Silk, Horn, and Butter Worms

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Hey everybody!

Well i have a few stupid questions on these worms:

Does anybody feed these to savanah monitors?

Reason of question:

I am interested in giving my lil guy i very varied diet. Since the butterworms are high in calcium i think it would be a plus to his diet. Also, the silkworms and hornworms provide good nutrition and seem to be a great source of nutrients for other herps.

Can you breed butterworms in Canada?

Reason of question:

I have read that they are I______(some word, starts with an I, sorry i forgot it) to get rid of the parasites when they are exported from Chile and this prevents them from becoming cocoons. I am wondering if you can get some that are breedable?

Can you, and how do you breed (tobacco)hornworms?

Reason of question:

I havent found much info on care for them and nothing even close to breeding though I have seen some when i was in the US and i have seen the "hawk moths" and i know they are big but can you breed them in captivity and if so how?

Thanks to all who reply!

Chris

[ChristinaM]

The only question I can answer is on the butterworms.

As far as I know, there is no way to breed them :(

Silkworms are easily done tho. Silkworms of a larger size than the butters have more calcium too. (when comparing silks and butters of the same size, butters have more calc)

hope that helps a bit anyways.

[Linds]

I always though silkworms.ca bred butterworms? :confused:

I *think* that the hornworms need to be bred several generations in captovity to rid themselves of poison, not 100% on this one.

[brandi]

I don't know about tobacco hornworms, but i get tomato hornworms in my garden every year. I think its eating the tomato leaves that makes them poisonous. (tomato leaves are toxic!) I haven't grown tomatos in years, now they mostly feed on my grape vines (grrr)! but since i know they aren't eating tomatos, i feed them to my lizards regularly with no ill effects. can't tell ya about breeding them, just that the ones in my garden seem to be okay. (no pesticides, etc). Good luck with them!

[sevenofthorns]

Nope...no one breeds butterworms. They are imported through only two sources in all of Canada.

The best option to use silkworms though is because of their high protein. They are well rounded otherwise, and are also a great source of calcium, but butterworms have higher calcium as a percentage of body mass, which means feeding two butterworms vs one larger silkworm, the butters provide more calcium.