Hornworms Vs Silkworms

[MisterD83]

Ok, I've figured out I have 2 extremely picky eaters.

1) my male, will eat crickets before hornworms. I actually watched him taste a hornworm then chase down a cricket on the opposite side of the 50gal tank. Its funny watching him learn to stalk crickets!!

2) my female, only eats crickets every third day. I'm guessing its her way of saying "crickets are yucky!!" I even reduced the size to half of what she should be eating to tempt her to eat them - didnt work. But she eats hornworms like there is no tomorrow and usually eats them with out hesitation when I place them in the tank.

I'm thinking the female will eat silkworms, but I haven't tried her on them yet. Now to my question, Has anyone seen any kind of feeder quality comparisons from hornworms and silkworms?

Thanks in advance, everyone!!

 

[PatsyB]

UGH, I hate picky eaters! I'm going through that myself right now. My 1 1/2 year old female has decided she doesn't like crickets. She won't hunt them, she will just watch them walk around her tank. If I put them in a bowl for her she will maybe eat one just to pacify me. Now she loves super worms but the past few days I've noticed she doesn't get as excited about them as she used to but she does still eat them. My 6 month old male used to eat crickets 2 times a day and has decided he only wants them once a day, at dinner time....which I'm not always home for.

I know quite a few people use hornworms, they are supposed to be very nutritious, I don't know about silkworms.

 

[lisa127]

No crickets are ever allowed in my home, so I would have no problem with your picky beardies....lol. Most beardies love superworms I know. But you want variety. I believe that both hornworms and silkworms are quite nutrtitious. I have not tried silkworms as they sound like a pain to take care of.

 

[MisterD83]

from research, silkworms are 100% human dependent from birth with no immune system. but the bonus is (and I finally found the nutrition list I was looking for) is the silkworms have an enzyme that aids in calcium absorption.

This is where I looked
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

But knowing she eats hornworms, and I'm only guessing she will eat silkworms, I may just breed the hornworms for her instead. using silkworms and repti / pheonix worms as treats

 

[PatsyB]

I actually just ordered a cup of hornworms to see if my girl will eat them. I think she will because they are worms and she seems to go after worms. I'm afraid she won't because she may just think it's a piece of green wiggling around the tank and ignore it!

 

[MisterD83]

The ones my herp store has are teal. And this morning my female, Beatrix, made a mess with her breakfast worm. It squited all over her face. Lmao. After reading on the breeding process on hornworms. Cant do it, no space for a tomato plant. :/

 

[PatsyB]

The ones my herp store has are teal. And this morning my female, Beatrix, made a mess with her breakfast worm. It squited all over her face. Lmao. After reading on the breeding process on hornworms. Cant do it, no space for a tomato plant. :/

I think you can do it without a tomato plant. Tomato plant leaves are toxic so it would make the worms toxic.

 

[PatsyB]

My only concern is... I had horn worms once on my tomato plant and I tried and tried to pick them off the leaves and I couldn't move them! I tried everything they would not budge! I'm hoping this isn't going to be the case with the ones I bought for Dexter.

 

[MisterD83]

Their feet are like hooks, kinda like the firm side of velcrow.

I gently push on them, then push towards their head finally lift off the surface.

All the breeding tutorials ive seen say they lay eggs on tomato or tobaco plants.

 

[PatsyB]

Their feet are like hooks, kinda like the firm side of velcrow.

I gently push on them, then push towards their head finally lift off the surface.

All the breeding tutorials I've seen say they lay eggs on tomato or tobaco plants.

Thanks for the tip! I just looked at a breeding "how-to" and it says tomato plant too....I guess if you take the eggs off the plant before they hatch and eat the leaves then it's okay. If I had my own house, I think I would try to breed my own feeders.

 

[MisterD83]

Finding apartment friendly feeders is hard, apartment friendly bread feeder is a bit harder. Lol

 

[MisterD83]

According to Fedex, my silkworms are in. This morning I had tweaked the heat lamp on the tank they are going into so they are between 82 - 84 degrees 24/7 long. lets see if I can keep them going and if my picky female will eat them.

 

[MisterD83]

Silkworm care isn't too hard, basically good hygiene / husbandry is all they need. most grew an 1/8 to 1/4 inch over night at about 85 degrees F.

The picky female ate 3-5 of 20 this morning after chasing and eating a cricket that is too big for her :/ She then turner her attention to crickets again after basking.

The male ate 2 after eating a cricket before basking and depositing his daily huge poop then chased more crickets.

3/4 inch crickets love silkworms. - kinda to my suprise- so at least I know the worms wont go to waste. I"ll do a check after work today to see how many were eaten by crickets vs dragons.

I'll likely be getting hornworm eggs to hatch since the female readily eats them

 

[MisterD83]

Yay!! I got my female to eat 10 - 15 1/2 - 3/4 inch long silkworms (then she ate a 3/4 inch cricket, again. :/ ). She will only ate them as I placed them 1 at a time in front of her once 3 that I didn't separate fell into the tank, she stopped eating them. Coincidence I'm hoping.

 

[PatsyB]

Mine got their first treat of hornworms this afternoon. Dexter didn't catch on right away, they worm wasn't moving enough for her so I tipped it over and then she got excited and ate it! Luci was so excited he actually ate out of my hand which he never does! I didn't give them too many, the worms are kinda on the small side at the moment but they seem to grow fast.

Thanks for the tip about unsticking them, I managed to get them out of the container with no problem.

 

[MisterD83]

Youre welcome. If kept at 74-76 degrees F over night, they will be 1 1/2 - 2" and 3/8" thick by morning

 

[PatsyB]

Youre welcome. If kept at 74-76 degrees F over night, they will be 1 1/2 - 2" and 3/8" thick by morning

That might just happen....it was 93 degrees in Chicago today!

 

[MisterD83]

Wow!!

I just watched my female eat 3 - 5 2/3 to 3/4 inch crickets readily. Chasing them down in her happy colors. Do silkworms increase appitite for other insects too?

 

[PatsyB]

Not sure, don't know too anything about silkworms but that's great that she's hunting crickets like that. My little one will chase them around his tank but my big girl waits for her food to come to her LOL!

 

[MisterD83]

It is great, im just bit worried about impaction and the paralysis with her. I think the crickets are a little too big till she sheds again. The space between her eyes if slightly larger than half an inch but the bodies of the crickets if taken the long way is just barely wider than her eye space.

Im not so worried with steiner as he is larger, weighing almost double beatrix.