Getting a little ticked off...

[RaiQuee]

Alright, I have been wanting to make silkworms a large part of my leos diet for the longest time now. They LOVE them when I bring them home from lee's but buying them by the 50 count, is pointless to someone who has a mass amount of leos!

Mulberry farms has been on and off with silkies. I have a 200 credit of silkworms from them since October. I know they have that silkworm disease thing going on, and I feel bad, but at the same time I'm kinda aggrivated. I e-mailed them a week ago about my silkworms, when they had some in stock. Now they are out, and they never did reply to my e-mail.

Does anyone else here feed a decent amount of silkworms? If so, where do you get yours from? I know Silkwormfarm just had a bad post about them on the BOI, so i'm sure they are out of the question. What else can I do? I've tried hatching the eggs, but that was a joke! I don't know if I just got bad eggs, or if i SUCK at hatching silkworm eggs. Which is a possibility I guess, but I'm going to guess it was the first option.

Mine are currently eating mostly mealies, but they don't eat them with as much vigor and excitment as they do the silkworms.

 

[Jeanne]

I was talking to Jeremy from Tokays Unlimited and he is buying silkworms somewhere, never did find out who from. Once I find out I will let you know

 

[rrhill]

Been getting my eggs from silkworm wholesale. I think the eggs coming in now are fine...at least I hope so!

 

[nwheat]

I love silkworms!!! :smitten: I buy bulk eggs from Mulberry Farms. I did have a small amount of die off from that disease when I was buying med sized worms in Feb, but with the eggs I get almost no die-off at all and the ones that do die do NOT appear to have that gross disease. I find that you can't keep the eggs in the fridge very long - I get reduced hatching after about a month. I'm also trying to get to the point where most of my geckos will be eating primarily silkworms and I think the only way to do that, really, is hatching them yourself. Once you get the hang of it, it really is easy. In the summer, it is probably a good idea to have a cold pack shipped with your bulk eggs - I believe that if they get too far along in their development, they may not hatch after being refrigerated.

I use Mulberry's hatching method outlined on their website. I use a light swipe of the glue stick on one of those big petri dishes, sprinkle on the eggs, close the dish and put them either in my incubator or in an extra hatchling drawer. You need to check them every day so you can add food as soon as they start to hatch - I forgot once and there's nothing worse than finding a whole batch of hatched babies all dried up. I add new food as it dries up - early on the food gets rock-like before they eat it all. Once they get big enough to feed to hatchlings I move them to a sterilite drawer - very open to the air that I keep on a shelf in my gecko room (which is usually in the upper 70's). At this point I never cover them with plastic - air circulation is crucial to avoid die-off due to mold. Uneaten food dries fairly quickly, so I don't overfeed and I add food daily. With this method, I get no mold and very little die off for any reason - other than my geckos eating them as fast as they can!

The other thing I like about hatching them myself is that I can have all sizes available all the time - although I'm still working on that timing...

Good luck! It takes a little practice with these guys sometimes, but I really think it's worth it!

 

[acpart]

I had good experience last fall with coastal silkworms (www.coastalsilkworms.com) both in terms of price and quality of merchandise.
Aliza

 

[nora]

now how in the world are you people able to get your leos to eat silkies?! I tried to give henry a couple here and there but he wont eat em.. but offer him a couple crix instead and he's all over those like white on rice. =/

i even tried to give him a freshly molted mealie (back before i knew better) wouldnt touch em..

but he did take a dusted and cricket leg encrusted day old pinkie mouse......once LOL

 

[NaughtyDawg]

I have found that just like people some will not eat them at all, while others will gorge themselves on them. For some it is like a drug addiction. I have a male and female albino that I have to separate if feeding silkies to them or they will be into a giant fight.

 

[nora]

that's what i kinda figured with Hen.. he's just one of those stubborn kids that will only eat one thing off their plate and forget about the veggies.. lol oh well.. as long as he's disease free and healthy, then im not gonna worry about it.. i can always try again when i make a cricket run tomorrow.. thankfully the place i get my crix from will let me buy silks by the dozen.. and if he doesnt eat em i know the anoles that run wild outside will.. lol

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

I just ordered 20,000 eggs from silkwormwholesale, not bad at $30 shipped. Ill let you know how the hatch rate goes on them.

 

[rrhill]

Wendy, Pam @ silkwormwholesale is usually very good at making sure the eggs she sends out are good. I get all my silkworm eggs through her, and I only had 1 issue this winter with a bad batch. I got a batch in recently & they are hatching out fine.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

She is really nice, she called a little bit ago to tell me they were shipping today and that if I had any questions just to give her a call.

 

[SirKevin]

I get my silkies from Canadian Silkworms (canadiansilkworms.com)...they're very good; I usually just buy several hundred in mixed sizes and it works out.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Pam at Silkworm Wholesale is a very cool lady... and yes, I have some geckos that come unglued because they can't eat them fast enough, and others that are totally indifferent to them.

 

[Lizard Lair]

I buy my eggs from Mulberry Farms and have had great success with hatching them. So far they have been refrigerated for 2 months and it looks like all of them are hatching. I have an incubator dedicated to the silkworms and keep it at 85º. When the worms get bigger I feed them twice a day and the speed they grow at is absolutely amazing. Most of my leos are WILD about them.

 

[Gregg M]

Silks are great but ever since I started with roaches, my leos will hardly touch anything else.... They still love waxies though

 

[boutiquegecko]

Are these easy to keep and make a colony of or do you have to keep ordering eggs? I was looking for a waxie supplier, but might give these a try.