Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone ever tried silkworms for their dart frogs? I was thinking about trying them, any info on this would be appreciated.

I have tried them before. They are hard to keep alive. If conditions are not good they die off very fast. I would use waxworms. They are easy to culture. You can keep them going to. Hope this helps.

Silkworms are super easy to cultivate! I do them for my Chameleon as a staple. The most common threat in the first week of life is improper temp and that is easy to deal with just by placing a heatsource nearby(a light)You'd feed alot of them off during this stage anyways for the Darts. You need to let more then 50 reach adulthood to have a good cycle going. Save about 100 to ensure you have enough. During this time, most die offs happen due to bacteria in the food. You just have to keep the chow super clean by not handling it with your hands and keeping the chow sterile. The very best way is if you can find a mulberry tree that isn't sprayed. They can start cacooning as early as 26 days depending on temperature and amount of food given. The most time consuming part is feeding them everyday. unlike FF, you have to feed them instead of letting them stay on a shelf in a container full of food. I place cut up TP rolls in the box they are in when they're about to start spinning. About 11 days later the moths emerge, and never eat. They find each other mate and die. The females lay eggs on wax paper. Transfer the eggs to petri dishes covered. They can be stored in the frig(not freezer) til you need them(about a month)or just let them hatch. You can get chow from MulberryFarms.com You might spend some time watching the Silkies like you do the Darts. They're kinda fun too. Not at all hard. They don't move much and so you'd have to feed them to a more voracious frog. I'd give them to my tinc who always knows that feeding time is coming with just me spraying the tank down and we have a spot in the tank I always feed. I haven't yet tried it with my Imitators as they don't seem to "know" that I just put food in the tank.