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Anyone here have experience with raising Silkworms!!! I just heard that they are sooo nutritional!!

I buy them already "raised". LOL My husband jokes about how much they eat. Says if they were carnivores the whole planet would be in danger. I spend enough time just taking care of my dragons. It's even worse when I have to feed and grow their food twice a day. Tripod LOVES silkies so I buy about 50 sub-adults and feed them for a week or so while she gradually eats smaller and smaller silkies. DM
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago

Silkworms are excellent food. The main problem with raising them is that they eat so much! You will be collecting mulberry leaves everyday. When I tried it, I didn't have any mulberrys in my yard so I had to scavenge from the neighborhood. Luckily they grow like weeds most everywhere. There is a powder mix that you can buy, my experience with it is not good. When I tried it, they would all die off before maturity, and I didn't lose any when feeding fresh leaves. The Advantages of raising them is that they grow to full size amazingly fast, just a few weeks. and lay thousands of eggs that can be refridgerated until used.
Raise a group of fifty to adults and you'll be set for life. For me it was just too much work, raising zoophobas is a lot less of an effort. Iam also glad that silkworm eat leaves and not meat, or we would all be in lot of trouble, sound like a good "B" movie, attack of the killer silkworms.

OK, I have never posted to this forum before (usually cham, beardie) but am helping a young friend find an appropriate pet and just looking around. Anyway....the word "silkworm" always jumps out at me. I linked an article you may want to check out.

If you do not have access to fresh mulberry then you have to go the way of the chow, which is simple if you follow directions (that was NOT a jab at you, Rick). When using the chow you need to make sure that the enclosure does not get too humid. There can be a fine balance, but once you find it they are very easy to raise. They get pricey if you want to buy constant supply of adult.

Check out my article, which also lists sources. The online silkie business is getting very competiive. Just a couple years ago there was one main supplier (Mulberry Farms) and there are now at least 1/2 dozen (reputable).

I'll mark this thread in case anyone has questions

hope this has been helpful!

lele
silkwoms

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I would agree that failure with the chow was probably a lack of proper application. The fact remains that raising silkworms, requires a great deal of work, probably more then is required of the lizard its self. Not withstanding, They are a great food item, but in my opinion its more worth while to purchase them as adults as needed, then to raise them.

Ok, I am a total newbie here on the silkie thing - I ordered a "silkwork Cup" which consisted of about 25 'lil worms, with the chow and everything, all in one nice neat cup. The chow is about an 1" of dirt looking stuff, not any powder stuff.

I initially had a problem 'cause the worms stayed on the white part of the cup (turned upside down was the bottom) and the chow was on the top, with two trellises on the sides for climbing. I made my son pick off the worms and drop them into the chow, then turned the cup on it's side. Seemed to do the trick, they were then eating and growing. I wouldn't touch them, ewwww!

Then, my cwd didnt' seem to like them. Too bad, too expensive! Lol! He started to eat one a day, and they are growing sooo fast, and yesterday he ate two big fat 1 1/2" long ones! Should I be dusting them with calcium, or vitamins??

They are such good 'lil worms, don't even try to escape, just available on the "buffet" 24/7.

How do others fare on the "yumminess" factor? Do you dust? Anyone know of the site I once saw, showing the silkies all the way thru maturity and eggs?? I would like to raise the silkies that Charlie doesn't eat, of course with the wonderful chow they seem to adore, not any powder, not the leaves.

Just wondering. Hugs, Ursula

Silkworms have an excellent calcium to phosphorus ratio, so you shouldn't need to suppliment. It sounds like you have premixed chow, or they have made improvements on it since I tried it. Once they mature, all the adult moths do is breed and lay eggs, thousands of eggs, which you can refridgerate until needed. The trick is having enough chow or leaves to get them to adults, good luck!

Ok, I am finishing up the silkworms now, and wanted to post an update on the whole experience. I had ordered a "silky cup" from silkystogo.com, and got a 'lil habitat thing, with about 25-30 worms (small, or medium, I forget) and plenty of chow at one end of the cup.

Charlie didn't like them at first, but after a couple of days, he just attacked them! Wow, I have never seen him attack food like that, but then again, he had parasites for so long. Anyway, his appetite is the biggest ever, and that is strange considering the season. And his poops and pee, wow, I never knew a lizard could do that! And he is growing, daily almost! He just shed recently, and I swear he is ready to shed again!

The silky cup has lasted me almost a month. Those things grew so fast, and two of them per day was a lot - like an inch and a half long! No fatalities, they all grew and grew. All I had to do was shake out the poopies - gosh, they poop alot! Finally, when the food ran out, one had wanted to make a coocoon, so I put the silky cup on it's side in a to-go container, put a toilet paper roll (shortened) in it and the worm in that. Then I put saran wrap over the lot and closed the lid mostly. I would open up the saran to get the cup out to get out the food worms. That worm is the only one who made a cocoon, too bad, I thought I might get five to do it, and stand a chance of eggs.

Charlie enjoyed 6 giant meal worms yesterday, I am so happy that he seems to be doing so well! Eating and eating, just growing and growing! I love those silky cups! I think next time I will order the larger sized one, and see if I can get more to do the cocoon thing.

Oh, and one more thing. When the silky chow finally ran out, and I know that is their source of water as well, I put "cricket bites" in there with them. They love those too!!! Roflolol, who knew? Not one fatality yet, I have 5 mature worms still, and they have been out of chow for 4-5 days now. I will probably feed them all to Charlie, and my 9 year old wants the cocoon.

Weird, isn't it all?