silkworm food

[Bartman]

How long would a pound of silkworm food last for 100 silk worms. The reason for this question is beacuse im planning on buying a 100 from silkworms.ca and i wanted to know if they are going to become silk balls before im done. Last time i bought from them, from the show, i lost 10 to deaths. I guess i wasnt feeding right. If i split them up into two groups of fifty..medium and large guys..how many cubes a day would i offer to each group..thanks

btw, by cubes i mean the little cubes that silkworm.ca chops them up into..thanks!

peace!!

[sevenofthorns]

The thing with silkworms is they die very easily from bacteria and such. Not handling the food or worms is a good way to help ensure this problem is avoided. I use gloves, and only clean their bins every few days.

As for food if you want them to be healthy and keep growing feed them enough so they can eat constantly until the next feeding. If you do this open the lids on their containers for an hour or so before the next feeding to let everything dry out (this should prevent mould and what not). Feeding less will keep them alive if you no longer wish them to grow and intend to use them up over the next few days/week. Keeping them cooler (do not put them in a fridge) will also slow down their growth and how much they will need to eat.

1lb of uncooked silkworm chow (4lb cooked) should raise 1000 silkworms from egg to adult moths.

If you have any questions about it just send an email to Rob from Silkworms.ca and he'll help you out, or send me an email and I'll try to help you out.

A good site for information is mulberryfarms.com.

Hope that helps,
Rob St. John
Owner of Canadian Feeders
http://www.canadianfeeders.com
rob@canadianfeeders.com

[ChristinaM]

general rules I've found that work for me

- feed the cubes, enough so that all the worms can eat at the same time (that should give you and idea of how many, after you do it once)

- I keep them in an open box....they seldom go anywhere, and the ventalation is good.

- I keep them on a "rack". A piece of plastic canvas held above the floor of the box with stryo...their poo drops through the canvas so you don't need to clean it as often.

[Bartman]

thanks!
could you explain your "rack" a lil more..id like to know how that works..if you have a pic that owuld be great

[ChristinaM]

I don't have a pic at the moment, but will explain as best as I can.

Do you know what plastic canvas is? (the stuff for crafts, needlepoint)....if not...

It's a flexible plastic sheet the size of a sheet of paper, made of lines running both ways leaving little open squares. ( just found an online pic )

That's the canvas. The open squares(not shown well in that pic) are the perfect size for poo to drop thru.

I make a frame, generally out of stryo, to fit inside the box I keep worms in. Picture a table with legs. The plastic canvas being the tabletop. The worms go ontop of it.

To clean, lift out the "rack" with worms and all, dump the poo that has fallen to the bottom of the box, and any that may not have made it thru the squares, then put back together.

Generally I buy alot of worms, so I use a 2ft x 2ft box. I had to sew 4 sheets together, and instead of 4 table legs, there is 7 (to support the middle)

I hope that helps.

[Bartman]

thakns i get it now, , im gonna start thinking about how to get some materials and where..thanks again!

[ccoutts]

i suggest you go to the local grocery store and buy some kale for $0.99 a bunch...they can't get enough it.

[kingChameleon]

Is it true that SilkWorms can eat Kale?

[Linds]

I've tried silkworms and kale and they wouldn't touch the stuff to save their lives (literally, they all ended up dying because they were to small for anything I have to want to eat them and they refused to eat any kale... )

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Could you buy a small mulberry tree and feed them actually leaves from a tree?

C.

[blazinreps]

thats actually what iw as planin on doin the trees in my area are about 70 bucks. i think a small tree would work.

[DragnDrop]

I've tried silkworms with kale. They did eat it, but more like a human kid facing a plate of spinach

Part of the problem when feeding 'real' leaves to silkworms is their weak mouth parts. Newly hatched and young worms have to have soft leaves. In nature silkworms hatch in spring when the leaves are still young and soft. It's no problem for them to chew into the leaves and gorge. As the leaves age and get tougher, the worms are growing too and have more chewing power. If you use real leaves for small silkworms, you have to use young leaves, or tear them up so the worms can get at the softer parts, not the tough outer edges. You could start small ones off with the soft chow and switch them to leaves as they get bigger, but then you have to make sure you have a good supply of leaves. It's not impossible to switch them from leaves back to chow if youre leaves are used up, but it's a challenge sometimes.