Superworm Safety?

Does any one crush the heads of their superworms prior to feeding their leos? The reason I ask is this, I just feed superworms for the first time, and one of my leos ate one, and proceeded to rub the side of it's face on the paper towel repeatedly. There is a spot on her face that looks kind of red, and my question is can a super bite a leo hard enoug when it is being eaten to cause damage. She seems to be ok now, but I am concerned with the post a few threads back about mealies eating their way out, should I be pinching the heads of the supers?

Also does anyone have leos that won't eat supers? A few of mine didn't seem interested in them.

Thanks
Tony

I’ve never crushed superworms heads. It’s just a myth that a superworm or mealworm will eat out of the gecko. It is possible for a superworm to hurt a leo but it probably won’t happen as they are eaten so fast. Superworms have strong jaws but are easily crushed by a leos mouth.

I have several geckos that won’t eat them. They seem to be intimidated.

I have been feeding supers to my leos for over 1 year, I don't crush their heads and no problems so far (touch wood). One of my 60g female (Bambi) will take 2-3 full-grown supers per feeding. I have several leos that won't eat super at all (all the males!), even if I just add 1 super in their mealworm dish, they'll ignore the whole dish. That's how much they hate it, lol. On the other hand, my females seems to love supers, 2 of them got addicted, and I am currently having hard times switching them back to crickets and mealworms.

Some thoughts regarding mealworm eating through stomachs, there seems to be more cases of mealworm eating its way out than a super eating its way out; could it be because supers are big enough that a leo must bite it several times before swallowing; whereas a small mealworm can be swallowed whole? I know the stomach acid will kill it fast, but maybe without the biting wounds, a 'stronger' mealworm can manage to do some harm before it actually dies?

Bonnie

I have female who laid her first clutch yetserday, and she ate 6 supers tonight. I am hoping that will keep her chubby. Most of mine ate one or two, but a few filled themselves up.

Thanks for the input!
Tony

During laying season, the females want crickets and perhaps some mealworms, now that they are done, they can't get enough of superworms & crickets. We don't crush their heads, either. They are eaten so quickly I'm not too concerned.

I offered my leos supers for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Some loved them, but a lot of them showed absolutely no interest.

One particularly annoying female proceded to take all five supers in succession out of her bowl. She'd crunch them enough to kill them, then realizing that it wasn't a mealie she'd spit it out and move on to the next one. She ended up killing all of them and left them sitting by her bowl.

-Alice