Feeding Silkworm Q

[Desdemona]

So, silk worms obviously make silk.. and it seems to take them no time at all to turn into a big worm ball when I put them in the container for the geckos. I am afraid they will choke on them. Is there some secret to safely feeding them silk worms? One of them eats right away when I feed them so I give them to her one at a time, but my other two don't always do so.

I have been using silkworms a lot lately, but I'm a bit paranoid I'm going to kill someone with them.

 

[gothra]

I only use medium/small silkworms, and I tweezer feed them most of the time. You're not the only paranoid person when it comes to silkworm silk choking them. I once blend some big silkworms in a blender, when done, there were huge amounts of silk material tightly tangled on the motor blades. I don't know how they produce the silk, but those "ingredients" solidified in the blender, and they were hard as wire. I had a real hard time cutting them off with scissors. I don't know if it's the same inside a gecko's stomach, but to be safe, I only use medium/small silkworms for my geckos now.

 

[Desdemona]

Thanks for the reply (I'm a bit behind...) I have a bearded dragon so I have no problem with getting rid of the bigger ones I have kept with pretty small ones too.. and watching to make sure they eat them right away. Hopefully my Dubai's will pick up soon so I don't have to give them so much!

Sort of off topic.. but I ordered some larger ones for the dragon and one was to big even for her (she is still only a foot long). So, I let it turn into a moth and she got to eat that instead, hehe. It was kind of cool to watch.

 

[malves85]

I've been feeding mine silks for quite a while now. I always feed the biggest ones off first. If they do get too big I just let them cocoon and either feed the larva off or get a few moths and breed them. I dont know if I would feed the moth to them. I would be afraid they have some poison or some kind of "dust" on them. I know its safe to feed the larva if you cut it out of the cocoon but I'm not sure on the moth.

 

[gothra]

I fed off male moths before, my leos seem to LOVE them. But I'll definately not use female moths due to all those eggs in their bellies.

 

[Desdemona]

I gave my one moth to my Bearded Dragon, I read on a site they were ok as feeders. How do you tell the gender? I have been buying silk eggs so they haven't had a chance to get that big. Has anyone here done eggs before? I didn't get a very good live rate with my last set... this time I am going to do things a little different. Use thinner strips of the food and keep the new hatched worms in the incubator 24/7... ie I will feed them in the incubator instead of taking it out to put the food in.

Any other tips would be appreciated! The few that did hatch were pretty healthy growers at least.