silkworm breeding

[Pygmy chameleon]

So i'm going to be ordering silkworms to start breeding but first i have a few questions how many should i order?how should they be housed?how to breed?is breeding a challenge? that's all the questions i have at the moment..i'm also open to any info that might be useful thanks!

 

[Twitchet]

Hi there, I buy micro sized worms or eggs and raise them and feed them off when they become appropriate size, I buy 500 at a time- sounds like a lot but I haven't yet got to the stage where I have enough to keep as cocoons, It lasts me about a month but i feed to 7 individuals of varying appetites. I keep mine in 7x5" plastic boxes with worms on a piece of mesh so the frass falls through and makes cleaning easier- I sterilise my hands, forceps , boxes, mesh etc every time I clean them out which is every day, but that's just my method.
Remkon is now raising worms and breeding moths and he's just written lots of info about how he keeps his, with full info about boxes, chow etc. Search 'silkworm care' and you'll find his posts here.

 

[Pygmy chameleon]

Hi there, I buy micro sized worms or eggs and raise them and feed them off when they become appropriate size, I buy 500 at a time- sounds like a lot but I haven't yet got to the stage where I have enough to keep as cocoons, It lasts me about a month but i feed to 7 individuals of varying appetites. I keep mine in 7x5" plastic boxes with worms on a piece of mesh so the frass falls through and makes cleaning easier- I sterilise my hands, forceps , boxes, mesh etc every time I clean them out which is every day, but that's just my method.
Remkon is now raising worms and breeding moths and he's just written lots of info about how he keeps his, with full info about boxes, chow etc. Search 'silkworm care' and you'll find his posts here.

Thank you its very appreciated!

 

[Remkon]

hi,
I wrote this caresheet not to long ago, i hope it helps you.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/silkworms-care.153416/

i started with 100 silkworms and also bought eggs... I've fed off around half of the silkworms and had the other half coccoon... I'm guessing 5 cocoons did not emerge and the moths were around half male half female...
I think I have around 3000k eggs now but this is a complete wild guess.

 

[Pygmy chameleon]

hi,
I wrote this caresheet not to long ago, i hope it helps you.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/silkworms-care.153416/

i started with 100 silkworms and also bought eggs... I've fed off around half of the silkworms and had the other half coccoon... I'm guessing 5 cocoons did not emerge and the moths were around half male half female...
I think I have around 3000k eggs now but this is a complete wild guess.

Thanks! I checked out your care sheet?if thats what u wanna call it and it was very helpful thanks again

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

I started with just 50 and fed off about half, and had a few die after being bullied out of food I think. Probably my fault as I was without food for them for 24 hrs once, which most of them survived no problem. i currently got like 15 cocoons and that will be more babies than i can even use really so hopefully my chams start eating them more when I have the worms hatched again.

 

[Remkon]

I started with just 50 and fed off about half, and had a few die after being bullied out of food I think. Probably my fault as I was without food for them for 24 hrs once, which most of them survived no problem. i currently got like 15 cocoons and that will be more babies than i can even use really so hopefully my chams start eating them more when I have the worms hatched again.

Thousands of eggs in the fridge... 30 cocoons at the moment and a lot of cocoons comming... I don't know what I'm going to do... I don't really want to throw away the eggs, i may try to give em away.
I wish I knew people with reptiles near me.

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

Thousands of eggs in the fridge... 30 cocoons at the moment and a lot of cocoons comming... I don't know what I'm going to do... I don't really want to throw away the eggs, i may try to give em away.
I wish I knew people with reptiles near me.

Do you live in the Cali Bay Area lol?

 

[Remkon]

Do you live in the Cali Bay Area lol?

nope, im in the Netherlands.

 

[BB Feeders]

nope, im in the Netherlands.

I would be interested in them(I also live in the Netherlands)! Setting up my insect racks this weekend. I would be willing to pay for them too.

Question - I was looking into food for them where are you buying it from?
-Julie

 

[Remkon]

@Boxlady, My startup bunch i bought at zijderupsen.eu but it's a very expensive store (and they can be because they have no competition here), after that I have bought and will buy my chow from http://www.silkwormstore.co.uk/
If you buy 1KG you have 5euro saved compared to zijderupsen.eu (including shipping), for every extra kilo (until 10 kilo) you'll save up like 10-15€ ...

I'm not looking to earn money, I just don't want to throw away perfectly good feeders
I can give you a bunch of eggs somewhere from half december - half january and they should hatch around 2-3 weeks later.

What are you planning to put in your insect racks?

I'm currently breeding (or trying to):
- Silkworms
- Dola beetles
- Superworms (morio worms)
- Dubia roaches
- Waxmoths

Maybe we can trade feeders sometime in the future...
Would be nice to have someone to give my abundance of feeders to and in return get some more variety of feeders for my reptiles and keep cost down a little along the way.

 

[BB Feeders]

@Boxlady, My startup bunch i bought at zijderupsen.eu but it's a very expensive store (and they can be because they have no competition here), after that I have bought and will buy my chow from http://www.silkwormstore.co.uk/
If you buy 1KG you have 5euro saved compared to zijderupsen.eu (including shipping), for every extra kilo (until 10 kilo) you'll save up like 10-15€ ...

I want to do Dubia, Silkworms and one more main feeder that I would like to breed. I was trying to find a place that does isopods here. I'm leaning more towards those as a main staple. I would also like to get a hornworm breeding bin going too. My husband is dead set against cricket’s long term. He can’t stand the noise.

He is setting up a breeder rack of mice for his corn snakes. So, we will have a farm here soon LOL! I haven’t got a cham yet was planning to try and find one at HAM in December or maybe the HAM after that. I want everything set up before hand.

Half Dec Or Jan sounds good. I’ll have to check out that site for food too. I found a place in Bulgaria that sells in bulk but you have to buy like 20kgs which is a lot for the first time :X

 

[Remkon]

20KG powdered chow will get you like 100KG prepared chow

As cricket I'm using Gryllus Assimilis (De Steppekrekel) they only make a tiny little noise and are less likely to escape.
I did isopods a while straight from the backyard but they are a bit small to feed to an adult cham, they are very easy to breed and cheap to keep too. Happy-reptiles.eu also sometimes has tropical isopods available.

I want hornworms too but I have never seen them available here
I'm still planning on getting snails and stick insects in the future.

 

[BB Feeders]

20KG powdered chow will get you like 100KG prepared chow

As cricket I'm using Gryllus Assimilis (De Steppekrekel) they only make a tiny little noise and are less likely to escape.
I did isopods a while straight from the backyard but they are a bit small to feed to an adult cham, they are very easy to breed and cheap to keep too. Happy-reptiles.eu also sometimes has tropical isopods available.

I want hornworms too but I have never seen them available here
I'm still planning on getting snails and stick insects in the future.

Are the tropical ones big enough?


I'll have to consider those crickets maybe I can talk him into a trial run... lol

I haven't found any hornworms here either however I was going to see if my mom would sneak some in when she comes and visit from the states

 

[Remkon]

I don't know the size of those, I never had them since I don't use em...

I'm sure your husband will approve, I also think cricket chirping is terribly annoying but with these guys I had no problems yet and they are slower so my cat can easily capture escapees and have more meat on em too.

 

[Remkon]

@Twitchet I see you lurking here! I want to send you some eggs too! I'm curious to know if they will arrive and hatch even if it's winter.

 

[Twitchet]

Lurking eh??? Yes I am, in the background checking up on what's going on.
Well, I'd love some eggs, how can I pay you or can I send you something?

 

[Remkon]

Lurking eh??? Yes I am, in the background checking up on what's going on.
Well, I'd love some eggs, how can I pay you or can I send you something?

No pay... I'll send em in an envelope (with some protection) when they come out the fridge so that's like 1-2€, I think I can survive spending that.
Your tip on the silkworm store saved me more than that.

I have more cocoons now than last time and most silks that haven't cocooned yet will do so soon.
I typed above that I bought 100 eggs but it were actually 200 and they send me more than that so I had around 250 hatchlings and only 2 or 3 died.

Once the moths emerge the amount of eggs will be crazy!
Since I'm not planning on becoming a store I rather give eggs away and maybe get a few bucks in return every once in a while to pay for more chow.

 

[Twitchet]

That's really kind of you and very much appreciated, I'm very pleased the silkwormstore proved so useful to you.