All the foods hornworms eat

[rlschwer]

Many of the cruciferous vegetables can interfere with calcium metabolism if fed excessively to reptiles. I was unaware that feeding these foods to insects as a gutload would have the same effect. I really hate the smell of hornworm poop when they eat commercial chow. I found a recipe for homemade chow and it does not make the poop stink as bad. It is not hard to make. I got most of the ingredients in my grocery store and the rest on amazon.

HORNWORM CHOW

1 cup (100 g) of non-toasted wheat germ (Bobs Red Mill, Milwaukie, OR)
1/3 cup (25 g) of nonfat dry milk (Sanalac, Fullerton, CA)
4 tablespoons of agar (generic)
1 teaspoon pure raw flaxseed oil (nonboiled, Sunnyside Corp., Wheeling IL)
1/2 tablespoon nutritional flake yeast (generic)
1 vitamin C tablet (1000 mg) (generic)
2 vitamin B tablets (generic)
2 multivitamin tablets (generic)
1 tablespoon of table sugar (generic)
2 1/2 cups water

1. Place vitamin tablets in blender and reduce to a powder. To this powder, add the wheat germ, powdered milk, and sugar and blend until the dry components are well-mixed.

2. Remove the dry mix from the blender and add 2.5 cups of boiling water. While mixing at low speed, add the agar. Be careful to replace the lid on the blender before turning it on. Blend for one minute and then add the dry mix and continue to mix.

3. Add the linseed oil and increase blender speed. You may need to manually blend the diet while the blender is running. The diet gets rather viscous at this point.

4. After blending for about 5 minutes, add the nutritional yeast flakes and continue blending for another minute. Components in the yeast are heat labile, thus, yeast is added as late as possible.

5. Once the diet is thoroughly mixed, pour it into a plastic tray that has a sealable airtight lid. The diet will solidify and remain usable for about 7 to 10 days if kept refrigerated."

Adding pureed bell pepper seems to make the worms more willing to eat this, and both methylparaben powder and calcium proprionate (preservatives) inhibit microbial growth. They're both used in human food, so I assume that's good enough for chams