Buying feeders from bait shops?

SugarPlumie · Aug 9, 2016

This may be a silly question but is it okay to buy worms and other insects at bait shops?
I noticed there are some bait shops near me that have butterworms, superworms and waxworms at really decent prices. So I was thinking instead of buying feeders online which can be very expensive, I can purchase my feeders at these bait shops. Now, what i'm worried about is is the quality and how these worms are bred and treated at these stores. Do you think there is more of a chance for my beardie to get sick off of bait feeders? Should I just stick to buying feeders from more reputable stores that cater directly to reptiles? Thanks!

CooperDragon · Aug 9, 2016

The bait bugs aren't necessarily kept in sanitary conditions so I think you'd run a higher risk of causing illness or passing parasites by offering them. I would stick to ordering reptile food grade bugs online just to be on the safe side. If dubia roaches are legal where you are, it may be cost effective to start a colony so you can source from that rather than ordering online.

Taterbug · Aug 9, 2016

Butterworms don't eat and are exported by what seems like a small number of companies... and its very likely the same importers that sell them as bait and sell them as feeders. If a bait shop I found had them, I'd have no issue feeding them so long as the bait shop doesn't add things to them and/or can tell me their supplier.

The others do eat so I might be inclined to ask what if anything they are fed, and what bug farms sell them to the bait shop. Its possible that they are the same places supplying pet stores.

kingofnobbys · Aug 10, 2016

I wouldn't use bait shop insects as feeders for a pet lizard.

Many bait shops feed "bite enhancers" to them that are supposed to make them smell nicer to the fish so they are more likely to bite them, in a one off this probably not an issue when a person eats the fish who ate the bug, most of us gut our fish and they don't keep the polluted bug inside long enough to effect the flesh.
BUT feeding these bugs (and lots of them) to your pet lizard is IMO asking for trouble, eventually these chemicals will build up in the lizard's liver and kidneys and other organs and cause problems.

Buying feeders from bait shops?

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