Silkworms, Dusting and DinoFuel

[RoskaL]

ok so im in uk and want to try silkworms for my cham, i currently feed gutloaded criks with repashy bugburger/dinofuel rapto mix and dust with repashy calcium+, if i change to silkworms do i only dust once a week? and damp the silkworm to dust with the dinofuel?

anyone have any tips?
thanks

 

[RoskaL]

bump? anyone

 

[sandrachameleon]

ok so im in uk and want to try silkworms for my cham, i currently feed gutloaded criks with repashy bugburger/dinofuel rapto mix and dust with repashy calcium+, if i change to silkworms do i only dust once a week? and damp the silkworm to dust with the dinofuel?

anyone have any tips?
thanks

you can continue to use what you are using for the crickets on the days you offer crickets.

feed the silkworms mulberry tree leaves, dandelion leaves, grape vine leaves, thin shaved carrot, rocket.... they may nibble the bug burger too, though including real food is IMHO better than just bug burger alone.

consider adding a couple more prey choices to the menu. I suggest that you have five (or more!) options, and that no one of those options exceeds 40% of the chameleons diet. Some other choices likely available to you are locust and butterworms. I know locust would eat bug burger to some degree, and likely the dino fuel as well.

If you provide a wide variety of well gutloaded prey Its not really necessary, IMHO, to dust every day with supplements, including repashy.

Even if you only offer cricket and silkworms, you dont need to dust the silkworms most of the time, unless they are making up half or more of the chameleons diet - assuming you are gutloading of course.

 

[ibdragons]

I feed Silkworms only as a treat .I don't think u can gutload them because they only eat mulberry leaves. They are high in calcium. I tried dampening one and they get all messy. In my opinion u should still use Crix so u can gutload them with more stuff. Only use the Silkworms as treats.

 

[sandrachameleon]

II don't think u can gutload them because they only eat mulberry leaves.

actually, they eat plenty of things beyond mulberry. very easily gutloaded.

 

[ibdragons]

Thanks Sandra ,I learn something everyday. The last time I ran out of mulberry food i had like 20 silks and I stopped feeding them .

 

[RoskaL]

I thought it causes pain if you feed them anything else as they can only digest mulberry?

 

[sandrachameleon]

nope, highly doubt there is any pain involved. they willingly choose to eat dandelion and grape vine leaves, even if mulberry is present. They're not big on carrot, but will eat it if nothing else is immediately around - they dont go walking around looking for anything else, so it cant be that awful.

I have raised and bred them using a 50% non-mulberry, 50% mulberry-based ratio of food.

I think the mulberry chow producers would prefer you fed them only mulberry chow. Certainly their natural food is mullberry leaves. and if you have the mulberry leaves, by all means use them most of the time. Doesnt hurt to occassionally vary the diet though - after all, its about the chameleon, not the silkworms.

although, I rather like silkworms. soft and somehow charming.

Thanks Sandra ,I learn something everyday. The last time I ran out of mulberry food i had like 20 silks and I stopped feeding them .

bummer

 

[RoskaL]

Mine should be coming tomorrow hopefully

 

[ZuggieTheCham]

I use silkworms quite abit zuggie just absolutely loves them i use banana roaches too currently breeding the pair, if i bought some Dino fuel would they eat this??

 

[Zubi]

I use silkworms quite abit zuggie just absolutely loves them i use banana roaches too currently breeding the pair, if i bought some Dino fuel would they eat this??

Yup I use dinofuel and I feed it to my feeders as well as dust the feeders in it. I have noticed a very drastic and a very satisfying change in the color of my cham, as well as how fast he eats the food. He loves it when i dust them in it

 

[ZuggieTheCham]

What can u just dust your food with dino fuel? Like one day repashy and one day dino? I really want to try it

 

[ZuggieTheCham]

Oh and is it made by repashy?

 

[Zubi]

No its made by Tom kilgour, He is a cham breeder. I use it with repashy, I put the dinofuel in the cup, then the crickets, then i just dust the repashy and shake the cup up, It gets both repashy and dinofuel onto the crickets

 

[RealIzeRecognIze]

I don't know who makes it.but I have a hard.time getting dubia and.crix to eat the Dino fuel rap edition. Also I can't seem to get everything stuck on the feeders little seeds and such so I just do a half calcium half dinofuel mix for dusting and just straight dinofuel for.dry gutload.

 

[ZuggieTheCham]

Ahh right thanks for the info
I live in the uk, does anyone know were i can get some from? Or do you have to order off that guy?

 

[Zubi]

No idea, but you could email him, I think he does international shipping

 

[ZuggieTheCham]

Ive just ordered two bags thanks

 

[Zubi]

Ive just ordered two bags thanks

nice, regular or raptor, Im currently doing both, and my boy is getting purple bars

 

[RoskaL]

I use raptor, currently 50/50 mix with bug burger, then add water and microwave for 40 seconds, stir then put it on a metal baking tray into a rectangle and slice into little portions, the freeze it and bag it so I just have to pull a few cubes out at night and chuck in with the crix, they love it

Then dust with repashy calcium plus at every feed and Boris my cham is looking great and loves em

But iv ordered a colony of 250 silk worms to breed for him so hopefully he'll like them as well