YUM!!! Butter LOVES silkworms !!!

[Scooter]

Thanks everyone for the 'push' to order Butter some silk worms.

He loves them. His appetite has gone through the roof, and I started "serving" a few silkworms on spinach or dark greens, and he adores the greens now too. (I call it a silk worm salad)

I wish I had a digital on hand to snap the picture of my 6 mo old veiled with spinach leaves and a big silk worm hanging out of his mouth. He looks quite the dinosaur when he does that.

He is shunning crickets right now, but I still offer him some. He has picked off a couple now and again.

Thanks again !!!

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Hey Scooter,

Careful with the spinach.
The high content of oxalates can cause problems with calcium absorbtion.
Google oxalates.

Really good to hear that your guy likes the silkworms! They are awesome food!

-Brad

 

[Scotty]

Dittio comments to Brad's!
You may know from my previous posts, i'm a massive fan of the silky, not just for my cham but for my other lizards as well!

LOL the silky salad, good idea, I think i'm going to try that for my guy who isn't that chuffed about his greens yet.
Cheers
Scott.

 

[Scooter]

Brad,

Thanks on the heads up on the spinach. I will eat the spinach out of the baby greens mix and give him the other stuff. He also gets dandelions from the garden as salad, and I've just tried thinly grated sweet potato. However, Butter is very suspicious of anything new, and it might take a week or two before he accepts it as food. Took him a week to decide silkworms were a source of food and not an evil intruder.

 

[Chamero]

Brad, I heard the same thing about the spinach, but is it ok to use occasionally as a gutload. When I do use it, it is always with another fruit/vegetable and then sprinkled with cricketfood.com food. Or should I take out spinach all together?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I don't use it at all, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be alright occasionally.
My question would be.... why?
Do you have a lot of spinich around?
I stick with the greens I know are okay and I can use them as much as I want.
By the way, also refrain from using brocolli and tomato.

-Brad

 

[Dyesub Dave]

My chams love pieces of grapes and strawberries. I stick them to twigs and if they can't get them with their tongues they go over and pull them off. I was thinking of trying bananas too!

And of course they all love silkworms too !! I hatch my own. It's fairly simple and they don't stink nearly as much as crickets do. Just a slight smell. And their poop is like little rabbit turds and they don't jump or make noise. I'm thinking of trying Dubia roaches in the new year as well.

Congrats on getting him to eat again. My oldest veiled has been of crickets for several weeks now. Only fruit and worms it seems!!

Dyesub Dave.

 

[dodolah]

My chams love pieces of grapes and strawberries. I stick them to twigs and if they can't get them with their tongues they go over and pull them off. I was thinking of trying bananas too!

And of course they all love silkworms too !! I hatch my own. It's fairly simple and they don't stink nearly as much as crickets do. Just a slight smell. And their poop is like little rabbit turds and they don't jump or make noise. I'm thinking of trying Dubia roaches in the new year as well.

Congrats on getting him to eat again. My oldest veiled has been of crickets for several weeks now. Only fruit and worms it seems!!

Dyesub Dave.

how on earth you make them eat strawberries?
Mine seems to view it as a threat (probably cause it looks like poisonous bugs).
He eats collard greens... and that's it.

 

[Dyesub Dave]

how on earth you make them eat strawberries?
Mine seems to view it as a threat (probably cause it looks like poisonous bugs).
He eats collard greens... and that's it.

I just read somewhere about grapes so started sticking pieces of grapes inside their enclosures. To my surprise all 4 chams seemed to like them. I also had some strawberries in the fridge so the following week (after they'd had grapes 3 or 4 times) I stuck some pieces of strawberry in and they seemed to like that too. I'm sure that I tried small apple pieces and I think they ate them but can't remember for sure. I just make it a treat for them 2 or 3 times a week ... kinna like breakfast !! LOLOL

I'll be sure to post after I try the banana out. They'd have to eat that fairly quickly as it doesn't last too long after it's been peeled.

Dyesub Dave.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Excellent thread.........

This is an excellent thread. I had never thought of feeding fruit to my chams in that way. Very good idea

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Just make sure that the pieces are no larger than the crickets you feed. Actually I make mine a little smaller. The first time I put half of a decent sized grape in and my cham seemed to be gagging on it. He ended up eating it OK but I make the pieces a bit smaller just to be safe. An average sized grape usually makes about 4 pieces for me to feed.

Let me know if anybody else has fruit-loving chams!!

Dyesub Dave.

 

[Campy]

My vielded is a year old now and eats only crickets. lol... I have tried putting in silk worms? i think.. Maybe they were wax... this was a while ago, and he didn't want anything to do with them. How do you guys put them in the cage? I will try again when I get him up here to switch up what he eats.

And with greens. How do you get him eating those?

 

[dodolah]

My vielded is a year old now and eats only crickets. lol... I have tried putting in silk worms? i think.. Maybe they were wax... this was a while ago, and he didn't want anything to do with them. How do you guys put them in the cage? I will try again when I get him up here to switch up what he eats.

And with greens. How do you get him eating those?

silkie and wax worms are totally different things.
Most likely you fed him wax worms..
as you need to feed silkie with only 1 food which is mulberry leaves (or the chow from the silkie farms)... If you remember ordering the chow or feeding the worm mulberry, then you fed your cham silkies

 

[Scooter]

Butter only eats his greens/fruit if it's in his bowl !!! I've tried sticking it on a branch, and it freaked him out !!! Silly Lizard. I haven't tried grapes, but I will today !!!

 

[Duke]

Brad et al, other than "spinach has oxalic acid in it", do you have a link or ref on amounts. I am curious. Everything is toxic, it is the amount that matters and not just whether or not it is present. I find it hard to believe that gut loading crickets with any veg would ever achieve an oxalic acid overdose, but would love to hunt the reference as a vocational and avocational bit of interest.

Duke