supplements to dust his food with? The crickets are being gut loaded with carrots, broccoli, dry dog food, and tropical fish flakes. How often do adult toads need their food to be dusted?

Sorry for my million questions. This is the first adult toad I've ever had and I'm just starting to learn about supplements and diets for large frogs.

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## arielgasca420

superworms should be used as treats because they have a high fat content and a hard chitin. 
I have heard some people say they are more nutritious than mealworms, but lets not get into that. I have had a western toad and he loved superworms. he usually did a little wiggle dance to compress his stomach and kill the worms.
 I have heard that the biting in a stomach is a myth. 
if you take off their heads they do not live long. not even a few minutes. superworms are not like earthworms.

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## arielgasca420

> I have thought of another feeding question to ask you guys, so I though I would tack it onto the last one and hopefully someone will take a look and maybe have an answer 
> 
> I have had my toad (about 4 inches) for only a few weeks. The first week he didn't seem interested in eating anything but he's finally started eating and boy is he hungry! Two days ago he ate 4 earth worms about 4-6 inches long. Yesterday he ate 3 super worms (I chopped their heads off and gave them to him with tongs) along with 2 medium/large crickets, and today he ate 6 medium/large crickets dusted with calcium and D13.
> 
> Should I keep feeding him if he's willing to eat or should I only offer food once every 2 days or so? Do I need to buy additional supplements to dust his food with? The crickets are being gut loaded with carrots, broccoli, dry dog food, and tropical fish flakes. How often do adult toads need their food to be dusted?
> 
> Sorry for my million questions. This is the first adult toad I've ever had and I'm just starting to learn about supplements and diets for large frogs.


This is a tough question because I am assuming the toad is wild caught. If you are not sure on dusting than I wouldnt dust at for now. less is more and you can over dust. If you are gutloading your crickets than there is no real need for dusting. I never dusted my wild caught western toad because I wasnt sure how it would react to him anatomically.

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## Stacia

> This is a tough question because I am assuming the toad is wild caught. If you are not sure on dusting than I wouldnt dust at for now. less is more and you can over dust. If you are gutloading your crickets than there is no real need for dusting. I never dusted my wild caught western toad because I wasnt sure how it would react to him anatomically.


Okay good point, I never thought of the fact that a wild toad might react differently. He is not longer going through any growth spurts so I'll assume he's getting some nutrition from the crickets for now

Any idea how often/how much I should be feeding him? I've heard before that it's difficult to overfeed toads but I don't want to end up hurting him. I know chitin can be harmful...

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## arielgasca420

> Okay good point, I never thought of the fact that a wild toad might react differently. He is not longer going through any growth spurts so I'll assume he's getting some nutrition from the crickets for now
> 
> Any idea how often/how much I should be feeding him? I've heard before that it's difficult to overfeed toads but I don't want to end up hurting him. I know chitin can be harmful...


feed one every week. feed crickets and earth worms every two days. earthworms are the most nutritious in my opinion

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