Tomato Horn worms eating tomatos

[DesertIsis]

Hello!

Had a quick question about tomato horn worms.
I got 4 the other day and wanted to keep them alive for a while. I figured the logical thing to do would be to feed them tomatoes.
However when perusing the Beautiful Dragons nutrition chart (for fruit that is ok to feed my girl, Isis) I saw that tomatoes are not necessarily the best for dragons. I did put a tomato vine in with them, but they have each eaten a whole cherry tomato.

SO my question is, will it be ok for me to feed Isis these hornworms that have been gut loaded with cherry tomatoes?

Thanks!!!

 

[Claudiusx]

No, you shouldn't.

They eat the tomato leaf, not the tomato. And that is EXTREMELY toxic to bearded dragons; which is the main reason you don't feed wild caught hornworms to your dragons.

If you have any mulberry trees near you, you can feed them mulberry leaves. Either that or just leave them be.

-Brandon

 

[DesertIsis]

Ok, thanks. I have removed the food. They mainly went after the little cheery tomatoes and not the stem. (and from what I read the tomatoes will not be harmful in small doses)

Unfortunately November in Michigan is a terrible time to gather mulberry leaves. Any other advice on what I should do to keep these caterpillars alive while their system is cleansed?

 

[Claudiusx]

You can feed them normal greens you'd give your dragon, although I don't know if they would eat them.

-Brandon

 

[Sauzo]

You can also order hornworm food from most reptile insect vendors. A couple examples of places are http://www.greatlakeshornworm.com/products and http://www.mulberryfarms.com/. Both of those vendors have hornworm food.

 

[DesertIsis]

Thanks so much! I really appreciated the advice and warning!
Will probably just waste the last 2 worms and get my girl some new properly gut loaded ones this time.

Thanks again!