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Can hornworms be fed to a corn snake?

D

Dennis Cada

New member
Last week at a reptile show I got a kit with 12 hornworms for free at a reptile show intending to feed them to a tiger salamander I have. It consisted of an upside down deli cup with food for the hornworms at the top, plastic grids in the middle for them to hang onto, and a screen in the lid for air. Their poop would drop onto the lid which I opened to empty the poop every day or two.

The problem is that the salamander can only eat 1-2 a week, the hornworms have gotten huge, and the food is almost gone. I'd rather feed them to the snake, if I can, rather than have them just die.

Of course, this wouldn't be a permanent change of diet, but rather an attempt to use the hornworms before I lose them. :eatsmiley
 
I doubt your corn snake would even eat them if you offered them. That being said, corn snakes don't naturally eat bugs, so I would not try to feed them to my snake.
 
Like I said, it's not something I would try. At best it would be harmless but not beneficial, and at worst, it could have a negative affect on your snake. I don't know much about horn worms, but most living things have some defense mechanisms to ward off predators.

You could always try giving them away to someone who might need them for their bug eating critter.
 
I would not feed horn worms to a corn snake. Even if your snake ate it horn worms are mostly water and have very little nutritional value. They are great for rehydrating lizards.

A couple of years ago our local pet supply store that sells a few live animals had a corn snake baby escape. A few months later they finally recaptured it. It had double its size while on the run. The only food item that was also escapees were crickets. The staff could only surmise that the corn snake survived on and doubled its size by eating crickets..

Here's a good article on snakes that eat food items other than rodents.....

http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatr...odents-insect-eating-snake-care/#.V9vvlZgrLIU

(for people who land on this thread while searching for topics similar to this )
 
Can you believe that? They want a buck a piece for those critters. Anyone with a garden can't get rid of them.

I'm in the wrong business.
 
Karl_Mcknight said:
Can you believe that? They want a buck a piece for those critters. Anyone with a garden can't get rid of them.

I'm in the wrong business.
Click to expand...

I had a common snapper juvie that I kept in an outdoor pond back when I lived in NM. If my wife or I for any of those cretins on our tomatoes, off to mr snapper or the neighborhood roadrunners. The roadrunners would get super excited, strutting about all proud of themselves with their hornworm.
 
<slightly off topic but the above post reminded me of this>

My brother and his next door neighbor installed a huge pond in their backyards and stocked it with those Japanese Koi (fancy over prices gold fish). They had the electric pump and waterfall, the colored night lights, the fancy filters and such. They spared no expense on this pond and it really looked good for a while.

My brother used to brag about how "Some of those fish were 50 bucks each."

One day he was sitting on his back porch reading a magazine and drinking his morning coffee, when a Big Herron landed in the middle of his pond and ate about 4 or 5 of his fish. He ran down there and scared the bird away, but the next day there were 2 of them.

Today his pond is empty, his fish are gone, and his wife has planted a garden where the pond was.
 
Karl_Mcknight said:
<slightly off topic but the above post reminded me of this>

My brother and his next door neighbor installed a huge pond in their backyards and stocked it with those Japanese Koi (fancy over prices gold fish). They had the electric pump and waterfall, the colored night lights, the fancy filters and such. They spared no expense on this pond and it really looked good for a while.

My brother used to brag about how "Some of those fish were 50 bucks each."

One day he was sitting on his back porch reading a magazine and drinking his morning coffee, when a Big Herron landed in the middle of his pond and ate about 4 or 5 of his fish. He ran down there and scared the bird away, but the next day there were 2 of them.

Today his pond is empty, his fish are gone, and his wife has planted a garden where the pond was.
Click to expand...

Yeah we get people in at PetSmart who bought a bunch of fancy koi for their frequently-too-shallow pond only to have them eaten by local herons and raccoons, so they replace them with feeder fish a few times before giving up. I want a nice koi pond someday, but it'd definitely be inside a screened patio.

Also hornworms at PetSmart are a BARGAIN $3.29 each. :shrugs:
 
Karl... Thankfully he hadn't invested in some of the 5 figure and higher priced koi.

My snapper would ambush the occasional dove or grackle throughout the season, leaving only the wings when I'd discovered his hunting success.
 
Yes!! I was so happy to get this thing at the reptile show for free rather than pay like $1.25 each!!

I've decided not to try to feed any to the snake but I might cut one up and feed it to four tiny tarantulas I got at the same show. I think most of them are dead anyway. :-(
 
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