Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

has anyone here tried to feed your ackies, glauerti, pilbariensis, etc with silkworms?

Pro cons, experince?

Thanks
Bård

Hi, Small monitors absolutely love moths, but do not care for worms.

I would let waxworms turn to moths and feed them to my neonate kimberlys. Cheers

All of my previous monitors turned their noses up at it, or they'd eat one or two and call it quits afterwards. I had no idea why.

In addition to moths as far as pros...they are a BLAST to watch them eat. Really really fun.

Mike.

I have not tried silk worms but I have tried tomato horn worms which are giant bright green caterpillars. One of my tree monitors loves them, the other has no interest. So I have a 50% success rate with them. They are the juiciest prey item I have come across and are great for hydration.

Based on the majority of replies so far, you may be wasting your money though???

Good luck!

Steve - sdi

Ditto on the moths, Very fun to watch them eat. You will see acrobatics that you didn't know were possible out of a monitor. The only thing I've seen my ackies go crazier for were lizards.

Thanks,

Its more of a curiosity thing for my self.

I have some very good friends doing chams who realy wants some, and I want to try how difficult it is to propegate silks.

Ill try to get some to become moths and feed those, I know they love bees, butterflies etc.

Thanks
Bård

Silkworms are a major pain in the a$$ and not worth the effort. I may have been doing it wrong, but I never was able to get them to propagate. Wax worms are easy and the moth idea sounds really cool.

I wouldn't waste my time with silkworms, unless you have a mulberry tree. lol

Thanks, for sharing some "frustation"

what seems to be the problem with theme?

Iv read that the new line Zebra Silks are easier, because they are stronger healthier animals.

Bård

Once you get moths, and keep them at room temp, they breed very easily and lay tons off eggs. The eggs need to go through a cold/cool spell for a couple months and then go through a warm period. That process is pretty easy,but raising the tiny little worms takes a lot of regular cleaning and feeding. Thats all they seem to do, eat and poop and grow. That seems to be the 'hard' part...regular cleaning.
Having access to mulberry mulch or leaves is important.

Cleaning is the difficult part. I bought the gel diet and that poised a huge moldy, dirty, smelly food problem. If I had a mulberry tree or just leaves I would consider raising them...

Horn worms are cool. I'm not sure if you can breed them though.

Thanks,

well as far as I know there is no mullberry trees in Scandinavia.

So would have to opt for the gel-diet.

Iv read that some people keep theme on mesh, so that the worms are not in direct contact with the plastic at the bottom of the box.
To minimize bacteria contact with old food.

Thanks for all input, frozen mice seems much easier...

Bård

I raised the larvae up from large quantities of eggs glued onto a petri dish, pre-cooled and ready to go. I did not mess with the adult moths and getting the eggs with wintering them (something to do with putting insect eggs in my fridge and the gf ) It was a lot of work and constant cleaning with the larvae. You have to shave small amounts of the brownie batter mulberry stuff on them a couple times a day. If you put too much and any molds form, it'll kill your colony, as will too much fecal material. I had a few Morus alba trees going for 2 years, but heat and dryness did them in a few years ago.

My Dragons and Monitors liked the silk worms just fine. I tong-fed them individually as they don't move much. Monitors do go nuts for flying insects like Moths and things that are wiggling. I think there are easier foods to work with than Silks, but I had to try them.