Silkworms

[Camille1]

Is it recommended to dust silkworms with calcium w/o d3 as often as crickets or do they have enough calcium to feed by themsleves?

Thanks!

 

[jannb]

Silkworms are loaded with calcium. There's no need to dust them.

 

[JosieJobo]

not sure about nutrition

I don't dust mine just because he doesn't always want them and hes getting crickets or locusts dusted mostly, and i don't bother dusting the ocational meal worm or wax worm.

 

[Camille1]

Thank you!

 

[ir0k]

somethings I noticed also. when you dust them, they tend to not stick to braches and such in the cage. So I never dusted them. just made sure do dust crickets good.

 

[GTSLOW]

My question is where the heck do I find mulberry trees. I want to get some silkworms but fear I wont be able to keep them alive.

Also how many silkworms a day is healthy?

 

[Camille1]

My question is where the heck do I find mulberry trees. I want to get some silkworms but fear I wont be able to keep them alive.

Also how many silkworms a day is healthy?

I just purchased my first batch of Silkworms from Mulberry Farms. I ordered 2 cups and extra cup of food. There were about 200 small and medium silks total. I have had them about 3 weeks and have not had any issues keeping them alive. If you checkout their silkworm care sheet it will have all the info you need to keep them alive. I do recommend keeping them at a cooler temp to slow down the growth. They grow fast. I keep mine around 65-70 degrees and that's kept them from growing too fast. Periodically changing their food as well. I just follow the directions on Mulberry Farms care sheet. I have a female veiled so she is fed every other day about 8-10 small/medium silks along with a hornworm or two. I will keep her on this schedule until they are gone them switch back to crickets for a while.

 

[jannb]

I have a female veiled so she is fed every other day about 8-10 small/medium silks along with a hornworm or two. I will keep her on this schedule until they are gone them switch back to crickets for a while.

Oh my! Camille is going to get really fat.

 

[COASTALSILKWORMS]

Just a quick note, we do sell dwarf mulberry trees that are currently available now while they last if you wish to grow your own tree that will not overtake your yard. Also we should not confuse our Pod product with others. Only coastal silkworms calls them pods, others call them cups and habitats. Although our term is catchy and we can see the confusion

 

[Camille1]

Oh my! Camille is going to get really fat.

I know it's probably a little too much food for her. The silks are pretty small so thought she could eat more. I will cut back on those since I don't want her to lay eggs anytime soon. I'm still learning that's for sure. She is going on 10 months old so doing what I can do delay that from happening.

Also to everyone out there JannB is great! She has helped me a lot through raising my little girl. I could not have done it without you and thank you again!

 

[Camille1]

Just a quick note, we do sell dwarf mulberry trees that are currently available now while they last if you wish to grow your own tree that will not overtake your yard. Also we should not confuse our Pod product with others. Only coastal silkworms calls them pods, others call them cups and habitats. Although our term is catchy and we can see the confusion

Ooops! My bad Coastal. I was looking at your site and MF as well. I edited that above. I will be ordering from you next FYI! I want to help support all sponsors on here.

 

[Camille1]

I meant I'm going to order from Mulberry Farms next time!

Ooops! My bad Coastal. I was looking at your site and MF as well. I edited that above. I will be ordering from you next FYI! I want to help support all sponsors on here.

 

[zsazsa85]

Also to everyone out there JannB is great! She has helped me a lot through raising my little girl. I could not have done it without you and thank you again!

I know! She is a great person! Very helpful!

So how is your little girl?

 

[sandrachameleon]

Is it recommended to dust silkworms with calcium w/o d3 as often as crickets or do they have enough calcium to feed by themsleves?

Thanks!

no need to dust if you are only using them occasionally, but if they form a significant part of the diet I would lightly dust half of them.

if you don't have access to mulberry tree leaves, you can get a chow powder that you add hot water to, to make a paste food. And they will eat things like dandelion leaves, grape vine leaves, shaved carrot.

 

[croastbeast]

I love silkworms as a diet source. However, it appears a food that cannot be reliably purchased. I recently placed an order for over $100 with Coastal Silkworms. Using their website is an exercise in frustaration aas ordering is near impossible. However, I was able to place the order. Logged into my account, selected my items, paid for 2nd day shipping with FedEx (to preserve the live arrival guarantee). In my account, my default billing address is different from my default shipping address. I have ALL deliveries come to my business, where we have people to accept shipment 7 days a week. On recieving the tracking info, the order was shipped to my billing address, rather than my default shipping. John stated that I needed to select that I wanted to ship to my default address, but that makes no sense. My default address is my *default* address. He made a shipping error, plain and simple. I contacted him, and his response was "theres nothing I can do now". I responded that it was 90 degrees in GA today, and if the FedEx driver dropped the package off without signature, it would cook in the sun until I get home at 8 PM. No response. So, I get home at 8, no package. Check tracking, and Fedex says theres a "delivery exception due to incorrect zip code". My zip is right in my acount and on the tracking. So I contact John again to tell him whats going on. To which his response was "YOU need to contact Fedex. Maybe theyll hold it for you and you can go and pick it up". Thats it. Ill never order from Coastal Silkworms again. I spent $116, and the customer service I got was "I cant do anything about it. You call them, and you go get it". After I paid for 2 day delivery. I dont doubt that this part fedex's fault, but I see MAJOR flaws in Coastal's system, and their customer service was poor enough for me to make sure Ill never order from them again. Not that I coud off their horrible site.

So......where else can I order silkworms? Looks like Mulberry Farms it is.

 

[pigglett79]

This forum insnt set up for reviews of businesses. However I can offer some info on sites that offer silkworms.

There are various sources for silk worms.

Mulberry farms
silkwormshop.com
lindasgonebuggie.com
smalpetfeeders.com
ladysilkworm.com

And so on

I have purchased from several sites.

 

[Camille1]

I know it's probably a little too much food for her. The silks are pretty small so thought she could eat more. I will cut back on those since I don't want her to lay eggs anytime soon. I'm still learning that's for sure. She is going on 10 months old so doing what I can do delay that from happening.

Also to everyone out there JannB is great! She has helped me a lot through raising my little girl. I could not have done it without you and thank you again!

I know! She is a great person! Very helpful!

So how is your little girl?

She is doing a lot better and thank you for asking!

 

[Camille1]

no need to dust if you are only using them occasionally, but if they form a significant part of the diet I would lightly dust half of them.

if you don't have access to mulberry tree leaves, you can get a chow powder that you add hot water to, to make a paste food. And they will eat things like dandelion leaves, grape vine leaves, shaved carrot.

Thank you Sandra for all your advice as well. You have been very helpful when I have questions!

 

[Camille1]

I love silkworms as a diet source. However, it appears a food that cannot be reliably purchased. I recently placed an order for over $100 with Coastal Silkworms. Using their website is an exercise in frustaration aas ordering is near impossible. However, I was able to place the order. Logged into my account, selected my items, paid for 2nd day shipping with FedEx (to preserve the live arrival guarantee). In my account, my default billing address is different from my default shipping address. I have ALL deliveries come to my business, where we have people to accept shipment 7 days a week. On recieving the tracking info, the order was shipped to my billing address, rather than my default shipping. John stated that I needed to select that I wanted to ship to my default address, but that makes no sense. My default address is my *default* address. He made a shipping error, plain and simple. I contacted him, and his response was "theres nothing I can do now". I responded that it was 90 degrees in GA today, and if the FedEx driver dropped the package off without signature, it would cook in the sun until I get home at 8 PM. No response. So, I get home at 8, no package. Check tracking, and Fedex says theres a "delivery exception due to incorrect zip code". My zip is right in my acount and on the tracking. So I contact John again to tell him whats going on. To which his response was "YOU need to contact Fedex. Maybe theyll hold it for you and you can go and pick it up". Thats it. Ill never order from Coastal Silkworms again. I spent $116, and the customer service I got was "I cant do anything about it. You call them, and you go get it". After I paid for 2 day delivery. I dont doubt that this part fedex's fault, but I see MAJOR flaws in Coastal's system, and their customer service was poor enough for me to make sure Ill never order from them again. Not that I coud off their horrible site.

So......where else can I order silkworms? Looks like Mulberry Farms it is.

Wow! Sorry to hear you did not have a good experience. Mulberry Farms was very efficient and I did not have any problems at all with the ordering process!

 

[zsazsa85]

She is doing a lot better and thank you for asking!

I'm glad to hear that! Great news!