Are wild caught caterpillars OK?

[Mach]

I've been experimenting with collecting from my field out back, mostly just grasshoppers but today I found a soft caterpillar, looks kind of like a brown silkworm. Just wondering if I can feed it to one of my panthers.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Think you should reseach and ID, to see if toxic, or what the worm feeds on.

 

[summoner12]

Yeah, if the worm feeds on something bad for your cham... The bug isn't a good feeder... UNLESS you can feed the bug something else to empty out its gut of the 'bad stuff' and then if the bug itself isn't bad, feed it off to your cham. Sorta like Hornworms. They will eat things we shouldn't feed to chams but if you feed them on silkworm chow or something none toxic to the cham they are safe.

 

[Mach]

I could gut load it the way I do with the grasshoppers, it's a tomato worm as far as I can tell and i'm guessing it's been eating the blackberry patch because that's where I found it. I'm just going to release it but i was curious as to whether some caterpillars were more dangerous than others and if there was a list of wild caught insects somewhere that someone could link.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Do you have a picture of the catepillar in question?
I've used a few different wild caught larva as feeders (cabbage moth loppers and the green catepillars of the small white cabbage butterfly) without issue, so at least some are safe.
All wild collected insects on fresh produce for several days to clean their gut of whatever they were eating before. And of course if pesticides are used in the area, best to avoid.

 

[Mach]

I released the caterpillar in question, I generally put the insects I catch in a ten gallon with a lid and some turnip/collard greens and a cup of grain. The reason I'm so into this is because of my location and the availability of nice fat green grasshoppers, katydids, crickets, and etc. I do still use crickets and hissers, just experimenting. they are caught from my yard so pesticides shouldn't be a huge issue.

....too bad I don't have anything that could eat a toad, they and the grasshoppers are just plain everywhere since we've had all this rain