Silkie mansion

[KatCham]

Well I was hoping to share some pics of the silkie mansion I made, but my
Camera cable has decided to break

Have made it using a 4 drawer plastic storage unit thing. Much easier than all those tubs!

Even got my first silk spinning a cocoon tonight

Have ordered a new cable from eBay, so as soon as I can I'll post pics.

 

[Whatcamo]

Sounds good can't wait to see pics

 

[Miss Lily]

I am also interested to see the pics! I had at least 30 cricket tubs piled up at one point!

 

[KatCham]

I am also interested to see the pics! I had at least 30 cricket tubs piled up at one point!

HAHA!! WOW!

Gets a bit crazy when you need to split the colony when they get humongous!! LOL I had a few containers going n just thought this is getting silly!!!

Only thing I'm finding is that it doesn't keep the chow as moist for as long but I'm cleaning then feeding once a day and they seem to be doing good.

Adults are eating everything in sight!! LOL

Hope my camera lead hurries up and gets here so I can get the pics on here for you!

Reckon I'll need another tower when I've got eggs n hatchlings on the go!!

Don't think I'll need to buy silks again!! LOL

Simba loves them now tho, so all this hard work is worth it

Expecting to find more worms spinning when I get home from work

Will post pics ASAP

 

[KatCham]

AAAAAAARGGHH I wish my camera was working!!

Think I'm going to use the idea of having a mesh tray for the frass to fall thru, incorporating it into the unit I already have.

Rather than cutting the bottoms out, just create a frame with mesh on top, which sits in the tray, keeping the worms up off the bottom of the tray and cleaning out n feeding much easier.

Again, as soon as camera fixed, will post pics

 

[Miss Lily]

This just gets better and better! I can't wait to see the pics! I might have to 'borrow' that idea! I had cricket tubs everywhere at the end! I only had 3 or 4 huge silkies in each tub as they eat and poop so much!

 

[KatCham]

Bloody silks!!!!

Three of em in the penthouse suite have gone and cocooned in the top of the housing part of the drawer unit, so I can't get the flippin drawer open now!! They obviously don't think much of the loo rolls!!

Don't want to disturb them or they'll stop spinning. Other 2 worms in there better start spinning soon coz I can't feed em!!
So, 4 cocoons on the go now.

Worms on the 2nd floor haven't started spinning yet but look like they might burst at any moment. Fat little buggers!! LOL

So, lesson learned here.

Amendments for future:

Frame with mesh sat in bottom of tray so frass falls through making feeding and cleaning easier.

LIDS on the drawers, so they can't get up into the housing part and cause a hinderance!! LOL

Come on camera cable!! Hurry up and get here so I can share my project with these good people!!!

 

[Miss Lily]

Oh dear! I found that mine didn't really like toilet roll tubes either. Most spun on the lids/side of the cricket tubs, and very few of them used to tubes.

 

[KatCham]

Oh dear! I found that mine didn't really like toilet roll tubes either. Most spun on the lids/side of the cricket tubs, and very few of them used to tubes.

LOL! Typical eh?!?!

Will just leave em be n sort them all into 1 bin after they've all finished spinning

 

[Miss Lily]

You can move the cocoons 4 days after they start spinning. The moths are so pretty! Most of mine have died now though, but I still have about 10 cocoons left that I am waiting on.

 

[KatCham]

You can move the cocoons 4 days after they start spinning. The moths are so pretty! Most of mine have died now though, but I still have about 10 cocoons left that I am waiting on.

Yeah, I read to leave them until 4 days after the last one starts spinning so as not to disturb them and risk aborting spin.

I can't wait for the moths!!! They are soooooo cute!!!!

Then it's back to square 1 with the whole process HAHAHA!!!

Silkies, Silkies everywhere!!!!

So spoilt that Simba! His MistKing came today too

 

[KatCham]

Finally!!! Got my new camera cable!!

Here's the pics of the silkie mansion:

The youngsters:

The 3rd floor:

The penthouse suite:

First cocoon went perfectly:

Then the penthouse lot decided to cocoon in the housing and randomly within the drawer so i can't open it!!

Will wait till I come back from holls, then put all the cocoons in the one bin

Should've taken some more pics of them tonight coz they're HUUUUUGE!!!

But, Simba sleeping so best not disturb him

 

[Miss Lily]

Woah! That looks great! I found that mien decided to spin from the lid of the crickets tubs too rather than use the tubes I conveniently placed in there for them! I have no cocoons left now - I had 13 left and decided to cut them open today as it's been a few weeks since the last moth emerged. I found that all of the silkies had died after spinning. Only two had actually pupated inside but had still died. How inconsiderate of them!

 

[KatCham]

Woah! That looks great! I found that mien decided to spin from the lid of the crickets tubs too rather than use the tubes I conveniently placed in there for them! I have no cocoons left now - I had 13 left and decided to cut them open today as it's been a few weeks since the last moth emerged. I found that all of the silkies had died after spinning. Only two had actually pupated inside but had still died. How inconsiderate of them!

Thanks hun.

Awww, what a shame!!! All that work bless them.

I'm hoping I'll have at least a few eggs.

Got yours to be getting on with come April, then by the time they're up and about, the next eggs will be getting laid n put in the fridge etc...

Then all this 'fun' starts again LOL!!!

He's really loving the silks. He ate a MASSIVE one on Tuesday. Needless to say, the 2nd one I put in wasn't touched.

It was quite funny actually, n I wish my camera had been to hand, as just after he ate it, he was up at his basking spot, literally posing like a proud lion (Simba - Lion king, Ironic!!!LOL) with his head up in the air like he was King of Pride Rock!!! LOL HAHAHA!!!

Going to feed him tomorrow n leave some extra feeders in there so he can eat over the weekend if he wants to.

Then will feed again on Monday.

I'm confident he'll be ok, although I'll still probably worry knowing me!! HAHA!!

AND I'm over the moon my brave lil boy made it to the photo contest!!

I'm made up and so proud of him n his smiling cute lil face!! Even if he doesn't win I'm ecstatic he made it that far!! Bless that gorgeous boy!! xxx

 

[Miss Lily]

Bless him! I saw that he got through to voting! Well done both of you! He is such a gorgeous boy and I'm so pleased he is eating again!

 

[Whatcamo]

That looks great where did you pick up those drawers from? The look nice

 

[KatCham]

That looks great where did you pick up those drawers from? The look nice

Thanks

They are from wilkinsons store. They sell everything! Lol!

 

[MagicEngineer]

OK, so i am a bit confused. Do chams actually eat the worms, or do you wait and feed them the moths?

 

[Miss Lily]

Chameleons LOVE both silkworms and silkmoths. But you don't feed the moths off to the chams until they have mated and laid there eggs. I think the moths are far too pretty to be eaten and can't bear to feed them to my chams! They are very hard to get hold of here in the UK and I have had the best success when raising silkworms from eggs.

 

[KatCham]

Got 14 cocoons now

Means I don't have any silks to feed at the mo, but I'm just going to feed alternative feeders to keep his diet varied till I've got silks big enough to feed again.

Then I doubt I'll ever be short of em!! LOL

Will keep you posted