They grow up so fast...

[Remkon]

Remkon- I just read you were thinking of starting silkworm raising. I wanted to for ages- but put off when you read they can be tricky and die, I bought some a while ago and they were really easy, kept them in a room ( oops- the only room ..) without live foods or reptiles in it, cleaned my hands every time I had anything to do with them with antibacterial wash and they grew huge, everyone loves them and my xanth adores them, they are expensive to buy here and hearing how nutritious they are I was pleased to grow my own. Well worth it and I've just started another culture.

I'm not to shocked with their prices:
100 silkworms: 15€ small, 20€ medium, 25€ large
100 silkworm eggs: 8€, cheaper of you buy more.

can't buy their fav plant here so need to buy silkworm chow with that for about 5€ for 800grams.

How big do you need to house em?

I wanted to breed snails to for wurma but I think that will be a huge mess.

 

[Twitchet]

I bought 100 or so, fed them to various people as they grew from first instar up to last instar so numbers declined as they grew but kept them in two plastic containers, each about 4x 7" and there was plenty of room, they don't do much! I think it was worth the initial cost of chow( and a microwave to cook the chow)
I buy small sized petit Gris snails off eBay for my false chameleon but never tried a Cham with one yet. My xanth also loves the Indian stick insects I raise for him.

 

[Remkon]

small containers are good since I don't want the wife to notice... She already hates my dubias.

I used to raise those stick insects as a kid, they are pretty easy to raise... I think I will soon have some shopping to do.
thanks!

 

[Chachi]

Any advise on how to keep my Wurma healthy and improve his live will be greatly appreciated!

Right now I gutload any feeder with whatever vegetables/fruits are available in my house, on top of that I use spinach or arugula since it's high in calcium.
I have a gutloading supplement as well that I mostly use to powder fruits with.
For my dubias I also have feeder pallets and a special dubia powder/porridge that's high in calcium too...
So if Wurma ever starts to like dubia roaches I think that be a good healthy feeder for him, now only my ackies benefit from that...

I will probably also get the Jelly food (the ones used for crested gecko's) as a gut load since it has a lot of good stuff in them too.

Check this out. I use this to feed the food for my chams but also to feed my tortoise

 

[Remkon]

wurma got hungry from all that food talk.


I found a webshop that sells them stickinsects... 25eggs for 3€ or 50ct per nymph + 4€ shipping... So ill get a few to start breeding, probably best as a treat since they eat leaves so no real gutload.

 

[Twitchet]

Oh, that's a great little video- fantastic to see him- glad you got some stick eggs - If you (Wurma) really like them get a thornless blackberry bush if you can- I have and I dont have bramble prickles to deal with. Yes - i guess no benefit from gutloading but I think it's nice as an enrichment- Mine seems to relish something different to try and eat.
Thanks for the video and best of luck with the sticks.( I've just ordered another 60 nymphs- cheap price on ebay)

 

[Kclarke02]

Judging by the title, I came to this thread assuming it was about hornworms.....



Nice chameleon you got there. Looks like a happy little fella!

Right?! I know exactly what you mean, see attached pic....

 

[serenaj25]

wow what a cute little one you have!!