Maggots in Food?

[Micky]

Okay. 

Hi, I’m new to the forum, I made an account to ask on opinions of this case. I have a bunny, he has his own little “room” next to mine. Today, I was gonna go and give him food. his regular food are pellets but I often times add some dried vegetable flakes to it. I keep the flakes in an airtight container, but today when I opened the box I noticed a maggot on the lid. there was another one on the side and one crawling on the ground… I immediately put the box outside. thankfully I noticed it before feeding it to him. I inspected his regular food and hay and I couldn’t find anything. I inspected Hunter (my holland lop) and couldnt find anything. But then again, I’m not 100% sure what exactly I would be looking for.

Althought this is my first bunny, I know how dangerous fly strike can be, and one of my cousins rabbit’s died from fly strike. However, I highly doubt that it was a green bottle fly. but I cannot tell the difference between different fly larvae/maggots. 

I’m very paranoid and I’m scared now. If he ate some larvae, is that an emergency? 

I fed him a small hand of that food yesterday, could they already have been there? I just checked the box again, after maybe 30mins and there’s a few more maggots now. Ugh I feel all tingly now- i’m paranoid that there’s some on me now..It’s 5:29 am and I’m gonna head to bed soon… (don’t ask) Please, advice would be so amazing. This is my first bun, I’m still trying to learn- so If I said something wrong, sorry. Please correct me and let me know what I could do. (i might be overreacting lol but better to be sure. It’s the most I can do at this time) Pics following! 

2 pics here: https://imgur.com/a/blH8wpG

[Bam]

It looks like meal moth larvae. Not dangerous for your bun but not sth you want in your home. They eat grains and nuts. The container should be disposed of or at least the contents of it, but empty out the contents outside in a plastic bag that you tie so you don’t get any eggs or larvae inside. The larvae form pupae and then they become moths and lay eggs and so the cycle begins again. Very clever of you to keep this kind of food in air tight containers! Always do that, because it minimizes the damage if there are moth eggs in the dry food you bring home. (Other members may be reading this, so this is a tip for everybody). 

These types of grain moths are very, very common and your case is typical. It’s not dangerous to ingest the larvae (albeit not very appetizing to think about), and they don’t cause fly strike.

Fly strike maggots (blue- and greenbottle fly larvae) don’t look like that and they don’t live in grain.

[Micky]

Thank youu! I already suspected it not to be green bottle fly maggots, but since I couldnt find much information on other types of larvae, I thought it better to ask on here. 

I’m very relieved and can relax now, I overreact a lot heh 

[Bam]

I consider it highly normal to over-react to larvae in bunny food ?

Moths is a problem that seems to be growing though, and if they get into your kitchen cupboards they can spoil lots of food for you, so it’s good to be cautious. Animal feed is a typical way they get into your house.

[Micky]

Yeahh, I can totlly imagine!! Thankfully, my rabbit “room” is no where near the kitchen, nor any food supplies! We’ll keep an eye out for them anyhow :3 thanks!

[Author]

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