Silk worms

[Boacephus]

Okay I checked out the nutritional value chart and it appears Silk worms gut loaded with mulberry leaves are the best insects for reptiles(beardie, basilisk, and basalisk in my case).
I can get 500 Crickets(1/2" app) for $10, and the hassle of crickets running around the house (everywhere) the noise and the little boogers croaking on me. I can also get 1000 (1/2" app) for $25, another $15 for 1lb of mulberry leaves. I'm thinking the little extra would suite me and the herps better, and only being 1/2" the silk worms can grow up to 3" and probably would by time I was done with 1000 of the suckers. Has anyone kept live silk worms and how do you go about that? Thanks in advance
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[reptilemama]

I love silkworms, they're quiet, not very messy, and my reptiles love them. They grow faster if they're kept warm and humid, so an incubator or heating pad helps, especially when they're tiny. I use the powdered food from Mulberry Farms, I think it's a lot easier than leaves. When I mix mine up, I pour it into a muffin pan while it's still hot. Then after it's cool I can wrap them individually, and it's easy to just grate or slice some for the worms. I've got a few cocoons right now that I'm hoping will hatch and the moths will mate. It would be great not to have to buy eggs anymore!

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[Boacephus]

Thanks for the info. Mulberry farms is the one I'm looking at. I'm hoping to save a few bucks it is only about 20-30 minute drive for me. So once you have the worms you can get they will cocoon and possably mate for me. This is soundling like a sweeter deal the more and more I hear about it!
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[Boacephus]

Sorry double post
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[slaponte]

I kept silkworms asd a teenager in Spain. (why I was living in Spain as a teenager is another story... [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img])

Quiet. Fairly clean. Not smelly, or anything. Amazing to watch them grow, from the time they come out of the eggs (you can barely see them with your eyes) to 3 or 4 inch long mature adults. Mine coocoon, mated, layed eggs (all over!) and (the moth) inmediately died.

The eggs will come out and you will have more worms than you can shake a stick at! They are very very simple to keep. I read about it on the Mulberry Farms site. They have good documentation. I think the perfect setup is to start a small breeding colony and have some for yourself and for some of your friends... [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

They do eat a LOT. So, have plenty of Mulberry leaves or keep that extra food suplement in case you run out as a backup. When I was a youngster we had a huge tree right in the front of my house, so it made it easy to feed them.
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[Ed_r]

Sorry I'm an insect idiot. are silk worms the same as what they call Superworms?
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[Boacephus]

Two different insects. The superworms are basically just a big meal worm. Silkworms are about the same size (3&quot if not bigger and they are white, mushy like. They lack the outer chiten, hard shell that the meal worms have. I have yet to find the silk worms in a shop, I cam across the silk worms on the web by accident.
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[impermanentrage]

Superworms are beetle larvae. Silkworms are moth larvae. Silkworms are also one of the most domesticated animals known to man. In fact, silkmoths have great difficulty procreating without human manipulation.
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