Silkworms

[J-Man]

Hey, I've decided I'm going to transition my new cham's staple diet from Crix and superworms to mainly silkworms. I will have variety, I'm only changing the staple. I've heard silkworms are the best possible feeder, is this true? Are they too "treat-ish"?

Also, I'm obviously not handling him at all. It's been exactly one week since I got him and I wanna clean out the cage but I know I'm supposed to let him be for a week or two. So.... should I clean out the cage anyway? And let the poor little dude be scared for an hour or so? Or let it be for another half a week or a week to let him adjust more?

Thanks for any replies!

[Ethan1]

Silkworms can be used as a staple diet for a chameleon. They are high in protein and calcium. You should clean out the cage so fungus and dust doesn't start to build up.

Hope this helps you out man!

[meow_mix450]

silkworm is the best you can feed your chameleon, well the next comming to that is hornworms. Hornworms would be at the top. But the best thing to do is to vary his foods, its great that your feeding silkworms but also feed some other stuff

Meow

[J-Man]

Ok, thanks for confirming that for me.

As for cleaing out his cage. It's very clean at the moment, at least to the naked eye. There's no mold or anything like that. I have a litter pan at the bottom to catch all of the water and poop, after that I have paper towels, and after that (under the cage entirely) I have towels. So it's very clean and I'm not sure it has to be cleaned out. It's not because I'm lazy or anything. I have no problem with cleaning it out, it's just that I don't wanna upset him too much.

[meow_mix450]

nop as long as theres no poo no mold and its clean free then its fine, clean the towels once in a while and that should be find. Thats my opinion though

Meow

[Ethan1]

Meow's right, if there is none of the stuff you mentioned your chameleons cage is alright and good luck J.

[J-Man]

Thanks.

I changed the paper towels today and cleaned out the litter pan. I see no mold whatsoever and it seems to be in good shape. Regardless of how it looks, I'm going to be cleaning it thoroughly in a half of a week or a week.

[CarlC]

Be carefull using them as the staple if you are only using the artifical food. The diet must contain some type of preservative and probably a mold inhibitor.
The best diet when you have access for the silkworms is mullberry. Although I still have yet to see any Mullberry around Ottawa is like a weed in most area's.

Carl

[Cruciform]

My girlfriend is convinced the bush in our front yard is mulberry, but I haven't found any good pics on google to compare it to.

I'd strip down the whole thing and flash freeze and vacuum seal the leaves if it is :)

Got pics of one?

[J-Man]

Carl,

I found out TODAY from my 13 year old sister that we have a mulberry tree in our yard. I looked it up in an old book and sure enough it's red mulberry. The worms are currently eating it like NUTS.

[meow_mix450]

yup its not hard to find a mulberr tree, i have a couple back for my house, The leaves of the shape and look different, some look like there demented and some jsut look like a leaf. They do grow mulberrys so if you see berrys then its a mulberry tree. Colours range from red to purple.

My question is how can i keep the lieaes good and fresh for the winter

Meow

[CarlC]

I think you will find you will get healthier worms when feeding the real thing.

A good way to getthe leaves to last for alittle longer when feeding small worms is to wrap the cut part of the stem in moist paper towel. Around the towel put a small baggie and seal it with a rubber band. The moister will keep the leaves going longer.

If you can manage to get a ton of leaves freezing works good. The leaves just don't last as long. They will sometimes get mushy.

The artificial diet is good to get through the winter. I have always just been leary of anything that contains preservatives. The nice thing is Mullberry leaves appear early.

Carl

[CarlC]

My girlfriend is convinced the bush in our front yard is mulberry, but I haven't found any good pics on google to compare it to.
>>>>>>>>>>>>

If you have some adult worms offer them some of the leaves. If they eat it you know you have Mullberry. Feed them the leaves for awhile just to make sure.

Carl

[J-Man]

Thanks a lot Carl.

[Cruciform]

I've been feeding the leaves from the mulberry bush outside to the two silks I brought home. They're devouring it and have created huge piles of poop already.

I'm going to try putting some leaves in a vacuum sealer bag and see how they freeze.

I wonder if they can be dried out and powdered for the silkworms as well.

[Cruciform]

blah. double post.

[meow_mix450]

its worth a try, give us an answer once ur done. I have just froze the leaves and once i take them out they become all dead like, it doesnt look healthly, but i havnt tried feeding it to them

Meow

[CarlC]

The problem with freezing is you are killing the cell structure of the plant. Atleast that what I think I remember reading. I am no plant expert.
To be successful with the freezing you would have to find a way to remove the water I would think.

But then again we come back to not using just one food. There are so many differant items that can be raised with alittle effort. Stick insects, mantis, grasshoppers, houseflies, roach's, waxworms, superworms and the list could go on and one.

Carl

[DragnDrop]

I've used thawed mulberry leaves a few times over the winter. It does work, but like Carl said, the cell structure is destroyed. All that really means is the cell 'explodes' when the water inside freezes (typical of freezing water, it expands, popping the cell). Thawed leaves are mushy, but the worms ate them. Just don't put too many leaves in at one time since they do go moldy fast once thawed. I found it worth drying the leaves a bit with a paper towel to remove any water from the ice crystals.

[meow_mix450]

well would throwing leaves in a bag and vaccum out all the air work? Its one of those machine things. Or would that still break the cell structure?

Meow

[DragnDrop]

Any moisture in the cells will expand, so you'd have to pretty well dry them to a crisp. Also, dried leaves have to have some water restored since it's the only source of moisture for the worms. The easiest is to freeze them, dry them a bit before feeding so they're not soaking wet, and feed the leaves in small portions. Or use the recipe to make the artificial chow from the dried leaves. I did find the ingredient list once while doing a search, but didn't save it since it looks like too much hassle for a 'kitchen- challenged' person like me :)