Silkworm food...?

[Remkon]

So I've got a bunch of silkworms for my chameleon and they eat a lot of their silkworm chow.
I read that they will also take dandelion leaves and endive which would save a lot of money but I'm concerned it will change the nutritious value of the silkworms since their diet normally only consists of mulberry leaves.

Does anybody know if it will be ok to raise silkworms on dandelion/endive?

 

[Dave85731]

I wanna say you can feed it to them but they won't live on it they'll eventually die but I could be wrong... best bet is mulberry leaves

 

[KapitalJ]

The dandelion will only keep them going for a few days at best. They need the chow, or Mulberry leaves... lots of Mulberry leaves..

 

[Twitchet]

Remkon, I'm guessing chow long term but I buy my chow from www.silkwormstore.co.uk Tom is really helpful and there's some good articles about silk worm care- The chow he sells is great- I'm going and getting though chow and worms like there's no tomorrow! the parsons are loving them!

 

[jajeanpierre]

I've heard you can feed them shredded carrots once in awhile.

I was surprised at how quickly they can die with the wrong food. I have a recent wild caught that was not eating, in fact I had been force feeding him for two or three months. Numerous vet appointments later, I went to a new vet, a zoo vet, who recommended I continue to force feed him but add one of the critical care carnivore diets the vets use. He recommended I gut load the silk worms with the critical care diet and force feed him with that. I separated a few silkworms to feed them the prescription diet and they promptly died, every single one of them.

 

[Gbetts1986]

I have tried carrots when I ran out of silk worm chow..they died within a few days. It wil give them a slight orange tint too

 

[Spyro]

Remkon, I'm guessing chow long term but I buy my chow from www.silkwormstore.co.uk Tom is really helpful and there's some good articles about silk worm care- The chow he sells is great- I'm going and getting though chow and worms like there's no tomorrow! the parsons are loving them!
How much is the shipping from the UK to the US?

 

[Remkon]

Well without a mullberry tree in my backyard breeding silkworms may likely be more expensive than just buying them...

I think I will feed the lot of silkworms I have now to Wurma and I'll keep a few to see if I can get some offspring out of those.

@Twitchet Thanks for the link... I don't know what shipment cost would be from UK to NL. (i've send them a mail) The prices in the UK store are better than the seller here, by a lot even (15€ for a kilo powdered chow) and I can get the leaves from there too.

 

[Twitchet]

Hi Remkon, and Spryo, I don't know what the postage would be- before I mentioned it i had a look to see if he did international postage but couldnt find anything, For here he charges customers the actual postage it costs him which is very fair, I've never bought powdered chow before but it goes a long way by the time you've added water- I cook mine on the hob and it's easy. They certainly are sensitive= i wash my hands and all containers and tools with antibacterial wash, they have very little resistance to disease, so far I've kept mine going without any die off.
I guess the only positive thing with other foods like carrots is you could gutload just before feeding. but not long term.
We're all going to have to buy mulberries- there is a variety/hybrid? between alba and rubra called illinois everbearing, it's a very quick growing one,
I believe Silkworms eat alba as there is alba, rubra, and nigra.
All getting to complicated- I'm buying chow.

 

[Remkon]

I'm waiting for a reply from them to tell me what postage would be. I can't order life silkworms since they would probably die during shipping but eggs, chow and leaves would certainly interest me.
Wurma seems to love the silkworms so it's something that I want to have in the house often as i can.

 

[Twitchet]

Great- let me know how you get on

 

[Andee]

I have started growing my own mulberry trees. It's super easy ^^

 

[Davecameos]

I think they will post to the Netherlands. I would not recommend feeding other things. They will probably die. If you are going to Hamm there is a guy selling bulk chow powder for good prices but I think you have to pre order it. I can give you his name if interested.

 

[Davecameos]

I have a white mulberry tree in my garden. They grow fast at this time of the year.
I heard if silkworms are eating chow they cannot eat leaves anymore but if they eat leaves and then you switch to chow it is ok.

 

[Remkon]

I think they will post to the Netherlands. I would not recommend feeding other things. They will probably die. If you are going to Hamm there is a guy selling bulk chow powder for good prices but I think you have to pre order it. I can give you his name if interested.

I don't think Ill be going to hamm, I may go to Houten in december.

 

[Davecameos]

I don't think Ill be going to hamm, I may go to Houten in december.

Ok I am not sure about Houten but worth a try.

 

[Davecameos]

Ok I am not sure about Houten but worth a try.

Silkmothfarm @ gmail.com is the person who sells the chow. Not sure if posting emails is allowed on here.

 

[Andee]

You can switch, it's just it takes a while to get them to switch over. You usually have to spread or pipe the chow onto the leaves in order to get them to switch over completely.

 

[Dave85731]

That's backwards if they eat leaves it's hard to get them on chow and if they eat chow it's no problem to get them on leaves

 

[Remkon]

Great- let me know how you get on

Shipment is 14,99 GBP (17,76€) for orders up to around 10KG+
Sounds like a lot but when I order within the Netherlands shipment is around 7€ so ordering 1 kilo powdered chow (that's 15€cheaper than here) would save me 5€ and 15€ for every extra kilo, so that's great!