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I'm thinking of switching from crickets to silkworms for my beardie. What size is appropriate for him and how do I care for them? He's approx. 13weeks old and 10 1/4". Oh, and he's still not a big veggie/pellet eater (although they are offered daily---such a waste!!),,,eating lots of crickets tho.

I feed silkworms also, but I still give crickets too, I think the exoskeleton is good for them, but I don't remember where I heard that. Anyways, I feed my silks to my dragons when they are at least 1/2" long. Here is a site where you can get them, and they also have a care sheet:
Mulberry Farms

What i found out the hard way is that silkworms EAT A HECK OF A WHOLE LOT!

I got 200 silkworms and by the time they coccooned, they had eaten 3 bags of 'chow' and i had to throw out what was left of a 4th batch of chow because they had coccooned and it would go uneaten.

My chameleon didnt like them either. But with any animal you can never tell what they'll love or not. People say "every lizzard loves silkworms" but its not true.

If you have access to mulberry leaves off a tree then you can save a bundle. Otherwise cost is a big factor in raising silkworms.

Sounds like you fed your silkworms way too much. I had ordered 200 silkworms not to long ago, at 1" size and they did fine on one quarter of a pound bag of chow before I ran out. By this time the worms were over 2" and about two thirds had coccooned.

As for Lola44's question, silkworms are very easy to take care of. Just keep them at about room temperature, 75F is a good temp but they are fine at 70F or a bit lower. Feed them the chow once a day, adjusting the amount if you see left over chow an hour later or next day. For the size of dragon you have I would get the 1/2 to 1" worms.

am i right to assume he'll eat less silkworms than crickets? (he can go thru 20 small crickets at one feeding)
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0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Eddie)
2.0.0 Dogs (Black German Shepherd-Nicholas, Black Lab-Cooper
1.1.0 Budgies (Kia and Simon)
0.0.1 ?Fiddler Crab-Crusty
0.0.25 Various Fishies (Freshwater)
2.1.0 Hubby and kids (Boy and a Girl)

Honestly I didnt overfeed them. There was hardly ever any leftover food.

I gave them as much as they wanted to eat. They were all very healthy and over 90% of them hatched and became moths that bred all over my box and now i have a million eggs everywhere.

>>Honestly I didnt overfeed them. There was hardly ever any leftover food.
>>
>>I gave them as much as they wanted to eat. They were all very healthy and over 90% of them hatched and became moths that bred all over my box and now i have a million eggs everywhere.

found you have to be prepared and somewhat organized to make it worth while. FYI, my beardies love the moths too!!
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Rob

Ok so the jist of this is ,,,,, they're good,quiet, nutritionally better than crix, ya gotta be prepared to end up with big worms and possible moths/eggs. BUT,,, this can work in my favour if i get it together enough to raise my own??? is that right?? and is it worth it for one beardie??
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0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Eddie)
2.0.0 Dogs (Black German Shepherd-Nicholas, Black Lab-Cooper
1.1.0 Budgies (Kia and Simon)
0.0.1 ?Fiddler Crab-Crusty
0.0.25 Various Fishies (Freshwater)
2.1.0 Hubby and kids (Boy and a Girl)

I got orange head roaches 3 months ago and because they werent breeding fast enough I got the silkworms. This was when I only had 1 chameleon. Well, my cham got sick of the silkworms after about a week and she was never crazy about them to begin with.

Now my roaches are finally having babies and they look like they'll be the staple I wanted the silkies to be. my cham loves them and i hope my beardie does too.

Bottom line: The roaches took longer to set up but are cleaner, take up less space and are cheaper to raise than the silkies. The silkies had a TON of poop--in one day all the lumps of food i gave them would be moist poo pebbles all over them by morning. My roaches are much cleaner believe it or not.

The last straw for me with my silkies was when the moths laid eggs all over thier coccoons while i was at work. try picking out a million eggs out of a silk nest with 'moth fluid' all over it.

All in all they werent too bad of a hassle but too expensive and a little more fragile and in need of special handling than my roaches.

I think the key with silkworms is temperature. Like crickets, if you keep them warm (80°F or more), they will eat a lot and grow fast, but if you keep them in the low 70's, you can feed them only once a day and they will grow slowly.

If you don't want to breed them, buy just the small ones and make them grow at different speeds. Because your dragon is young, I would recommend buying only small worms, along with some eggs. This way you will be able to feed the small worms while you're hatching and raising the babies. Also order dry food, that you can prepare in small amounts so there is no waste.

My baby is only a big bigger than yours (I think) and I like to feed her 1" silkies. I give her as much silkies as she wants (by hand) two times a day, along with veggies and pellets in the morning. It's hard to evaluate because the size of the worms is never the same, but I think she eats about 30 half-inch or 10-15 one-inch silkies per feeding. My adult beardie eats about 3-4 BIG silkies every day or every other day (depending on how he feels...). Both are crazy about them. I like silkworms a lot better than crickets. It think their only downside is the price... but crickets here are expensive too, and they smell bad, they make noise, my boyfriend hates them... so silkworms are my first choice. I recently began to breed them also and it works well.

I also give silkworms to my other lizards (anoles, geckos, long-tailed) and even to my mantellas. I just adjust the size of the worms to the size of the predator. All my lizards love them. There's only one of my mantellas that don't want to eat them (she's so finicky...).

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Julie

1.1.0 bearded dragons
0.0.1 painted mantella
0.0.1 golden mantella
4.2.2 green anoles
1.0.0 brown anoles
1.0.0 gold dust day gecko
1.0.0 house gecko
0.2.0 long-tailed grass lizards
2.1.0 cats
2.2.0 goldfishes

>>Ok so the jist of this is ,,,,, they're good,quiet, nutritionally better than crix, ya gotta be prepared to end up with big worms and possible moths/eggs. BUT,,, this can work in my favour if i get it together enough to raise my own??? is that right?? and is it worth it for one beardie??
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>>0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Eddie)
>>2.0.0 Dogs (Black German Shepherd-Nicholas, Black Lab-Cooper
>>1.1.0 Budgies (Kia and Simon)
>>0.0.1 ?Fiddler Crab-Crusty
>>0.0.25 Various Fishies (Freshwater)
>>2.1.0 Hubby and kids (Boy and a Girl)

going it would be worthwhile.

I think the best thing you could do, if you decide to get into silkies is to set a few aside, feed them all they want, breed them and put most of the eggs into the fridge once they turn dark. Keep 50 or so new eggs incubating about every 3 weeks and eventually you'll have a good supply of medium sized worms to feed out. As your beardie gets older you can reduce the amount of eggs you have incubating because he'll probably be eating less more worms and more veggies.

You'll only have to breed the silkies every once in a while as they lay 200-500 eggs at a time.

As far as their frass goes I don't worry about it until it gets bad which, for small to medium worms, takes at least a week. If you're worried about odor I've never been able to smell it. The only thing I've been able to smell from them is the mulberry and when they are hatching out of the cocoon (which is a pretty foul odor).

If you get the moths into a seperate continer on either wax paper or a piece of cardboard you won't have any problems dealing with the eggs. You do have to be careful when moving them because sometimes they will squirt a little fluid out. Don't ask me what it is, it's actually kinda disgusting but if you're careful you can avoid it.

Hope some of this helps you out with a decision. Maybe try a real small amount and see what you think. It's probably not for everyone and I find it somewhat interesting so.......good luck with whatever you decide. Feel free to email me private with any ?'s and I'll try to help.
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Rob

>>I'm thinking of switching from crickets to silkworms for my beardie. What size is appropriate for him and how do I care for them? He's approx. 13weeks old and 10 1/4". Oh, and he's still not a big veggie/pellet eater (although they are offered daily---such a waste!!),,,eating lots of crickets tho.

If you want to successfully raise them through generations I think it's important you supply them with plenty of food before they cocoon.

If you don't give them enough food they will start to cocoon too soon anyway since, like all animals, their main interest is to continue their species.

Honestly I don't have much experience so some of this is educated guessing but the experience I do have has shown me if the worms cocoon too early due to lack of food supply the eggs develop too soon, a lot of the moths fail to escape their cocoons and the ones that do are sickly looking.

I would think if you are serious about wanting to successfully raise them you would need to continue a good blood line or eventually you will end up with less nutritious worms you are feeding to your animals.

I'm going on the same principle as crickets and other feeder insects/pray. The better care you take of your feeders the more nutritious they are.

That's not to say once a day feeding is plenty when they are below 3" but if you notice they are starting to cocoon at 2" I don't think you're feeding then enough.

I think they main thing is to try to feed them off when they are smaller than 3" so you don't spend a fortune on chow, which you will do if you feed them what they need when they are larger than that!!!!!

If you really want to actually raise them one option is to set a few aside and constantly provide food for them after they get to about 3". That way you will surely have a good breeding stock. Make sure to use at least 5 or 6 so you will be sure to have female as well as male moths. BTW, you will be surprised at how much chow they can inhale and how freakin' huge they get if you constantly feed them!!!
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Rob