Mulberry Farms

[emersonc]

I am getting really annoyed at the pet shop in town, the crickets they have are too small and they are filthy. I am thinking about ordering my Panther Chameleons food online, this way i can also get a bigger vartiey of food. I was looking at Mulberry Farms on the internet are they a good place to order from??? Are there better/less expensive places??? and, Any good new food ideas, What is your favorite???

 

[chrisandpugs]

Hi!
I am a huge fan of Mulberry Farms! Best mail-order company that I have dealt with so far and the insects are active and in top condition!
I like the fact that you can specific a particular size of silkworm in the container by noting it in their comment box and that the crickets come in see-thru rounded plastic containers(No need to transfer. Just use that as their permanent storage container and throw away afterwards.) rather than the typical big cardboxes that are such a pain to transfer the crickets into another permanent storage container.

Christine

P.S: Anybody out there with other favorite mail-order vendors, let us know because I'm open to other great vendors, too!

 

[IvorySerpent]

We have used Mulberry farms and will again in the future. They were awesome and the quality is wonderful.

 

[Scrappy]

Mulberry Farms is the only feeder company thatr I order from and I love them. (So does Bubba)

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

I've used Mulberry Farms for silkworms and have been very satisfied with their product and service. I've also used www.silkwormwholesale.com from time-to-time. Pam is located in Longview, WA which is not particularly close to you but it is in the same state . If you are going for multiple types of insects, Mulberry is probably a good choice for you. I've been to their location and they work pretty hard to keep their insects healthy.

 

[emersonc]

Sounds like they are a great source for food, i will order some from them soon, i just got a whole new bunch of crickets.

 

[emersonc]

All of these places seem rather expensive is ther anyother places that you all would recomend???

 

[Dave Weldon]

All of these places seem rather expensive is ther anyother places that you all would recomend???

Howdy,

Silks are relatively expensive and on top of that, it is easy to end up with a bunch dying for various biological reasons. There are parts of the year where you can do nothing to kill them and other parts where you can do nothing to save them. Summer is best. Right now, many of the silkie suppliers are back to having problems with their stock. If you are getting good batches from somewhere right now, be thankful! I think Mulberry Farms is still struggling with a recent poor hatch rate so their stocks will be low for a while.... If cost is your primary concern then you will want to buy eggs and hatch your own. This too, can be full of troubles. When it goes right it's great! When it goes wrong, you'll loose weeks of effort, ending with a gooey mess of dead silkworms. When I was hatching my own, I was selling-off my excess to the reptile store. Now I buy them from a local friend who raises them for her reptile breeding projects and she sells her excess tot he reptile store .

 

[MWheelock]

On-line food

Herpfood.com is cheap. As long as your order is>$10 shipping is free. You can get multiple insect types and various sizes as well. I buy from them often

Potential reasons you may not want to get them from there. On arrival, there are many dead crickets (not a crazy amount though.) I think they give you more to start off with, so it about evens out. I suspect that they are probably not adequately gut loaded right out of the box, but 24-48 hours of good nutrition by you gets them back into shape quickly.

If you get silkworms, you are not provided with any long term food or media. Same with mealworms, superworms and waxworms.

For me it is worth my time to rehabilitate the bugs. I was going to do that anyway, reguardless of the source. So, it ends up being cheaper overall.

One thing I highly suggest is raising your own dubia roaches. They don't really climb, fly and they tend to stay in the storage box regardless of vasaline. They don't smell, they don't take up any room at all. They are a good base diet (like crickets) and they breed relatively fast if you start off with a large enough colony. I keep 2 small sweater boxes, 1 for adults and 1 for small to medium nymphs that are not to big for consumption.

If you are interested, I suggest finding someone who will sell you a base colony for $30-$60 (for 100-200), otherwise you will be spending anywhere from$.50- $1.25 a roach. Otherwise Blaberus.com is who got me started. They also tell you how to keep your roaches. (It is really easy.)

Hopefully that was at least somewhat helpful.
Matthew

 

[Fate X]

i have been experimenting with silworms ,the first batch the chow was to moist because i did not cook off enough water.
after i got a high hatch rate and went ahead with the second feeding i spread the chow to thick and most of 400 dissolved in the chow.
the second time i was busy fixing my roof and skipped some feedings and most all of them died i have about 14 now thats survived it seems once they get 1/2 inch they are easier to keep alive.

i beleive raising them is a learning process i bought 2 pounds of dry chow from muhlberry farms because i am determined to figure out how to grow them and get a reasonable amount of worms.

like this last batch of chow i added less water and its drier i mean theres a technic here especailly spreading the chow thin etc . in the summer im gonna try n get some leaves cause i think they live more feeding from the leaves and my mom has a few these trees out back.

at herpfood.com you must order 15.00 minimum

until then i got plenty of chow, its in 1/2 pound packets.

 

[emersonc]

What is everyones take on butterworms. I have heard a lot about them lately and i was wondering what you all think. Also what about breeding them???

 

[Scrappy]

What is everyones take on butterworms. I have heard a lot about them lately and i was wondering what you all think. Also what about breeding them???

Interesting that you ask this....we were discussing it last night in chat. I did not know this but apparently butter worms will burrow into wood. I have a container of them in my fridge because my panther won't eat them.

And Dave's comment about a mushy silkie mess....I understand completely. I just bought a batch (100) from Mulberry Farms and most of them died. I tried feeding them leaves rather than the chow and they actually seemed to die off quicker. I should also mention that for some reason my cham decided he didn't want those anymore either. I also tried wax worms and he didn't want those either. Guess he's decided he don't like worms for now

Back to the basics of crickets for now and we'll attempt the silkies again later. I think I just gave him too many choices.