Silk worm

[Brentholey]

Came home from work and my silkworm did this.

 

[BECHARD4]

Nice, in about three weeks you will have a moth.

 

[snitz427]

Nice! If they start cocooning faster than you can feed them you’ll end up with moths and eggs - and then free silkworms for life!

Feed the moth if you just have one cocoon - they dont fly and your cham will enjoy it. Theyre relatively small moths.

 

[AnamCara]

I've been TRYING to get this to happen for months!!

 

[Brentholey]

Nice! If they start cocooning faster than you can feed them you’ll end up with moths and eggs - and then free silkworms for life!

Feed the moth if you just have one cocoon - they dont fly and your cham will enjoy it. Theyre relatively small moths.

I bought them awhile ago but my Cham won’t eat them. Well I forgot about them and they ran out of food most died but I cleaned them out and put the couple still live ones in there with some fresh mullberry leaves and two did well after that. Yesterday I came home and one was suddenly dead. It was mushy after looking healthy the day before? So I cleaned it again and I have a cocoon.

 

[Brentholey]

I've been TRYING to get this to happen for months!!

I don’t think I can offer much advice I’m pretty lousy at keeping them alive. I think they probably needed a bigger container in my case. It took 3.5 weeks for this one bought as “small”

 

[Brentholey]

The moths look really cool! My kids are not gonna like feeding that cute little fuzzy moth to Opie.

 

[kinyonga]

Do you keep them in a container with a lid on or no lid? What do you have in the container besides mulberry leaves?

 

[Brentholey]

Do you keep them in a container with a lid on or no lid? What do you have in the container besides mulberry leaves?

They were in a large tall deli cup, it had a lid with holes in it. (Like hornworms come in.) There is some sort of plastic grid in it for them to crawl on and just mulberry leaves. I would take the lid off most days for a couple hours at a time to let any moisture evaporate. I opened the lid part way last night and forgot about it. That’s when it formed the cocoon.

 

[kinyonga]

I'm,pet them in shoebox sized Tupperware containers that were a little deeper than shoe boxes with a sheet of waxed paper on the floor and some mulberry leaves and toilet paper rolls laying on the floor of the container. No lids.

 

[Brentholey]

I'm,pet them in shoebox sized Tupperware containers that were a little deeper than shoe boxes with a sheet of waxed paper on the floor and some mulberry leaves and toilet paper rolls laying on the floor of the container. No lids.

Thanks for the advice! Is the no lid thing to keep the humidity down? How often do you replace your mulberry leaves?

 

[kinyonga]

Yup..the lid is for the humidity.
I've never had to replace them...they eat them all but I don't put loads in at one time. I have 3trees in my yard so I have plenty to pick when they eat what's in there. I clean them out fairly often though so the poop doesn't build up.

 

[kinyonga]

ThIs might help...
https://www.silkwormshop.com/silkworm_info.html