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Hey guys so Ive been feeding my guy silkworms and hes around 12 inches, hes been eating the 1"-1.5"inch ones fine but there are a couple of thick monster silkworms in there that I am sceptical about feeding him, maybe I should take some pictures for you. Hes had no problems in the past Im just worried about the big head on some of these guys.

Hi there,

Typically, soft bodied worms can be bigger than you'd typically use with other insects. But if you had a side by side picture we would be able to better help

-Brandon

Ok I grabbed the thickest silky I had lmao, Im holding it a little closer to me than the dragon is cause I didnt want him to grab it xD but ya

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daveferns1 wrote:Ok I grabbed the thickest silky I had lmao, Im holding it a little closer to me than the dragon is cause I didnt want him to grab it xD but ya

[Click image to enlarge]

He'll be able to handle them. 2 will be good meal.

kingofnobbys wrote:
He'll be able to handle them. 2 will be good meal.

Ok thank you, I gave him one that was slightly less chunky and he kinda held the head in his mouth for abit (I was slightly concerned) but then he managed to get it down fine. I might just chop the heads off the really big ones and hope he still eats them.

daveferns1 wrote:

kingofnobbys wrote:
He'll be able to handle them. 2 will be good meal.

Ok thank you, I gave him one that was slightly less chunky and he kinda held the head in his mouth for abit (I was slightly concerned) but then he managed to get it down fine. I might just chop the heads off the really big ones and hope he still eats them.

Chopping their heads off will make for a mess , they are not like mealworms and superworms and crickets ( so able to have their heads chopped off or to be cut in two ). Thing is silkworms are very juicy inside , you'll end up with two puddles of silkworm insides and liquids and waste the worm.

You are better off letting the oversized worms become cocoons, then either letting the moths that emerge mate and produce eggs , and then hatching your own silkworms . or giving the moths to the dragon to eat. My gang have always liked moths.

Or you can try blanching the oversized worms thusly : viewtopic.php?f=76&t=227097

kingofnobbys wrote:Chopping their heads off will make for a mess , they are not like mealworms and superworms and crickets ( so able to have their heads chopped off or to be cut in two ). Thing is silkworms are very juicy inside , you'll end up with two puddles of silkworm insides and liquids and waste the worm.

You are better off letting the oversized worms become cocoons, then either letting the moths that emerge mate and produce eggs , and then hatching your own silkworms . or giving the moths to the dragon to eat. My gang have always liked moths.

Or you can try blanching the oversized worms thusly : viewtopic.php?f=76&t=227097

Yea i was thinking they might be abit gooey, I might hold off on the really big ones for now, thanks for the link at least I can do that if I dont want them to go to waste.

daveferns1 wrote:

kingofnobbys wrote:Chopping their heads off will make for a mess , they are not like mealworms and superworms and crickets ( so able to have their heads chopped off or to be cut in two ). Thing is silkworms are very juicy inside , you'll end up with two puddles of silkworm insides and liquids and waste the worm.

You are better off letting the oversized worms become cocoons, then either letting the moths that emerge mate and produce eggs , and then hatching your own silkworms . or giving the moths to the dragon to eat. My gang have always liked moths.

Or you can try blanching the oversized worms thusly : viewtopic.php?f=76&t=227097

Yea i was thinking they might be abit gooey, I might hold off on the really big ones for now, thanks for the link at least I can do that if I dont want them to go to waste.

Oversized silkworms never go to waste.
If you have enough ( say 20 to 30 , you can very quickly become self - sufficient wrt silkworms by "farming" / "breeding" your own and there are always people who are very happy to buy the surplus sickworm eggs off you and surplus worms off you when you are hatching a hundreds of worms at a time) .
You can very quickly build up from 5 to 6 female moths and 8 - 12 male moths to having 100 or more moths every couple of months laying eggs and the eggs once they turn grey/blue can be kept in ziplock bags or little sample bottles on the door of the fridge ( if it's about 5 - 7 degC ) there for a year or more (and will remain dormnant til you need to hatch some worms.

If you have access to big mulberry tree, your worms will cost virtually nothing if you are plucking leaves as needed.

If you know others who have lizards or birds, they be very happy to swap oversized silkworms for smaller silkworms or maybe roaches or crickets if they are breeding their own , or maybe the petshop you bought the worms off will swap a handful of large silkworms for the same weight of smaller silkworms.