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I picked up some waxworms at petsmart earlier today for my babies. I just wanted to ask a quick question about them.
I heard they were pretty fattening, so how often should I offer them to my 2 (full grown) veileds? My male loved them and ate 3, my girl wasnt too sure but ate two.

ack sorry, the above posted all by it self...
Last question was There were some *lumps* of shaving stuck together in the container. Im pretty sure they were the beginings of cocoons since they had live worms in them. Will wax worms morph into moths? How long does it take?
If anyone has info on this I would love to see it =)
Thanks and Merry (belated) Christmas all!!

Waxworms are supposedly fattening for chameleons and depending on how many you got, they shouldn't eat more than 1-2 a day at the most. If you only got a few (50) then you can feed them more per day since they'll be gone in a short time, but if it's a long term food item, I wouldn't go more than 1 or 2 per day each. The clump you saw in the shavings was probably a drop of honey, which the worms eat. I've noticed those also, but it's not a cocoon. When they're going to cocoon, they'll turn a light brown color and almost looks like small wings are forming from the bottom end up (or maybe top end, I don't remember). But they will change pretty quickly sometimes begin spinning cocoons in less than a week at room temp. A few times after I had a cup of them sitting out that I'd ignored or forgot about, I'll open it up to find a few moths on top waiting to get out. The chameleons eat these also, although they're pretty small. They're only in the cocoons about a week until they turn into moths. Maybe more or less I don't pay attention to them (I'm not a huge fan of waxworms). If you want to keep them as worms, just keep them cold. Pull out the ones you're going to feed off a few hours before feeding and they'll come back to life in that time. I seem to have bad luck with keeping them in the fridge very long it seems like they all die in a month or so in there. Maybe that's just normal. I'll take them out and none of them come back to life. Good luck with them!
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

Here is a good site for rearing waxworms with links. They will pupate (not always spinning sometimes just forming their pupal skin (brown, hard, shows wing and body form) and emerging within about 10 days. I combine bran, rolled oats, honey and beeswax (you can get this at most any health food store or online) for their bedding/food.

A note about refrigeration From NY Worms (http://www.nyworms.com/waxworms.htm):
If you choose to refrigerate your Waxworms, do not take their container out of the refrigerator for any longer than the time necessary to pick the number that you wish to use. Condensation will form on the worms and in the cup, causing your worms to die.

lele
Rearing Waxworms

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta