Butterworms can cause allergic reactions and act as a laxative?

Bitfly

Bitfly

New Member
Yesterday I was at the pet store and the guy working there goes into detail how the hairs on butterworms can cause both allergic reaction on both people and chameleons. He also said they act as a laxative on the cham.

I never heard of this before nor have I ever seen hair on a butterworm.

Is there basis to this or was he just confused?
 
Ive never seen hairs on butterowrms.

and ive touched alot, and fed alot, no one has broken out. :D
 
I've seen the hairs, and they are very sparse/thin. Never had an issue. I can understand how anything with hairs can cause an irritation though.

As for laxative, since they are filled with water that could potentially be a side effect, but that would happen with anything that has lots of water in it. Never had a cham poop differently after eat even a large amount of butterworms though.
 
Every time I feed a butterworm it seems to get pooped out looking much the same as when it went in. Like a mini dehydrated version of it.
 
i had a buttermorm i forgot about in a plastic dixie cup and he melted through the cup and to my shelf! the acids are crazy from these things
 
Bitfly said:
Every time I feed a butterworm it seems to get pooped out looking much the same as when it went in. Like a mini dehydrated version of it.
Click to expand...

that is not normal for your chameleon to be pooping out undigested food. What basking temp are you providing?
 
carol5208 said:
that is not normal for your chameleon to be pooping out undigested food. What basking temp are you providing?
Click to expand...

85. I have seen other people report the same thing with butterworms looking much the same on the way out.

All the crickets she eats seems to be digested normally.
 
Bitfly: If your chameleon doesnt "chew" its food, you may like to use a needle to poke two or three holes in the butterworm immediately before the chameleon eats it. This will help with digesting.

I've heard of someone having a skin allergic reaction related to superworms. I imagine it is possible that any bug could potentially cause a reaction for a small number of suseptible people. I've never had trouble with butterworms, nor have i noticed any issues when feeding them to my chameleons over the years.
 
Bitfly said:
85. I have seen other people report the same thing with butterworms looking much the same on the way out.

All the crickets she eats seems to be digested normally.
Click to expand...

I don't feed butterworms so I guess I cannot comment on that then! I just never heard of food going out the same way it went in! Well, that is good news then for you!
 
Jannb PM'd me about this thread and I just was going through my mail and saw the PM now.

We feed out a lot of butterworms here (to our chameleons), and we sell tens of thousands of butterworms to the reptile world and fishing hobbyists (last week alone we shipped out about 38,000 worms) so we have wide experience with this topic.

We import the worms from Chile under the control and guidance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We had to get a special license for this. The Dept. of Ag. then issues us special labels for each package, and we ship these labels to the exporter in Chile. The worms are then collected, irradiated, and shipped back. They come into the U.S. in Atlanta and are screened by customs, and the Department of Agriculture, and then forwarded to us. The irradiation is done to sterilize the worms so that, should they grow into adult moths, they will not be able to reproduce and wipe out our crops. Irradiation is a safe and common method that is also used on foods (such as milk and certain cheeses) that humans eat here in the U.S. The irradiation is performed, by appointment, at special approved laboratories in Chile which then have to fill out paperwork which gets submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture when the worms enter the U.S. Everyone in the chain has to be licensed and approved. The Dept of Ag. is sort of the ATF of the food world, and butterworms are treated as food. They are actually eaten by the local populace where they are collected. No, I've never tried one (yet).

I have seen butterworm skins come out in poop, looking like "empty" butterworms. This appears to happen with the larger worms. My guess is that after a certain molt the skin has a different make-up that is more difficult to digest. But we have scores of chameleons here and I have only witnessed this about 10 times. In the past I have also seen this happen with silkworms occasionally. I have also had chams experience loose stools when first introduced to silkworms (but then they adjust to them), but have not seen loose stools after eating the butterworms.

If your animal is routinely passing undigested butterworms then I would stop feeding them to it because that can be a sign of food sensitivity.

It appears the larger butterworm is digested best when the skin is "pierced" by chewing or biting. When I feed butterworms to a debilitated animal I cut the worm's skin first. And sometimes I remove the head too (of the worm).

It has been reported to us that Butterworms seem to cause problems with crested gecko skin around the mouth. For that reason we do not recommend butterworms be fed to crested geckos. I have not seen this reaction in our chameleons, anoles, spiny tailed iguana, blue tongued skink, or other gecko species that we have. And they have all eaten regular quantities of butterworms. Our crested geckos are raised on Repashy CGD and dusted crickets- no butterworms for them.

If your animal spits out butterworms or seems to develop a rash around the mouth or defecates whole butterworms I would refrain from feeding that animal butterworms right away. If you purchased the butterworms from us and were absolutely unable to use them you'd likely get a refund.

Syn, would it be possible to reload the photos on that old thread you linked to? it may be helpful to the crested gecko folks here. That was a good thread.
 
gesang said:
Jannb PM'd me about this thread and I just was going through my mail and saw the PM now.

We feed out a lot of butterworms here (to our chameleons), and we sell tens of thousands of butterworms to the reptile world and fishing hobbyists (last week alone we shipped out about 38,000 worms) so we have wide experience with this topic.

We import the worms from Chile under the control and guidance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We had to get a special license for this. The Dept. of Ag. then issues us special labels for each package, and we ship these labels to the exporter in Chile. The worms are then collected, irradiated, and shipped back. They come into the U.S. in Atlanta and are screened by customs, and the Department of Agriculture, and then forwarded to us. The irradiation is done to sterilize the worms so that, should they grow into adult moths, they will not be able to reproduce and wipe out our crops. Irradiation is a safe and common method that is also used on foods (such as milk and certain cheeses) that humans eat here in the U.S. The irradiation is performed, by appointment, at special approved laboratories in Chile which then have to fill out paperwork which gets submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture when the worms enter the U.S. Everyone in the chain has to be licensed and approved. The Dept of Ag. is sort of the ATF of the food world, and butterworms are treated as food. They are actually eaten by the local populace where they are collected. No, I've never tried one (yet).

I have seen butterworm skins come out in poop, looking like "empty" butterworms. This appears to happen with the larger worms. My guess is that after a certain molt the skin has a different make-up that is more difficult to digest. But we have scores of chameleons here and I have only witnessed this about 10 times. In the past I have also seen this happen with silkworms occasionally. I have also had chams experience loose stools when first introduced to silkworms (but then they adjust to them), but have not seen loose stools after eating the butterworms.

If your animal is routinely passing undigested butterworms then I would stop feeding them to it because that can be a sign of food sensitivity.

It appears the larger butterworm is digested best when the skin is "pierced" by chewing or biting. When I feed butterworms to a debilitated animal I cut the worm's skin first. And sometimes I remove the head too (of the worm).

It has been reported to us that Butterworms seem to cause problems with crested gecko skin around the mouth. For that reason we do not recommend butterworms be fed to crested geckos. I have not seen this reaction in our chameleons, anoles, spiny tailed iguana, blue tongued skink, or other gecko species that we have. And they have all eaten regular quantities of butterworms. Our crested geckos are raised on Repashy CGD and dusted crickets- no butterworms for them.

If your animal spits out butterworms or seems to develop a rash around the mouth or defecates whole butterworms I would refrain from feeding that animal butterworms right away. If you purchased the butterworms from us and were absolutely unable to use them you'd likely get a refund.

Syn, would it be possible to reload the photos on that old thread you linked to? it may be helpful to the crested gecko folks here. That was a good thread.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting Sandy. I figured if anybody would know about butter worms, it would be you and Elliot.
 
gesang said:
J
Syn, would it be possible to reload the photos on that old thread you linked to? it may be helpful to the crested gecko folks here. That was a good thread.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the original original thread is not mine. I will see what I can do about contacting Styx to get those images back, however.
 
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