Hornworms causing impaction?

contracteryin

contracteryin

New member
I was buzzing around on here on some of the older stuff and one person said that hornworms that were too big for a gecko could cause impaction.
However, I don't see how this could be the case no matter how big and fat it is. Chocking on it is a different story, but the caterpillar is soft bodied. Other feeders like superworms, mealworms and I suppose roaches (I know nothing about them) could possibly cause it. After all, they have hard shells.
So, what do you guys think about hornworms and them causing impaction? I personally don't think there is a high risk (if any at all) of it from something with such a soft body.
 
cricket4u

cricket4u

New member
Anything that is too large can become impacted. Has it happened? Yes it has. Do I expect people to believe me? No :biggrin:
 
contracteryin

contracteryin

New member
I'm not saying you're lying. Theres no reason for me to say that because I haven't had the same accounts as you. That also goes for anything else someone will say about any feeder.
Obviously anything too large will cause a problem in some way. But how often do you feed horn worms, and how big were they beforehand, and do you feed anything else? Simply out of curiosity. I feed silkworms, but they're "not the right size" because they're bigger than the space between the forehead. However, the way I see it, yes there is too big but in the wild if they see something they can swallow then they'll eat it. It doesn't always go by our right-size standard.
 
cricket4u

cricket4u

New member
contracteryin said:
I'm not saying you're lying. Theres no reason for me to say that because I haven't had the same accounts as you. That also goes for anything else someone will say about any feeder.
Obviously anything too large will cause a problem in some way. But how often do you feed horn worms, and how big were they beforehand, and do you feed anything else? Simply out of curiosity. I feed silkworms, but they're "not the right size" because they're bigger than the space between the forehead. However, the way I see it, yes there is too big but in the wild if they see something they can swallow then they'll eat it. It doesn't always go by our right-size standard.
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No, I had to throw that in because you know lots of people are very skeptical.:biggrin: yes, many do try to eat prey that's too big and die from eat in the wild. It is very common in snakes especially to eat prey that is too large and die. Just keep in mind the size of their small intestines and use common sense. Follow the size rule and you will have nothing to worry about. Sometimes they get away with it if they chew it enough before swallowing. If the gecko decides to get greedy, bite only once and swallow, then comes the danger. Most will choke, before becoming impacted, but obviously it's not something we want to happen.
 
contracteryin

contracteryin

New member
cricket4u said:
No, I had to throw that in because you know lots of people are very skeptical.:biggrin: yes, many do try to eat prey that's too big and die from eat in the wild. It is very common in snakes especially to eat prey that is too large and die. Just keep in mind the size of their small intestines and use common sense. Follow the size rule and you will have nothing to worry about. Sometimes they get away with it if they chew it enough before swallowing. If the gecko decides to get greedy, bite only once and swallow, then comes the danger. Most will choke, before becoming impacted, but obviously it's not something we want to happen.
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Yea, I know a lot of people are. I was until recently about superworms, but upon seeing the story (and proof) of it in the recent superworm thread I'm kinda scared to feed any of my reptiles superworms.
Anyways, back on topic, my general size rule is nothing larger than their head. Sometimes I'll give something larger to my larger of the two geckos because I need to get rid of it, but that isn't often. I obviously don't want any of my lizards to die, and I go by a rule-of-thumb per-say, but I don't go by the status-quo one. Besides, even though it isn't suggested, if its rather large and you don't feed big stuff often, I'm sure the stomach can handle it just like ours does when we eat too much. Plus, soft bodied stuff are easy to digest so it seems less likely than a superworm that's too big, on top of other risks, considering all the chinten *spelling* that they have in their shell.
 
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