Keeping Hornworms?

Question: Do you have to buy worm 'food' for hornworms? With Supers, oatmeal and chunk of carrot twice a week and they're fine. Thought I might get a few for Petey just to see if he likes them, but with the price didn't want to fork out for some sorta special food.
Anyone have advice on keeping them?
Thanks!
-Dee

Like pooping, everybody eats. From Wikipedia:

Tomato hornworms are known to eat various plants from the family Solanaceae, commonly feeding on tomato, eggplant, pepper, tobacco, moonflowers and potato. Females prefer to oviposit on young leaves near the stem of host plants, and early instar caterpillars can often be found here during the day.[3] In the evening or early morning when sunlight is less direct, the caterpillars will feed on more distal leaves.

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Silkworms, OTOH, are a little trickier--they only eat mulberry leaves (and our previous house had an enormous mulberry tree in the backyard... If I knew then what I know now (story of my life )

Parodying an old Perrier® commercial parody... (Yes, I'm parodying a parody :roll: )

"When I blow [almost] a buck on a feeder worm, I get silkworms!" :lol:

I'm only comparing these two because of similarities in appearance & price.
Both are good feeders--it's up to you.

Here are some sites that compare nutritional value of various feeders. They don't all agree precisely, but if you peruse a few, you should get a better feel for which is best for you & your dragon.

Hornworms have a specific diet. So if you are going to buy an amount that you won't be feeding off in a couple days, you will want to buy them with food. Most online vendors sell them in a cup full of food. Pay attention to the details. Some cups come with a dozen or 2 and enough food to get them medium sized. And others come in a cup of less than a dozen with enough food to get them full grown.

If you are only buying 1 or 2 from a petstore, you don't need to worry about feeding them.

However, I'd suggest adding a cup to your insect order (with food) so that you can keep them for a week or two and feed them off over that time.

-Brandon

Thanks all!
I was looking online at prices and such, and I did look at the chart on feeders too.
I certainly won't do anything until Petey decides to get up. 4 pm my time will be 96 hrs for his current nap. Yes, he's fine, I talk to him a couple times a day and he gives me stink eye for disrupting his nap.
I thought hornworms would be a nice occassionaly treat, just didn't want them dying before I fed them.
Funny, I killed 2 of those b******s last summer for eating on my tomato plants. (Yes. Im aware I can't feed those ?)
Thanks again!
-Dee

DragonPete":1bl77ed0 said:

Question: Do you have to buy worm 'food' for hornworms? With Supers, oatmeal and chunk of carrot twice a week and they're fine. Thought I might get a few for Petey just to see if he likes them, but with the price didn't want to fork out for some sorta special food.
Anyone have advice on keeping them?
Thanks!
-Dee

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I wouldn't keep them they stink and turn into big ugly moths and you need to pick up their excrement to each is own though and when they lay eggs the males lather their excrement on it so if theirs any other males near by they wont go by it, Great feeder though no chitin/exoskeleton and a nice stimulating color and good size take the cons with the pros as always

Wickedpogana":gpm2xa2w said:

DragonPete":gpm2xa2w said:

Question: Do you have to buy worm 'food' for hornworms? With Supers, oatmeal and chunk of carrot twice a week and they're fine. Thought I might get a few for Petey just to see if he likes them, but with the price didn't want to fork out for some sorta special food.
Anyone have advice on keeping them?
Thanks!
-Dee

Click to expand...

I wouldn't keep them they stink and turn into big ugly moths and you need to pick up their excrement to each is own though and when they lay eggs the males lather their excrement on it so if theirs any other males near by they wont go by it, Great feeder though no chitin/exoskeleton and a nice stimulating color and good size take the cons with the pros as always

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Wow.? Tell me how you "really" feel! Yeah I think I'll pass on the joys of raising hornworms. ? Thanks for the chuckle this morning though. Hahaha!
-Dee

DragonPete":1o4hz6hw said:

Wickedpogana":1o4hz6hw said:

DragonPete":1o4hz6hw said:

Question: Do you have to buy worm 'food' for hornworms? With Supers, oatmeal and chunk of carrot twice a week and they're fine. Thought I might get a few for Petey just to see if he likes them, but with the price didn't want to fork out for some sorta special food.
Anyone have advice on keeping them?
Thanks!
-Dee

Click to expand...

I wouldn't keep them they stink and turn into big ugly moths and you need to pick up their excrement to each is own though and when they lay eggs the males lather their excrement on it so if theirs any other males near by they wont go by it, Great feeder though no chitin/exoskeleton and a nice stimulating color and good size take the cons with the pros as always

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Wow.? Tell me how you "really" feel! Yeah I think I'll pass on the joys of raising hornworms. ? Thanks for the chuckle this morning though. Hahaha!
-Dee

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Yessir anytime