Silkworm Chow help please!

Miss Lily

Chameleon Enthusiast
I bought some ready made chow a couple of weeks ago and it is keeping fine in the fridge. The part that bothers me is that it is quite wet and I have lost a few silkies that have gotten stuck in the wetness and died. What can I do to make the chow harder so they don't get stuck in it? I am going to buy some powdered chow so I can make my own up when I need it to the consistency I want.
 
Ya definitely buy some powder to make it yourself.
It's really not hard at all.
If it's too wet, you just need to have a higher Powder/water ratio.

It's somewhat rare that the silks will drown themselves in wet chow, depends on their size mostly.
 
Can nuke it in the microwave (minus the worms) with lid off for a minute, to dry it up a bit. Just be sure to wipe off extra moisture like Jann said with paper towel. And let cool (pop in fridge to speed thing up), before re-introducing worms.
 
If you leave it out with the top off it should dry out pretty quick, just don't leave it out too long. I recently read that they will eat dandelion leaves, I am going to test this out today on mine. If you need an alternative to chow till you get some more, that might work. If it's not too wet jann's idea with the paper towel might be enough. I'll go test the dandelions out right now, I will keep you posted on that, always nice to have a food alternative that you could get in your yard or at the market in case of emergencies. I just recently bought the chow in 10 pd bulk. Good luck miss lilly!
 
Thanks for the ideas everyone. I will try leaving the lid off for a while I think. I have a Mulberry tree in the garden, but it isn't that big yet. I have one tub of the largest worms feeding on leaves, didn't want to risk switching them all in case there was somthing on the leaves that didn't agree them! I have spent 2 weeks raising these little worms and have invested too much time to see them all wiped out in one go!
 
I have read that you can't switch them from leaves to chow, once they get real leaves they never go back. So just make sure you have enough mulberry leaves to raise the ones you gave them too, to get them to reach the size you want them. If you are limited and only have one small tree, then don't let the others get a taste of it! They eat alot, lol
 
If you leave it out with the top off it should dry out pretty quick, just don't leave it out too long. I recently read that they will eat dandelion leaves, I am going to test this out today on mine. If you need an alternative to chow till you get some more, that might work. If it's not too wet jann's idea with the paper towel might be enough. I'll go test the dandelions out right now, I will keep you posted on that, always nice to have a food alternative that you could get in your yard or at the market in case of emergencies. I just recently bought the chow in 10 pd bulk. Good luck miss lilly!

from what I understand they can eat dandelion leaves and carrots but that is only a temporary situation as they cannot be sustained on them like the mulberry
 
I have read that you can't switch them from leaves to chow, once they get real leaves they never go back. So just make sure you have enough mulberry leaves to raise the ones you gave them too, to get them to reach the size you want them. If you are limited and only have one small tree, then don't let the others get a taste of it! They eat alot, lol

I didn't realise quite how good their senses are, lol!:eek: I put the tub with the worms with leaves in on top of the others last night and the worms in the tub underneath were all trying to get to the tub on top as they could smell the leaves! I have enough leaves for 15 worms but I shan't feed leaves to all the others as my tree will be bare in about a week, lol!
 
I didn't realise quite how good their senses are, lol!:eek: I put the tub with the worms with leaves in on top of the others last night and the worms in the tub underneath were all trying to get to the tub on top as they could smell the leaves! I have enough leaves for 15 worms but I shan't feed leaves to all the others as my tree will be bare in about a week, lol!

Or a day lol:p
 
from what I understand they can eat dandelion leaves and carrots but that is only a temporary situation as they cannot be sustained on them like the mulberry

Yes Carol, that is probably right, right now I have chow and dandelion in there as a test and some are eating the dandelion, but when I fed my hornworms red bell pepper and only that after a few days they didn't seem like it would last much longer, it is probably the same for the silkies:):)
 
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