Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi .... Only me again

I did some research on suppliers of livefood here in the uk and I finally found a supplier of silkworms. But these suppliers were also pushing potential customers to try Cutworms {Dark Blue version of a silkworm in case you guys have another name for them} and Hornworms {a light blue version of the silkworm}. Have you ever heard of these and if so are they worth a try?? I will wait to hear from you before I order any livefoods online.

Also, if I were to get silkworms and looking at the size of my baby, would you be able to advise on the size of silkworms to buy and is there a restriction on how much I should feed {i.e 1 or 2 a week max? I am currently feeding her at least 6-8 zophoba a week when she is eating well. Some weeks she eats well, others she doesn't eat so well} I was told that if I buy any worm that is too small it will eat it's way out of the dragon?? hhhmmmmm .... The sizes they have available are small, micro, medium and large. I am currently feeding Rocky on Super Zophoba but I don't know how big the silkworms get in comparison.

Thank you in advance for your advice. :-}

We have not tried the hornworms or cutworms. We are just trying the silkies now, and I am extremely pleased! I got the small or med ones, I forget. Charlie didn't care for them at first, but now he just loves them! The reason I went with the smaller size is that they grow soooo fast! It has been several weeks now, Charlie eats 1-2 a day, even the big FAT ones! He just gobbles them down!

The ones I got came with the chow, in a little cup thing (their 'lil habitat) They barely smell, are no trouble at all, don't die off, and never try to escape. So far, so good. They sure do poop alot tho.

Oh, and worms do not eat their way out of lizard tummies, lolol!

Clouddancer22 where did you get your silkworms from? It sounds like they have a good system. Breeze007, I would definetly try the cutworms, they are probably just as nutritious, and the blue pigment is a definite advantage. Pigments in the diet can transfer to the host. If you eat alot of carrots, for instance you can expect more yellow or orange in your skin, the same applies for waterdragons. If blue cut worms were available here in the states I would try it just to see if any blue pigment tranfer can be noted. They would have to eat a lot of them and it would only be a temporary effect.

Wow Thanks you guys ~ I will definately try both these worms out!!! And Rick I will let you know of any change in Rocky's coloring ;-}

Just one more thing though, is it ok that he is not eating crickets and just having worms? I am having awful trouble getting him to take any crickets at all! I thought he was doing ok with them until I saw them jumping around his enclosure {some that had been there so long had died}. I know a varied diet is best but I am running out of ideas. Once I tricked him into eating a tiny piece of banana {on someone's advice} and he soon spat that out lol I am also going to try him with some high grade chicken cat food as diane suggested but if it don't move he ain't interested. At this point anything is worth a try!

Thanks again for the great advice and I will let you know how it all went. :-}

Crickets are like candy, not much nutritional value, so if he prefers the worms that's a good thing, good luck. P.s. get rid of any crickets he's not eating, they become pest and can add stress to you lizard. Its like having chickens running around your bedroom, very annoying!

Rick, this is my first experience with silkies - looking for something nutritional, not too fatty, for Charlie to put the weight on after a loooong bout of parasites. Anyway, I tried silkiestogo.com, after a personal recommendation. Totally awesome! Everytime I had a question, I was able to email the nice lady, and got answers. That is important to me. I need good customer service with everything I do. I want to know.

I am so impressed overall.