Mold in Dubia

[pogismom]

I bought a small container of dubias from repticom expo about three weeks ago. the guy told me I could keep them in their original container and just toss a carrot, potatoe and dog food pellets in there once in awhile to keep them feed and alive.

I thought sounds easy enough. But now I'm noticing what looks like mold spots on them. plus I noticed a little worms in the substrate. I looked on the forum about proper care and realize I haven't been given them that. So I will be ordering some supply this week to see about creating a better breeding environment for them.

My question is this...if Pogi eats any dubis that may have mold will he get sick? And should I toss out the ones I have now or try to improve their condition with a newer breeding equipment?

Side Notes unrelated to feeders.....Also, this brings me to a new question...how do they get that yellow fungus? Is it something they are exposed to or already have and it gets triggered? I don't see any signs of that on Pogi...though I have been monitoring and reviewing other posts about their tail tip being bent and turning dark.....which of course his is. Keeping moist...and putting olive oil on it as night. looking into buying that shed ease stuff too in case it is a bad shed. Anyway I digressed....

 

[Taterbug]

The bugs are moldy? That's strange.

Good luck setting up your roaches. I'd recommend cutting out the dog food from the diet. They can do quite well on veggies and will be much better to feed your dragon. They love things like apples, squash and some of the leafy greens your dragon eats.

The worms, can be one of two things.
One (little caterpillar fuzzy things) are demestid beetle larvae, they are a 'cleaner crew' type bug some folks keep in their colonies.
Others are 'pest' worms, like fly larvae and such. Those are generally very tiny and a sign you have too much moisture in the frass/food.

Yellow fungus is a specific fungal infection in reptiles. It's a contagious fungus, contracted easiest via open wounds and requires infectious materials (Infected tissue, spores that sort of thing) to infect a host. It colonizes the tissues (and eventually organs) killing them, and is overall a pretty brutal disease. It requires a fungal culture from a skin scraping to positively identify. I also see Yellow Fungus used as a lay term for yellow dermatitis/infection without a specific isolated cause.

For Pogi's tail you will want to make sure the discoloration doesn't crawl up the tail, this is what indicates infection and can be serious. The tip, if its damaged enough, can simply die, dry up and fall off and not be a problem.

 

[pogismom]

Thank you! I'm guessing they are moldy though it could that the moisture level is too high in the little container and the droplets formed are mixed with the substrate making them look spotty like brown mold...

Thanks for insight on yellow fungus n tail tip. His tail gets a little dark as it goes down but not black. Will try some shed ease too and see it that helps loosen any dead skin etc...

Again thank you!

 

[Taterbug]

I'm not sure shed-ease does anything really... Warm soaks and gentle manipulation of the area would help loosen any retained shed. Do you have a reason to suspect its a stuck shed? Sometimes if you look close you can sort of see the scales aren't 'right' where there is stuck shed. They can be kind of waxy, or dull, or look 'thick'.

Sometimes the tail can also just look darker than the rest of the body, and its just the way the colors are. I'm not sure if you have said it in another post, but is the tail injured or just kinked?

 

[pogismom]

No known injuries... Just kinked. He has shed sporadically and I don't recall the top of tail shedding...it doesn't match any of the descriptions you have me on incomplete sheds... I will take a pix today n post. I do notice the darkness fades when he is nice n warm. And gets darker when his body temps are cooler especially when bath water gets cooler... So maybe it works like a mood ring...

Btw have u ever heard of dubia having mold on them? If so should they be eaten? I haven't seen any mold on anything else in their environment. He worms looked like tiny super worms or even Phoenix worms. Didn't see anything fuzzy.

 

[Taterbug]

A pic of those moldy dubia would be good too. I've never seen or heard of that.
A little kink may just be that. Pepper has a little kin at the very tip of his tail, doesn't bother him at all. He just cant straighten it. If I pinch the tip it is soft and wiggles, so its got feeling and reflexes. Pogi may have the same thing going on.

 

[pogismom]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vcrayrizb8dm32j/tail 2.JPG here is the tail

https://www.dropbox.com/s/48ppjqbdpp9nf1g/pogi tail.JPG another view

both were taken in the viv under the basking light

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6rafa9czp331fqm/dubia.JPG here are the dubia

 

[Tonja]

Pogis tail looks fine to me. Looks perfectly normal, the tail tip seems to be darker a bit on most beardies but his looks fine. I have never seen that on dubia before. It almost looks like mites, tiny white mites. I would not feed those not knowing what is wrong with them. Just to be precautionary. The shell on them looks strange to me.

 

[pogismom]

Agreed...I will order some fresh colonies and release those outside.

Thanks for the ease of mind on the tail! After three children and 9 other pets you would think I'd be less paranoid about my 10th pet ! :shock:

 

[Tonja]

I don't think we would be humans if we didn't fret at times over our pets. They do depend on us and when something doesn't look or seem quite right, its normal to worry over it. Never feel you are paranoid over something like Pogis tail. If you don't know no harm in asking just in case something is wrong.

 

[pogismom]

He is my first reptile and I really want to see reach his full potential. That's the mom in me. Sometimes I get a concern and search the forum for similar posts. Then my suspicions turn into life threatening conditions as I begin to project my situation onto theirs....sympathetic illness syndrome. :wink:

 

[Taterbug]

Agreed...I will order some fresh colonies and release those outside.

Thanks for the ease of mind on the tail! After three children and 9 other pets you would think I'd be less paranoid about my 10th pet ! :shock:

As for the dubia, is it possibly food crumbs? Is there corn meal or something ground up in the feed? The spots look like they are also on the veggies. Do they move? I'm curious what it would be. Strange.

Please consider sterilizing the dubia, don't just release them. Especially since your aren't sure what's wrong with them, if it is mites or something it could potentially spread to other wild bugs. You can freeze them or pour billing water over them. It feels crappy but keep in mind they are not native and do not belong. It may be too cold in your area to matter...

 

[pogismom]

It could be food crumbs from the dog pellets. Ill mist them and see if they come off or not. I also have a magnifying glass I can check to see if there are any movement on them. The container they where is was small and very moist so I wondered if it wasn't droplets with substrate that may have fallen on them.

Good note on not releasing them. Will freeze them if they are not edible.

 

[Taterbug]

It could be food crumbs from the dog pellets. Ill mist them and see if they come off or not. I also have a magnifying glass I can check to see if there are any movement on them. The container they where is was small and very moist so I wondered if it wasn't droplets with substrate that may have fallen on them.

Good note on not releasing them. Will freeze them if they are not edible.

Other than the spots they look pretty normal. If it was moist or humid, food crumbles could be a real possibility. If you give them a few days in a drier enclosure they may groom the crumbles off.