Evaluation: Butterworms

[Designer Geckos]

From our website's News page:

Designer Geckos will, from time to time, evaluate new products for leos:

Butterworms - We have been working with Butterworms for a few months now to determine their feasibility as an alternate feeder for leos. (Butterworms are available online from a few sources....we chose to obtain ours from Mulberry Farms.) Butterworms need to be kept refrigerated, and should be supplemented with fresh carrot slices to keep them plump. We ordered ours 250 at a time for $40. While that may sound like an expensive feeder, keep in mind that you may only feed one or two per day, and as an alternative to mealworms, superworms, crickets, or whatever else you may routinely feed your leos. Our results were really quite good, and we have decided, based on our evaluation, that we will be using butterworms. They are low in fat and high in calcium and protein. They arrive in various sizes, so we use the small ones for our small leos and the big ones for mature leos. Note that not all leos will eat butterworms. For some reason, we found that the leos either loved them or loathed them, turning their heads and giving them "the stinkeye" if they did not want them! But for the ones who did like them, we found the butterworms to be a great feeder. These worms also have a lot of pigment in them, an orange/pink color, and we theorized that the leos that routinely ate butterworms exhibited enhanced coloration, particularly the tangerines and sunglows....a nice added benefit. They also came in handy for the fussy eaters, and in feeding juveniles that were somewhat reluctant eaters. To summarize, we feel that butterworms are a very good feeder and worth adding to your leo feeding procedures. Hope this info was useful for you.

Next product evaluation: ZooMed's Repti-Shedding Aid.

 

[jamncristian]

very good evaluation
butter worms also have the highest calcium levels of any feeders used so far:main_thumbsup:

 

[StatikStepz]

very good evaluation
butter worms also have the highest calcium levels of any feeders used so far:main_thumbsup:

Phoenix Worms are higher, but nevertheless, Butterworms are still top notch! :main_thumbsup:

Butterworms are great! I use them alot, and get them from Mulberry Farms aswell! And my geckos love them!

 

[Halley]

What’s the calcium to phosphorus ratio? Does anybody know?

 

[StatikStepz]

go to www.mulberryfarms.com... you can look at all the tables on there! They list it for each feeder! :thumbsup:

 

[Kristi23]

I wish more of my geckos liked them. I've tried a few times and not many will eat them. I do like that they stay alive a lot longer than other worms.

 

[KelliH]

Excellent information Ray. Many of my leos don't like butterworms for whatever reason, same with silkworms. Throw a waxworm in front of them though and they go nuts. I haven't tried phoenix worms yet.

 

[Designer Geckos]

Excellent information Ray. Many of my leos don't like butterworms for whatever reason, same with silkworms. Throw a waxworm in front of them though and they go nuts. I haven't tried phoenix worms yet.

Yep, some leos refuse them. I've found that if you don't feed leos for a day or two, then offer a butterworm of appropriate size, they will eat them. Once they try them and find they like them, it is easier to get them to eat them.
My big male sunglow would only eat crickets for the longest time....then I finally switched him over to butters and he is doing great on them (I hate to use crickets). He's a big boy, so I only need to give him one huge butterworm a day, sometimes every other day, and that's all he needs. Makes feeding him so much easier, plus he seems so much healthier and brighter than he did on crickets.
I try to get as many of my leos to eat them as possible because they are very good for them, plus the colors of the leos that do eat them seem to improve quickly.....people notice this phenomenon in birds as well, so there's something to that.
As for phoenix worms, I don't like them because they are way too mobile and get everywhere! Kind of a pain. Too bad because they are very nutritious feeders.

 

[Taquiq]

I really got to mix up my leos diet.
I might start with Butterworms!

 

[StatikStepz]

As for phoenix worms, I don't like them because they are way too mobile and get everywhere! Kind of a pain. Too bad because they are very nutritious feeders.

Hmm... thats wierd, I actually found them to be quite the opposite! They come in a little cup, sealed nice and good, which they cannot get out of, and all you have to do it just keep it moist with a couple drops of water, and they are good to go... don't have to gutload them or dust them, because they don't need it, so there is very little effort needed to use them. And they are non-stop "wigglers"... they don't stop moving, so they always attract a leo's attention... unlike mealies or superworms which if not eaten, will slow down, and not move after a while, until "woken up". And all my geckos took to them right away... well, the one's i fed them to anyway, cuz all i got was 100 of them, so i picked which geckos got them, and out of all those, i never had one that refused it. And i just dropped them in my gecko's food dish, which they can not get out of, so they never got anywhere but in my leo's stomachs!

I would deffinately give them another try, because i don't think they are really that much of a pain. I'll tell u this much, i feed superworms on the regular to my geckos, and they are sooooooooo much more difficult! If phoenix worms were the price of supers, i would feed them, and them only!

 

[STUTFL]

My leo spits out Phoenix worms, but I'm still trying.

 

[Revilo]

Hey folks, long time lurker, first time poster.

Anyway, butterworms sound absolutely fantastic and I would make the switch in a heartbeat, but I have read in many places that they are too high in calories to be offered as a primary diet. Mulberry Farm's own website states that they have 87 calories/fat. Now, I don't know what that number means, but if it means that there are 87 calories in a butterworm it does seem high.

Also, considering that in the wild butterworms exclusively eat the leaves of the tebo bush, do they truly have the capacity to eat any kind of gutloading material?

 

[Designer Geckos]

Hey folks, long time lurker, first time poster.

Anyway, butterworms sound absolutely fantastic and I would make the switch in a heartbeat, but I have read in many places that they are too high in calories to be offered as a primary diet. Mulberry Farm's own website states that they have 87 calories/fat. Now, I don't know what that number means, but if it means that there are 87 calories in a butterworm it does seem high.

Also, considering that in the wild butterworms exclusively eat the leaves of the tebo bush, do they truly have the capacity to eat any kind of gutloading material?

Hi Revilo,

Welcome on your first post....I am a new guy here as well!

I would not read a whole lot into the calorie/fat # because I don't think it extrapolates into anything particularly meaningful since you will use them sparingly anyway. The leos we feed butters to do not get fat because they generally only eat 1 or 2 per day or every other day. The following chart shows that butters have 600% less fat than mealies, and 600% more calcium than mealies...pretty significant numbers.
In defense of mealies, they are much higher in protein than butters, but that increases the load on the kidneys as well, so lower protein is not necessarily a bad thing.
I think that it is best to give a varied diet. Some leos will only eat certain feeders though unfortunately.
As for gutloading, butters are like waxworms in that they don't need to be gutloaded per se, but you should provide carrot slices to them, which they do eat in the cold fridge!
Hope this answers your questions. I am no expert on butterworms, and not a whole lot is even known about them yet, but I have checked into them pretty extensively and feel comfortable using them....and they do have some real benefits if you can get your leos to eat them.
Also, remember that butters will come in in various sizes, some tiny, some huge....feed the size to your leos based on what is appropriate....you'll see which ones are best for which leos. I take out the number I'll need per feeding from the fridge and let them warm to room temp in a dixie cup before I feed them so the leos aren't eating cold worms.....the ones you don't end up feeding can be put back into the fridge for next time.

http://www.gonebuggy.com/insects.html

 

[ALGeckos]

Thank you for the evaluation! I will definitely give butterworms a try sometime soon... since I need to make a trip to the pet store after work anyway, I'll see if my local one carries them to test them out... otherwise, it's crickets again tonight!

 

[Blacksupra94]

so is there a need to dust butter worms with calcium?