Can I feed garden crickets?

[RedMist]

Can I feed my beardie garden crickets? I have a ton of them. I use no pesticides/herbicides in the garden.

 

[Taterbug]

Can I feed my beardie garden crickets? I have a ton of them. I use no pesticides/herbicides in the garden.

Generally its discouraged to feed wild insects since you don't know where they have been or what they have been eating. Even for folks in very rural areas with no contaminants it might be ok, or it might be disastrous.

 

[MageWoofers]

I have never given my Beardie wild bugs from outside. They could have some kind of disease or could have been walking around in poop for all you know and you don't want to give your beardie a cricket covered in poop. It can make them sick.
Even though wild bugs are a free food source and are easy to get, ( instead of going to the store and buying them ) it is highly not recommended to feed them to your bearded dragon.

Hope this helps!

 

[Soulwind]

Just to add a bit more:

Wild insects are the quickest and easiest way to ensure that your
dragon gets parasites (pinworms, etc).

 

[premammalian]

Is there any proven case of parasites transmitted by wild insects? Of course insect diseases cannot pass to lizards, we are talking of lizard parasites with intermediate hosts the insects. Even if they exist, aren't most parasites species specific for a geographic area? I ask because the fact is that the topic of wild-caught insects is far from settled yet. There are proponents of it, who give rutinely wild insects to their reptiles at summer, and others strictly avoid them. I personally rarely give some safe species to my gecko as a treat for variety.
Today nearly noone gives their reptiles wild insects, but a few years ago it was commonplace. We cannot dismiss commercial interestes of insect breeders as contributing to that, as it most probably happened with the defamation of one of the most easily cultured, hardy and nutritious insects, and I am talking of course for the humble mealworm, which luckily gets some of its glory back. I of course am not against a commercial insect-only diet, as they are the most readily available, their conditions can be controled and the last years they have increased much in variety, just I am pointing that there is no black and white as concerns wild insects.

Most probably though the controversy of feeding wild insects will remain and divide the hobby, like the controversies of naturalistic vs simple setups, hibernation or not hibernation, live or prekilled rodents, solitary vs group housing, particulate vs sheet substrate etc, which seem not to be settling in the forseeable 100 years at least.

 

[Taterbug]

Is there any proven case of parasites transmitted by wild insects? Of course insect diseases cannot pass to lizards, we are talking of lizard parasites with intermediate hosts the insects.

.

Pinworms (for example) are direct lifecycle pathogens. They generally need specific hosts to grow and reproduce - insects can harbor the eggs but without help from lizards can the parasite successfully multiply? Perhaps this applies more to areas withy native lizards. Cross contamination at a farm or pet store makes perfect sense though, and analysis I have seen have been for farmed insects. I worry more about parasites or toxins that the dragons aren't adapted to, and what the bugs may get into (chemicals, poisons, heavy metals etc).

We cannot dismiss commercial interestes of insect breeders as contributing to that,

I've wondered this about wild hornworms in particular. Evidence is sketchy about how toxic they are and whether or not the solanine is metabolized after so many days etc. Insect farms are a big industry I bet I doubt they would want folks gathering or rearing their own for free.

Most probably though the controversy of feeding wild insects will remain and divide the hobby, like the controversies of naturalistic vs simple setups, hibernation or not hibernation, live or prekilled rodents, solitary vs group housing, particulate vs sheet substrate etc, which seem not to be settling in the forseeable 100 years at least.

Unfortunate how many opinion based husbandry choices spark so much controversy. Hopefully we move forward faster than that though D:

 

[premammalian]

Where can I find the information about pinworms and farmed insects? Although the insects I purchase come from clean conditions, reared in isolation of any other animals, I want to know the problem. Are there any info on the internet or it is elsewhere?
Also to add here that wild insect from wild insect is different. I would not trust for example flies, because they most probably have gone to many filthy places to feed. Although I have given a few flies to my geckos in the beginning, now I have banned them completely. Crickets would be much safer. But the best of all I think are green, hairless catterpillars feeding of non-toxic plants. By non toxic I mean a plant or weed that a dragon, a rabbit or another animal or human could eat. Catterpillars nearly always stay on the plant they hatched, so no danger of picking chemicals from another place. Furthermore, they are naturally gutloaded, as they feed constantly. And they are super soft and juicy. My gecko loves them, and eats them immediately when I offer them. I think for dragons which can chew their food more effectively snails would be a good option too. They are packed with calcium.

ps. People in Australia and other suitable climates who keep their dragons outside, certainly cannot control completely what their animals eat. So they are getting to eat some wild insects no matter the measures.

 

[Taterbug]

I can't find the others, but this is one of the pages that caught my eye. I planned to read some of the cited resources when I have some time. http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-69121.html

It's worth noting even if they are detected, the pinworms in question aren't identified - they could be cricket worms, or lizard worms or... Who knows what. Assuming it's lizard, I still think it's more likely to be a matter of cross contamination - maybe the petstore puts uneaten feeders back in the tub, doesn't practice good hygiene, keepers handle lizards at the store when getting the crickets and bring germs home that way... Etc.

I've never fed snails but they are popular with skinks, aren't they? Folks in the UK (who generally seem more open to wild food) make mention of lungworm as a concern. http://www.richmondvets.co.uk/lungworms-in-dogs-what-about-reptiles/

Isopods and earthworms are also calcium rich critters I see villanized a lot.

I'd love to have an outdoor enclosure, and where I not in the city wouldn't mind the insects that get eaten... but we have lots of fireflies in my area

 

[premammalian]

Thank you very much for the links. It seems as a myth apparently that crickets carry pinworms pathogenic to reptiles. Most probably it applies what you said, that the insects get infected from reptiles.
Now the writer of the article about lungworms wanted to advise us some caution, but I find the conclusions he jumps hazy. Just because the canine lungworm can infect some frogs, it doesn't mean that it can infect reptiles or all amphibians. Reptiles are very different from amphibians, and what infects the one in most cases doesn't infect the other.

 

[waterzgood]

We fed our bearded dragon grasshoppers from our yard all summer! We live in the country and use no chemicals anywhere. We started really slow to see how he did, and he did fine. He liked them so much more than the store-bought crickets! He ate them out of our hands. The grasshoppers we found in our garden were huge and meaty and he chomped those down in about 5 bites. Once I offered him a praying mantis and he ATE IT! He had a hard time going back to crickets once the weather changed. He is VERY healthy. He just survived 8 weeks outside when he escaped from his outdoor enclosure.