Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im interested in trying hanny on some silkworms (once we are over these medical issues she is having ) I have read a few care sheets on silkworms and a lot of them sound pretty confusing. Crickets are so easy! Feed em, give em stuff to climb on, and keep em warm!

Im not interested in breeding silkies, at least not yet. But I dont want to invest in some only to have them die cause i cant take care of them. Im wondering just how hard, or how easy, are these guys to keep alive and fed. I understand you have to get the chow, thats simple enough, and that you have to actually sprinkle the chow onto them for them to eat, thats easy to. But some of it seems confusing...such as how insanely sanitary you have to be around them and such. So i was wondering if some of you could outline just how you have your silkies set up, and what you do with them on a daily basis. I have a couple specific questions too...

1. Do you need to tend to them daily...because of my job there are days when i occasionally cannot get home, will the silkies die?

2. do they need a substrate or can they just go on bare glass?

3. What temps do they need?

4. Do they need things to climb on like crickets do (paper towel tubes, egg crates etc.)

Thanks a lot guys, i really want to try these out on my beardie.
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake
1.1 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Anerythristic Corn
0.0.1 Red Tegu
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

they are very easy to care for. I do not obsess or sterilize--I just make sure I use clean utensils to cut the food up with. I clean out their box every few days--I tend to hatch out lots at one time. I started a colony last fall and it is doing great...1000's of eggs in cold storage (fridge).

1. Do you need to tend to them daily...because of my job there are days when i occasionally cannot get home, will the silkies die?
Daily feeding is the best--but you can leave a slightly larger chunk of chow with them--and cover the box lightly with plastic wrap to help keep moisture in... If I need them to grow faster I feed them twice a day.

2. do they need a substrate or can they just go on bare glass?

I keep small quantities in rubbermaid shoeboxes and I MAY use papertowels for a substrate--but not all of the time. Papertowels or even Plastic canvas(slightly raised off the bottom so frass will fall through) make cleaning easier.

3. What temps do they need?

I keep ours at room temp with no extra lighting or heat.

4. Do they need things to climb on like crickets do (paper towel tubes, egg crates etc.)

Nope--these guys don't move much unless they are very hungry.

HTH
DM

Thanks, that sounds pretty simple. Im not interested in breeding yet, so i will be buying adult ones since my beardie is pretty big. I should be able to feed almost every day, with the occasional day skipped, but i can provide an extra chunk of food and cover their cage for them.

one more question:

are the directions for mixing up the chow pretty straightfoward?

thanks!
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake
1.1 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Anerythristic Corn
0.0.1 Red Tegu
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

Hi,

See my article (linked below) which include the basic directions. I would suggest making only what you need so you do not waste it.

lele
silkworm rearing

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0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

Chameleon Help & Resource Info

When I keep silkworms, I just use a rubbermaid container big enough to hold either two softdrink/coffee cup holders (the ones made out of recycled paper) or two egg cartons (paper again). I just drop chunks of chow in each depression and along wide flat areas (depending if I am using cup holders or egg cartons). Once a day I just dump all the poop out of the egg carton, pick up any silkworms that fell off or crawled off, dump out the poop from the container, put everything back in, add more food.

If the carton starts to get damp or discolored I replace them.

Silkworm chow is easy to cook. One 1/2 pound bag mixed with 3 cups hot water in a deep container (it swells up a fair bit during cooking so you want it to be tall) Stir with butter knife till all the powder is moistened. Place in microwave with saran wrap (plastic wrap) covering container. Heat on high for 2-3 minutes. Remove, carefully peal back the plastic wrap, stir contents. Cover again, reheat for another 2 minutes. Stir once more, then press plastic wrap directly ontop of the chow, so no air bubbles remain between the plastic and chow. This keeps it sterile and prevents moisture from escaping. Once cool, put the lid on the container and refrigerate. The cooked chow is good for about 2 months in the fridge. The powder chow is good for a year or so in the fridge.

You can also find the directions on the www.mulberry.com website, which is what I follow (pretty much wrote the directions from memory, used it so many times LOL).

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PHLdyPayne

For smaller batches (if you hatch some from eggs) I just cut the recipe in half.

If you use larger silkworms--0ver 2 inches you may find that a few will be ready to 'spin' before you use them up. When my silkies start getting large I place a small piece of egg crage in their box. Once they spin (cocoon) I will let them rest a few days and then move them to a clean container lined with papertowels. The moths CAN NOT fly or eat/drink...once they emerge they mate and then die a few days later. They will match up on their own. I place the 'mating pair' in a small lunch-sized paper bag and fold the top over. The next day the female should have sperated from the male and started laying eggs...feed the adults to your beardie for a snack if you want. Let the eggs sit out until they darken--about 3-4 days. Cut around the bunch of eggs and place them in a zip-lock bag in the refrigerator for a few months to a year. To hatch place the piece of paper (with desired number of eggs) in a clean small dish--covered petri dishes are great for this--with a loose cover. You can use an incubator--but I just hatch mine at room temp. Once they hatch begin feeding--see mulberry farms or California silkworms web pages. It was too easy!

DM