Looking for Silkworms--- where to buy?

ChameLIonLover

ChameLIonLover

Member
Hi guys, I was looking to get more variety in my Nosy Be's diet. Alby is about 6 months old and he is only eating a couple crickets every day as well as a superworm every other day... I believe adding silkworms or something like that will do the trick.

The question is, where can I buy them? I live in midwest and no store seems to sell them. I went to coastal silkworms site and it said they were out of stock? I am beginning to worry about my guy's food intake.

Thanks!
 
Florida Silkworms, but they only sell minimum of 500. If you have one chameleon he will never eat them all.
 
Jan,
I need to chime in here. I called Lindasgonebuggy, told her I had a juvenile cham who was only eating 1/4-1/2 in crickets.

She told me to order the variety/sampler pack. They were out of silkworms at the time, so she told me she'd fill in with other superworms, etc...

All the bugs she sent were so enormous, I couldn't feed them to my cham. The super worms were huge! Thankfully, I was able to sell some, but most were given away or fed to my chickens. I felt like I wasted $35.

I'm not telling him NOT to order from her, just be VERY SPECIFIC with what you want and sizes. Also, the horn worms she sends are quite large and needed to be eaten right away or they got too big within 2-3 days.

Apart from this issue, her bugs are excellent quality. :)
 
Andie said:
Jan,
I need to chime in here. I called Lindasgonebuggy, told her I had a juvenile cham who was only eating 1/4-1/2 in crickets.

She told me to order the variety/sampler pack. They were out of silkworms at the time, so she told me she'd fill in with other superworms, etc...

All the bugs she sent were so enormous, I couldn't feed them to my cham. The super worms were huge! Thankfully, I was able to sell some, but most were given away or fed to my chickens. I felt like I wasted $35.

I'm not telling him NOT to order from her, just be VERY SPECIFIC with what you want and sizes. Also, the horn worms she sends are quite large and needed to be eaten right away or they got too big within 2-3 days.

Apart from this issue, her bugs are excellent quality. :)
Click to expand...

Did you call or email her and let her know that the feeders were way to large. If you did, I'm sure she would have re-send the correct size at her expense. That what she always does for me if I have a problem. Linda doesn't keep chameleons so you do have to be pacific about what you want and the size.
 
Thanks for the options! I emailed her to ask a few questions, but will probably go with a variety pack of some sort.

I wish silkies were more accessible as a 10+ dollar shipping is a steep cost when I only need 20 dollars worth of bugs. Anything else I could buy to make the shipping worth it?
 
The silkworms and horn worms are VERY expensive to buy, individually, so I think it works out from a cost perspective. Just be VERY, VERY clear with Linda, that your cham is young. You don't want to get stuck with huge worms. :)
 
For a cheaper change up in diet - I like bluebottle flies - (mantisplace.com) with shipping you can get 100 for a little over 10 - I usually get spikes as they last longer in the fridge- or both pupae and spikes and hatch the pupae right away

In the summer if you can find access to a couple of mullbery trees silkworms from eggs are great- they are easier to hatch (for me at least) - and shipping eggs isn't as expensive. I have a problem with the chow drying out when they first hatch- I did get them though a cycle and did get some to hatch last winter using chow - I found that by buying eggs in addition to either horns or silks I ended up with more different foods for longer.
 
Ive ordered from Linda before and unfortunately the silkies I ordered came all moldy and more then half dead but since i wasnt there to sign for it I didnt think there was anything that could be done about it. I havent tried again since. Right now waiting on hornworms and stick bugs from nick here on the forums which I am super excited to arrive. Once I get back from vacation ill try silkworms again and i think im going to try the starter kit on the silkwormshop.com with the live silkies. Ive tried 2 sets of eggs from mulberryfarms and unfortunately none have hatched even when a heat lamp on them for the proper temperature. let me know if you go with Linda and how it goes, it may have been extenuating circumstances with my order and timing of shipping and the shipping company so id be willing to give it another go =)
 
SycoSquirl said:
Ive ordered from Linda before and unfortunately the silkies I ordered came all moldy and more then half dead but since i wasnt there to sign for it I didnt think there was anything that could be done about it. I havent tried again since. Right now waiting on hornworms and stick bugs from nick here on the forums which I am super excited to arrive. Once I get back from vacation ill try silkworms again and i think im going to try the starter kit on the silkwormshop.com with the live silkies. Ive tried 2 sets of eggs from mulberryfarms and unfortunately none have hatched even when a heat lamp on them for the proper temperature. let me know if you go with Linda and how it goes, it may have been extenuating circumstances with my order and timing of shipping and the shipping company so id be willing to give it another go =)
Click to expand...

I like your open mine to look at possible issues and be willing to try again. Very refreshing.
 
kplatvoet said:
For a cheaper change up in diet - I like bluebottle flies - (mantisplace.com) with shipping you can get 100 for a little over 10 - I usually get spikes as they last longer in the fridge- or both pupae and spikes and hatch the pupae right away

In the summer if you can find access to a couple of mullbery trees silkworms from eggs are great- they are easier to hatch (for me at least) - and shipping eggs isn't as expensive. I have a problem with the chow drying out when they first hatch- I did get them though a cycle and did get some to hatch last winter using chow - I found that by buying eggs in addition to either horns or silks I ended up with more different foods for longer.
Click to expand...
I'll give Linda's buggies a try for sure. What are blue bottle flies? Are they more of a snack or a staple? Are they pretty small or will they be able to feed a 6 month old chameleon for a little while? Thanks
 
Bluebottle's are a bit bigger than a house fly - I consider them more of a treat- I will hatch out about 20 or so at a time in a small deli cup with some fly food (which she also sells) and water crystals - I think blue bottles would be fine for a 6 month old but you can also get regular house flies the blue bottles last longer both before and after hatching. I usually get 500 spikes and they last about a month in the fridge - by the end of the month the hatch rate goes down.
 
kplatvoet said:
Bluebottle's are a bit bigger than a house fly - I consider them more of a treat- I will hatch out about 20 or so at a time in a small deli cup with some fly food (which she also sells) and water crystals - I think blue bottles would be fine for a 6 month old but you can also get regular house flies the blue bottles last longer both before and after hatching. I usually get 500 spikes and they last about a month in the fridge - by the end of the month the hatch rate goes down.
Click to expand...
Interesting! I've heard of bluebottle flies before and they sound like they'd be a fun thing for my Cham. There have been flies in my house flying around and he tries to get em when they're on the outside of the cage!

I'll spend some time doing some research today. Definitely going to give them a try. Could you direct me to any good informational sites regarding how to house, breeding/ hatching? I'm already confused with some of the terminology you used. What are spikes? I've got a bit to read up on it looks like
 
Check out feeder care on mantis place it gives the low down. Spikes are the larva.. if you take them out of fridge they turn into pupae in a couple of days and they take a couple of days to turn to flies.
 
Sweet yea, I see. Gonna go with spikes. I live in Midwest where it is cold and dry. Do I need to go somewhere on the site to pay for a heat pack or something so they're still alive when they get here?
 
She has them in shipping supplies - if it's over 30 they ship pretty well (when it starts getting too warm it's more of a problem) the last time I ordered they came in on a really cold day and I didn't see the shipping notice so I didn't grab them from the mail as soon as they came in and they hatched fine. I usually put the deli cup up by my lights to hatch it -

this gives you an idea on how fun they are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndsapD4ftjY
 
I agree - I wouldn't give up on silkworms - but I think both sponsors have been out of stock for a while - I've gotten silk from both of them and I like the quality - my problem with hatching from eggs in the winter is finding a place where they get the heat to hatch and then not killing them with too much food-
 
kplatvoet said:
killing them with too much food-
Click to expand...

Are you still talking silks? How do you kill them with to much food? I have been breeding my own and having great success with silks. Maybe lose a couple but never any big die offs and I have done fresh leaves and chow.
 
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