Worm Farm

[jsheffield]

A Worm Farm for my Tortoises

Three of my tortoises get animal protein once a week or so.

I bought some bait-worms locally and acting on the assumption that they've been fed on 1950s era paint chips prior to coming to live with me, I set up a tiny composter for them to live in (and more importantly to fatten up healthily).



The bin is an 88¢ storage box from Walmart that I drilled a bunch of holes in using my smallest drill bit (so the worms can't escape their fate). I designated an MRE-spoon as worm-stirrer, and made a 'sheath' for it on the lid.


I gave the worms a bath when we got home, to rid them of the presumably toxic bedding they'd been living in, then moved them into a mix of grass and dirt and eggshells and a tired tomato and some grassland tortoise kibble.



I check on them every day or two, and give the material a stir to redistribute the wealth (and worms) in their collective... my plan is to wait a few weeks before I start feeding them to the torts.

Jamie

 

[Hutsie B]

pretty cool thing to do. Which tortoises do you feed them to?

 

[Toddrickfl1]

I'm think I'm going to do this too. Thanks for sharing Jamie.

 

[jsheffield]

pretty cool thing to do. Which tortoises do you feed them to?

My Redfoot, Hingeback, and MEP.

Jamie

 

[jsheffield]

It's been two and a half weeks since I set up the worm farm, and I thought they'd be ok to get into my enclosures by now.

I've fed them a few times with stuff that would go in my outside compost pile anyway (tomato bits, carrot scrapings, eggshells, etc.), plus a little grass. and they've been turning it into dirt, as is their way.

I was away for a writing retreat in Maine for about a week, and put the whole thing in the fridge to slow them down, so they wouldn't starve in my absence... they warmed right back up in now time and appear fine.



I took out a couple of dozen of the most active looking worms this morning, and put them in a bowl for distribution... I put a few into every enclosure (thinking about them adding to the cleanup-crew) near the water bowls (which is where the pill bugs seem to like hanging out).

I put another a wriggling mass into each of the forest tortoises' enclosures, on their feeding tile, on top of the greens and watermelon I was feeding.

Funnily enough, the first one I saw rush in for a worm was Chili, one of my Russians (who's theoretically a herbivore)... the movement seemed to energize him, and he raced across the enclosure to the water bowl to grad one of his new feeding crew before the worm could burrow to safety.

I added some food, stirred up the worm-farm container, and expect that they'll repopulate their missing comrades in a few weeks, at which point I'll harvest a few more.

Jamie

 

[EllyMae]

Shredded newspaper is a great substrate for worm bins.

(I used to have one)

 

[jsheffield]

Shredded newspaper is a great substrate for worm bins.

(I used to have one)

It's true, and I used to use newspaper, but I can't help feeling grass and produce is healthier than paper and ink from unknown sources.

Jamie

 

[Blackdog1714]

Just watch out for centipedes lost a huge red worm farm years ago to them!