Has anyone raised silkworms?

[Chameleon_mama]

As we all know, silkies are the best but can be pricey and hard to find. Has anyone here raised them? I just bought some eggs and I’m going to try! Open to all advice and feedback. I’m actually pretty excited for this little experiment haha I don’t love bugs but the silkies don’t bother me at all and the grown up moths are actually so cute!

 

[GrannyK]

I’m interested in doing the same! But I haven’t taken the plunge and bought eggs yet, too scared lol, so I’m curious to see the responses!

 

[MissSkittles]

Ooh! You are literally asking for me to bore you to tears with how I’ve hatched and raised my silkworms. Instead, I’ll try to be kind. Most of what I learned is from @snitz427 and her post https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/posting-my-silkworm-experience.168402/ plus lots of random tips/tricks from forum members. I’ll happily share what I do/know, but you know how much I talk and have been warned. For now, read the link and enjoy some pics of my silkies. The freshly hatched babies (aka kegoes) just make me happy for some reason.

 

[Ghostbirb]

Ooh! You are literally asking for me to bore you to tears with how I’ve hatched and raised my silkworms. Instead, I’ll try to be kind. Most of what I learned is from @snitz427 and her post https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/posting-my-silkworm-experience.168402/ plus lots of random tips/tricks from forum members. I’ll happily share what I do/know, but you know how much I talk and have been warned. For now, read the link and enjoy some pics of my silkies. The freshly hatched babies (aka kegoes) just make me happy for some reason.
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Oh my look at that adorable moth

 

[GrannyK]

Ooh! You are literally asking for me to bore you to tears with how I’ve hatched and raised my silkworms. Instead, I’ll try to be kind. Most of what I learned is from @snitz427 and her post https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/posting-my-silkworm-experience.168402/ plus lots of random tips/tricks from forum members. I’ll happily share what I do/know, but you know how much I talk and have been warned. For now, read the link and enjoy some pics of my silkies. The freshly hatched babies (aka kegoes) just make me happy for some reason.
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Thank you! Looks like I may just need a small heating pad and chow. Everything else I may have at home. I have fresh mulberry leaves but I read they are not good for baby silks, chow is recommended. And it’s coming into winter here so the heat pad will help maintain temperature better. The rest doesn’t look to bad. thanks for pics too! It’s nice to see the different stages.

 

[MissSkittles]

Make sure not to put the eggs directly on the heat mat. I use a plastic lid as a spacer. Also, since I have low tanks for my geckos, I just use their uvb light as a heat source, instead of a mat.
I’ve only ever used chow. I use primarily https://www.coastalsilkworms.com/ for chow and eggs.

 

[Chameleon_mama]

Oh my look at that adorable moth

I can’t get over how cute the moths are!! I almost feel bad feeding them to my Cham haha

 

[Chameleon_mama]

Ooh! You are literally asking for me to bore you to tears with how I’ve hatched and raised my silkworms. Instead, I’ll try to be kind. Most of what I learned is from @snitz427 and her post https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/posting-my-silkworm-experience.168402/ plus lots of random tips/tricks from forum members. I’ll happily share what I do/know, but you know how much I talk and have been warned. For now, read the link and enjoy some pics of my silkies. The freshly hatched babies (aka kegoes) just make me happy for some reason.
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I am all for the info! I also talk a lot, esp about subjects I am passionate about haha. Don’t get me started on cats and books!

I’ll definitely read the article. I’m in San Diego so we have pretty moderate temps year round. Right now I have the eggs in my 75 degree garage. Think that’s warm enough?

We also don’t have any natural mulberry leaves so I’m going to do exclusively chow.

And just to confirm, even though the moths are kind of big you can still feed them to your cham? I saw somewhere that you can feed larger silkworms (larger than the between the eyes rule) because they are softer and squisher. True?

Also is it true that you don’t have to dust them because they eat a “complete” diet with the chow? I will still be incorporating other feeders that I will dust.

Thanks!

 

[MissSkittles]

I am all for the info! I also talk a lot, esp about subjects I am passionate about haha. Don’t get me started on cats and books!
Great! If it’s a slow night at work I’ll share what I do.
I’ll definitely read the article. I’m in San Diego so we have pretty moderate temps year round. Right now I have the eggs in my 75 degree garage. Think that’s warm enough? I think the eggs will still hatch, but it may take a little longer and/or the hatch rate might not be as high. I aim for around 80ish.

We also don’t have any natural mulberry leaves so I’m going to do exclusively chow. I use chow and buy it by the lb. https://www.educationalscience.com/silkworm-mulberry-diet-1-lb-swm454 Since I pretty regularly hatch/raise silkies, I try to keep at least 2 lbs on hand. With my most recent hatching, I ended up with about 700+ silkies and almost zero die off, so I‘ve gone thru at least 2 lbs if not more.

And just to confirm, even though the moths are kind of big you can still feed them to your cham? I saw somewhere that you can feed larger silkworms (larger than the between the eyes rule) because they are softer and squisher. True? I don’t know about being able to break the feeder size rule, but I do feed the moths to my normal adult sized chameleons. I go by the body size of the moth. Some females are tremendously huge and some males are super tiny. They don’t fly btw, but the males do flap their wings like mad.

Also is it true that you don’t have to dust them because they eat a “complete” diet with the chow? I will still be incorporating other feeders that I will dust. I never heard that. I dust them, same as I do all of my feeders.

 

[Chameleon_mama]

I am all for the info! I also talk a lot, esp about subjects I am passionate about haha. Don’t get me started on cats and books!
Great! If it’s a slow night at work I’ll share what I do.
I’ll definitely read the article. I’m in San Diego so we have pretty moderate temps year round. Right now I have the eggs in my 75 degree garage. Think that’s warm enough? I think the eggs will still hatch, but it may take a little longer and/or the hatch rate might not be as high. I aim for around 80ish.

We also don’t have any natural mulberry leaves so I’m going to do exclusively chow. I use chow and buy it by the lb. https://www.educationalscience.com/silkworm-mulberry-diet-1-lb-swm454 Since I pretty regularly hatch/raise silkies, I try to keep at least 2 lbs on hand. With my most recent hatching, I ended up with about 700+ silkies and almost zero die off, so I‘ve gone thru at least 2 lbs if not more.

And just to confirm, even though the moths are kind of big you can still feed them to your cham? I saw somewhere that you can feed larger silkworms (larger than the between the eyes rule) because they are softer and squisher. True? I don’t know about being able to break the feeder size rule, but I do feed the moths to my normal adult sized chameleons. I go by the body size of the moth. Some females are tremendously huge and some males are super tiny. They don’t fly btw, but the males do flap their wings like mad.

Also is it true that you don’t have to dust them because they eat a “complete” diet with the chow? I will still be incorporating other feeders that I will dust. I never heard that. I dust them, same as I do all of my feeders.

Cool thank you! I’m starting with about 30 eggs just to test. I bought 300 and put the rest in the fridge for now.

 

[JacksJill]

Here is another good post on silks to get you started. silkworms-101.7906/#post-58552

 

[MissSkittles]

Here is another good post on silks to get you started. silkworms-101.7906/#post-58552

Perfect! I was going to write a blog, but this far exceeds my writing ability.

 

[Chameleon_mama]

Nice I am ready! Although I realized I’m going to be out of town for the holidays so I’m going to start with this small sample of eggs and then in the new year I’ll try more haha

 

[Crossingtami]

I've tried 2 x. Both times were a fail for me. Ugh. Got them to be around 1/4' then bamm....all died. My 1st attempt was with chow, 2nd was fresh mulberry. Was thinking of trying a 3rd bc hey...3rd times a charm. Right?!

 

[Ghostbirb]

Speaking of silkworms, where is the best place to buy them from?

 

[Asyaneo]

Speaking of silkworms, where is the best place to buy them from?

I usually buying from Josh's frogs or local provider for GA

 

[elizaann2]

I get mine either from Costal Silks or Frams Chams

 

[GrannyK]

Speaking of silkworms, where is the best place to buy them from?

I have bought from frams cham, reptilian arts, and tc insects. All good qualities.

 

[regal81455]

Marianne B. at Beastmodesilks-west.com always goes above and beyond for me it seems, price is competitive, and they show up alive.

I've also used Coastal once. The eventual outcome was fine but initially it didn't go the greatest. Might've just been a fluke and in fairness to them, they did make it right.

 

[MissSkittles]

Thank goodness just about all of my remaining silkworms are nice and snug in their little cocoons and in about a week or two, they’ll be emerging as beautiful and cute little moths. This recent batch of 500 eggs, was much closer to 1000 and keeping them clean and fed was a chore.
Quick tip - If you ever have a silkie that didn’t quite have enough silk or energy to make it into a cocoon, it does still have a chance. You can either gently and loosely wrap some spare silk around it or, reuse an old hatched cocoon and carefully place the pupae inside. I always keep some old cocoons for this. So far, every time I’ve had these naked pupae, they all hatch just fine.