Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello All, new to forums here,
Would like to get some info on horn worms and bearded dragons.
I recently purchased two containers of Horn worms from D&J Reptiles in seaford on Long Island , NY.
My dragon's seem to like them alot. I'd prefer to feed my dragons horn worms over any other type of insect feeder. I've been purchasing crickets by the thousands, yet they are just not big enough. I don't mind picking a 100 or 200 up from a certain store that had monster sized crickets, yet my real question is are horn worms enough of a sustainable diet? of course veggies will be included. I also get superworms by the thousands, I don't mind the superworms, i've got a 10 gallon tank with english wallnut bedding and a screened scooper that I just scoop and sift out the grain to get a full scoop of superworms, simple enough.
As for the Horn worms, They're awesome, they get huge in no time. What's the downside?
After about a week and a half ..maybe 2 weeks, they seemed to have lost the deeper color and were paler and too fat to even hold themselves up. I noticed one seemed to have eaten a much smaller worm as well.
If anyone can share some insight on a horn worm diet, or perhaps another feeder best suiting a bearded dragon's diet, please let me know!
I'd like to get some as soon as I can, any reliable net sources to order from? I am in NY and I believe I am paying around 15$ for one container of about 12-20 horn worms.
Thanks and Good luck to all!

Hornworms are a good treat and can be used to add variety to a dragons diet. They are not a good staple. They are mostly water and will cause your dragon to have very loose stools. I used to feed them but I don't at all any more.

The 10 gallon tank with english walnut houses superworms right? Not a dragon?

of course its for superworms! please last thing I need is to piss people off on here!
It was however set up originally for a baby beardie...(see http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1860230,1861783)

Thanks for the info on Horn Worms, what do you feed your beardie?
Did not know they were mostly water, theres no water supplement in there containers, just a brown meal supplement?
Going to look into housing Horn worms, possibly I could supplement them with a more dense less moist supplement? any suggestions?

and speeking of stools, my female just took a nasty doo-doo
:|P
doody calls!

Right now I have 25 permanent Bearded Dragon residents plus other species. I feed my Beardies Silkworms as my main staple, and crickets and superworms. I hatch the silks from purchased eggs, and just started breeding my own supers in June, and buy crix. for juveniles (1) and sick dragons as well as species that will eat nothing else.

I think the 80-90% is a good goal for salad to live food ratio but in reality I'm real happy if I can get it to be 50-50.

Hornworms are a great feeder but I wouldn't feed them exclusively to dragons. I strongly believe providing a variety of insects to dragons is just as important as a variety of greens.

What confuses me is why you are going through so many insects? I can see babies going through alot of small crickets, but typically once dragons can eat adult crickets, superworms and full grown hornworms, they are getting close to being a year old and really should be eating more greens. Once fully adult, insects should only make up about 10-20% of their daily diet. This is pretty much only 3-6 adult crickets, superworms, silkworms or hornworms a day (less when feeding large silks and hornworms). Egg laying females can get a bit more insects to help keep up the weight between clutches, but in general, greens should make up the bulk of a dragon's diet once they are 14 months old and older.

I have a single adult dragon and 250 superworms lasts me several months, before I need to get more. I also offer butterworms and crickets regularly as well for variety. Silkworms are something else I offer time to time.

Hornworms are also bad for chewing anything and everything, even other hornworms...they do have voracious appetites and can grown from a medium size to full size in a couple days, if enough food is allowed. Sometimes I think they can go from an inch to 4 inches over night, if unlimited food is provided.

They can be bred but breeding is a bit tricky, but its not impossible to do. Silkworms are much easier to breed in my book.
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess

Horn worms are a great food for dragons. As you already noticed they are really large, so for your money, although they tend to be high, the size makes up for it. There is no better food in my opinion to get a breeding female back in shape or dragons ready for brumation. They contain a lot of water, but so do silkworms, which are much harder in my opinion and no where near as large. Two great sources are Great Lakes Hornworm and Mulberry Farms. Mulberry farms uses the silk worm food containing chlorophil (sp) which keeps the worms bright green, Great Lakes uses the tan food which makes them blue. I find no difference between the two, but if you order worms, order a package of the silk worm food, as I find they run out of food before you can feed them off sometimes. To slow them down if they are growing too fast for your needs, you can put them in the fridge in the top of the door for a few days to slow them down. If you want them to explode, put them somewhere warm and they will grow like crazy. I have never had a dragon turn one down. Feeding can be a bit messy, so be prepared. They tend to pop when the dragon eats them.

Hornworms should not be your only feeder insect. Supers, roaches, hornworms, silkworms, crickets (waste for adults) should be alternated with greens. I let my dragons free feed. They are all greens eaters from the egg, but I let them choose what to eat rather than deciding at a certain date that you now don't get as many bugs. No one knows better what they need to eat than your dragon.

Word of caution. Although it is tempting to feed the hornworms off your tomato or pepper plants, don't. Hornworms live off of eating toxic plants, usually members of the nightshade family. You should never use "backyard" bugs to feed your reptiles.

Hope that helped!
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