Hornworms and Silkworms

[Escalade]

I wan't to order both hornworms and slikworms but I have a couple questions.

1. How many times a day/week can I feed my 4 month old panther them?

2. Do they have small enough worms for my cham and will the worms not grow to fast? (I read you can put hornworms in a wine cooler to slow growth.

 

[carol5208]

you can feed silkworms pretty much everyday, or atleast I do. I feed every other day now but I usually feed silks when I do. They do not grow that fast. You can buy small ones which will work good for a 4 month old. The horns, well thats a different story! They grow extrememly fast. I use those more as treats. I have never heard of putting in a wine cooler but have heard of putting in fridge to slow down growth. I have never done this. I usually just remove them from the food source for a day or so to slow down their growth. They will grow right before your eyes and often times get way too big to feed to a cham that is your size.

 

[Symbiot]

Silkworms are very nutritious for your cham, some people feed them to their cham as a staple along with crickets. They can be offered several times a week without worry. Hornworms on the other hand should be offered less. They aren't bad for your cham and do well for rehydration but feeding too many too often can cause their poop to be really runny. It's good to offer an even mix of soft bodied and hard bodied insects because of this. I would recommend offering hornworms only once or twice a week.

Hornworms grow extremely quickly. If you want to somehow control their growth feed them less often just as long as you make sure not to starve them so they won't die. I'm not sure about keeping them in a wine cooler but if you keep them in temperatures around the 60's they will also grow more slowly.

 

[Escalade]

you can feed silkworms pretty much everyday, or atleast I do. I feed every other day now but I usually feed silks when I do. They do not grow that fast. You can buy small ones which will work good for a 4 month old. The horns, well thats a different story! They grow extrememly fast. I use those more as treats. I have never heard of putting in a wine cooler but have heard of putting in fridge to slow down growth. I have never done this. I usually just remove them from the food source for a day or so to slow down their growth. They will grow right before your eyes and often times get way too big to feed to a cham that is your size.

looks like i will just be getting silkworms then. I read about putting them in a wine cooler on mullberryfarms.com it says a fridge will be to cold but a wine cooler would be the right temp.

 

[Escalade]

oh ya forgot to mention, what about butter worms? can you feed them as much as silk worms and do they grow fast?

 

[laurie]

Butter worms grow very, very slowly. They live in the frig and are no work. I don't think I would feed any feeder every day. I always have at least 3 feeders on hand as they want and need the variety. I buy butter's from Northwest Chameleons, a site sponsor.