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Slow worms in captivity. HELP!: |
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Vickie Lizard Member Joined: 22 Apr 2007 No. of posts: 6  View other posts by Vickie Lizard |
Posted: 22 Apr 2007 My children have found some slow worms and we`d like to study them for a while. I know they are protected, and have read up on the laws. I dont intend to hurt, kill, or sell them, and would appreiciate some advise on how to keep them healthy. At the moment I have them in a large viv, set up for a skink, which has a heat mat at one end, a basking lamp at the other, with plenty of cooler ares, and places to hide, and burrow. I would like any advise on how and what to feed them. Ive found they like wax worms, earthwors+ slugs, but Id like to know if dog food is a possibility, as its readily available in our house! Am I right in doing this? I do not wish to keep these animals for any great length of time, and will not attempt to keep them, if I find I cannot care for them adeqately. Any help or advise would be fab, thanks for reading! Its always better to ask for forgiveness after, than ask for permission before!!! |
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Alan Hyde Senior Member Joined: 17 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 1416  View other posts by Alan Hyde |
Posted: 22 Apr 2007 Hi, Definitely not dog food. Slow-worms like a slightly damp area as well as dry and they seem really keen on small white slugs. Al O-> O+> |
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st rick Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 141  View other posts by st rick |
Posted: 22 Apr 2007 I have heard they love mealworms too. |
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herpetologic2 Senior Member Joined: 15 Jun 2004 No. of posts: 1369  View other posts by herpetologic2 |
Posted: 23 Apr 2007 Slowworms seem to do best with plenty of substrate such as soil/woodchips/grass cuttings or turf, put in a very good layer so that the animals can burrow and hide. You can take the heat mat away and leave the spot lamp at one end of the viv to provide a heat gradient (hopefully). In order to observe the animals you can place small pieces of slate or smashed pots so that the slowworms can thermoregulate underneath them - if you want to keep an eye on them you can lift the pieces of slate etc to find the animals underneath them. You need to provide water in a shallow water dish to provide humidity they will drink from condensed water (dew) on the substrate etc. If you provide as natural conditions as possible for the slowworms they should be fine - of course try to make a suitable habitat in your garden so you can release them into safety. In fact once you have done that you can keep an eye on the animals when they ar ein your garden. If you take close up photographs of the individual animals heads so you can tell which individual is where in your garden - how you find them is the same way as in the viv - using pieces of felt, tin, slate etc - you regularly check these in suitable conditions and you will be surprised at how far they will move around the garden. Probably best to keep the animals for around a week or so. In that week create a compost heap, log pile or something similar - you can introduce the animals into You can also empty the viv contents onto the log pile or compost heap to provide scent of their captive home to try and possibly keep them around the habitat
good luck
Jon
Vice Chair of ARG UK - self employed consultant - visit ARG UK & Alresford Wildlife |
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Vickie Lizard Member Joined: 22 Apr 2007 No. of posts: 6 View other posts by Vickie Lizard |
Posted: 23 Apr 2007 Thank you all so much for your help and advise! I will try to keep them fed well, and as soon as I have taken some notes and observations, they will all be returned to where I found them, hopefully none the worse for their experiment! Great tips on how 2 provide wild-like viv scenes, cheers Jon! Its always better to ask for forgiveness after, than ask for permission before!!! |
- Slow worms in captivity. HELP! |
