Can I feed beardie silk worm pupae?

[BeardieSmaug]

So, long story short, I while back (month ish ago), I bought 100 small silks, they grew, beardie only ate about 30 of them, and the rest went through their cycle. I now have over 50 eggs... I'm planning on breeding, but to be honest, I have way too many, and I really dont want to deal with literally thousands of silk worms. So, would it be ok to cut out some eggs, and feed the pupae to my beardie? Are pupae nutritious at all?

Thanks!

 

[kingofnobbys]

Yes.

I often find silkworms on the way to becoming pupae , having expelled their GIT and still worm like but shorter , I do however let the pupae who have fully formed outside cocoon become moths.

There is no reason not to feed a pupa to your dragon , just be ready for splat effect when the dragon munches down on it ( as pupae are very fluid inside - reorganizing their tissued to go from worm to moth).

The moths are a great dragon treat too. My dragons and skinks go bananas for them.

50 cocoons is not too many, bare in mind you'll likely get 12 - 20 female moths and the rest will be male moths .

20 female moths will lay 20x400 eggs = 8000 eggs that will set you nicely , the eggs can be refrigerated in air tight bags or bottles until you need to hatch them maybe 300 at a time.

 

[BeardieSmaug]

Yes.

I often find silkworms on the way to becoming pupae , having expelled their GIT and still worm like but shorter , I do however let the pupae who have fully formed outside cocoon become moths.

There is no reason not to feed a pupa to your dragon , just be ready for splat effect when the dragon munches down on it ( as pupae are very fluid inside - reorganizing their tissued to go from worm to moth).

The moths are a great dragon treat too. My dragons and skinks go bananas for them.

50 cocoons is not too many, bare in mind you'll likely get 12 - 20 female moths and the rest will be male moths .

20 female moths will lay 20x400 eggs = 8000 eggs that will set you nicely , the eggs can be refrigerated in air tight bags or bottles until you need to hatch them maybe 300 at a time.

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. I miss spoke and I dont have 50 eggs, but 50 cocoons. So I'll probably give around 10 to my beardie and the rest continue to breed, as you said, only 12-20 will be female and the rest male, so I actually want to have greater chances at breeding. If I do see that they lay thousands of eggs, I might sell or something. I really don't want to have thousands of baby silk worms, lol, maybe a couple hundred. But thank you, mainly wanted to know if the pupa were nutritious and they are.

Cheers!

 

[kingofnobbys]

Yes.

I often find silkworms on the way to becoming pupae , having expelled their GIT and still worm like but shorter , I do however let the pupae who have fully formed outside cocoon become moths.

There is no reason not to feed a pupa to your dragon , just be ready for splat effect when the dragon munches down on it ( as pupae are very fluid inside - reorganizing their tissued to go from worm to moth).

The moths are a great dragon treat too. My dragons and skinks go bananas for them.

50 cocoons is not too many, bare in mind you'll likely get 12 - 20 female moths and the rest will be male moths .

20 female moths will lay 20x400 eggs = 8000 eggs that will set you nicely , the eggs can be refrigerated in air tight bags or bottles until you need to hatch them maybe 300 at a time.

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. I miss spoke and I dont have 50 eggs, but 50 cocoons. So I'll probably give around 10 to my beardie and the rest continue to breed, as you said, only 12-20 will be female and the rest male, so I actually want to have greater chances at breeding. If I do see that they lay thousands of eggs, I might sell or something. I really don't want to have thousands of baby silk worms, lol, maybe a couple hundred. But thank you, mainly wanted to know if the pupa were nutritious and they are.

Cheers!

The eggs , once they darken up , they are yellow when laid , will stay dormant for up to 2 years in a sealed airtight zipbag or bottle in the door of the fridge (about 7 degC) , so there's no need to hatch them all in one go.
I simply wait for the eggs to go blue/grey , then put them in bottles or ziplock bags and note when they were laid and take out maybe a few hundred eggs to warmup and start incubating in a sealed sterile food tub.
As soon as I see some worms hatching, I drop a small bit of mulberry leaf or a sliver of silkworm chow in with them so they have something to eat.

 

[BeardieSmaug]

Yes.

I often find silkworms on the way to becoming pupae , having expelled their GIT and still worm like but shorter , I do however let the pupae who have fully formed outside cocoon become moths.

There is no reason not to feed a pupa to your dragon , just be ready for splat effect when the dragon munches down on it ( as pupae are very fluid inside - reorganizing their tissued to go from worm to moth).

The moths are a great dragon treat too. My dragons and skinks go bananas for them.

50 cocoons is not too many, bare in mind you'll likely get 12 - 20 female moths and the rest will be male moths .

20 female moths will lay 20x400 eggs = 8000 eggs that will set you nicely , the eggs can be refrigerated in air tight bags or bottles until you need to hatch them maybe 300 at a time.

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. I miss spoke and I dont have 50 eggs, but 50 cocoons. So I'll probably give around 10 to my beardie and the rest continue to breed, as you said, only 12-20 will be female and the rest male, so I actually want to have greater chances at breeding. If I do see that they lay thousands of eggs, I might sell or something. I really don't want to have thousands of baby silk worms, lol, maybe a couple hundred. But thank you, mainly wanted to know if the pupa were nutritious and they are.

Cheers!

The eggs , once they darken up , they are yellow when laid , will stay dormant for up to 2 years in a sealed airtight zipbag or bottle in the door of the fridge (about 7 degC) , so there's no need to hatch them all in one go.
I simply wait for the eggs to go blue/grey , then put them in bottles or ziplock bags and note when they were laid and take out maybe a few hundred eggs to warmup and start incubating in a sealed sterile food tub.
As soon as I see some worms hatching, I drop a small bit of mulberry leaf or a sliver of silkworm chow in with them so they have something to eat.

Thank you for the info.

About the incubator, I don't have an actual incubator, I was planning on keeping the eggs in a tupperwear, under a CHE for heat. Is that ok? What should I do for incubation? Temps?
Thank you again for the help

BTW: my beardie LOVED the pupa, he went nuts for it! He was as excited as when I feed him hornworms from time to time haha. I only fed him 4. And, there were 2 pupa in one cocoon, is that even possible?? I opened up the fourth and last one, and lo and behold, two pupa were inside!

Last question: How long does it take for them to actually mate? I had 3 hatch so far in the last 2 days and put them together, but nothing has happened. Could be that all three are males. But i think these 3 were in their cocoons first before the big batch. So in a week or so I will have a lot of them hatch at the same time.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Yes.

I often find silkworms on the way to becoming pupae , having expelled their GIT and still worm like but shorter , I do however let the pupae who have fully formed outside cocoon become moths.

There is no reason not to feed a pupa to your dragon , just be ready for splat effect when the dragon munches down on it ( as pupae are very fluid inside - reorganizing their tissued to go from worm to moth).

The moths are a great dragon treat too. My dragons and skinks go bananas for them.

50 cocoons is not too many, bare in mind you'll likely get 12 - 20 female moths and the rest will be male moths .

20 female moths will lay 20x400 eggs = 8000 eggs that will set you nicely , the eggs can be refrigerated in air tight bags or bottles until you need to hatch them maybe 300 at a time.

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. I miss spoke and I dont have 50 eggs, but 50 cocoons. So I'll probably give around 10 to my beardie and the rest continue to breed, as you said, only 12-20 will be female and the rest male, so I actually want to have greater chances at breeding. If I do see that they lay thousands of eggs, I might sell or something. I really don't want to have thousands of baby silk worms, lol, maybe a couple hundred. But thank you, mainly wanted to know if the pupa were nutritious and they are.

Cheers!

The eggs , once they darken up , they are yellow when laid , will stay dormant for up to 2 years in a sealed airtight zipbag or bottle in the door of the fridge (about 7 degC) , so there's no need to hatch them all in one go.
I simply wait for the eggs to go blue/grey , then put them in bottles or ziplock bags and note when they were laid and take out maybe a few hundred eggs to warmup and start incubating in a sealed sterile food tub.
As soon as I see some worms hatching, I drop a small bit of mulberry leaf or a sliver of silkworm chow in with them so they have something to eat.

Thank you for the info.

About the incubator, I don't have an actual incubator, I was planning on keeping the eggs in a tupperwear, under a CHE for heat. Is that ok? What should I do for incubation? Temps?
Thank you again for the help

BTW: my beardie LOVED the pupa, he went nuts for it! He was as excited as when I feed him hornworms from time to time haha. I only fed him 4. And, there were 2 pupa in one cocoon, is that even possible?? I opened up the fourth and last one, and lo and behold, two pupa were inside!
>>> yep often happens , two worms form one cocoon around each other , or two worms make two cocoons attached to each other.

Last question: How long does it take for them to actually mate? I had 3 hatch so far in the last 2 days and put them together, but nothing has happened.

<<< are fattys or skinnys , if they have fat bodies you might have all females, especially if they are not doing much , the mails will try to mate with silkworm moth they encounter and will be much more active in the main than the females.

Female is surrounded by fresh laid eggs.
Now you can tell if you have all females or all males.

Could be that all three are males. But i think these 3 were in their cocoons first before the big batch. So in a week or so I will have a lot of them hatch at the same time.

I don't either.
I simply get hold of a 600cc clear plastic rectangular take away container with a lid , F10 it, and then in go the eggs (in my case on bits of paper toweling) and on goes the lid.
The tub sits on the coffee table and I check each day for baby silkworms , and when I see these starting to emerge and crawl about , in goes a tiny sliver of silkworm chow or a bit of fresh mulberry leaf.
Every couple of days after that I check , and place a fresh bit of food in next to old bit , the worms crawl to new bit of food and I can then (after removing any stragglers) get rid of the old dry bit of food before it goes moldy.

Couldn't be cheaper or simpler. No special gear other than a tooth pick or fine artists brush required.
I've been breeding my own silkworms for a few years now and my only cost is buying chow or fresh mulberry leaves..

 

[BeardieSmaug]

Thank you so much for all the help and info! Really appreciate it.

This morning I found 4 more hatched moths, and saw that 2 of them were already mating, like in the picture yay!

I saw two other ones (probably male, as they are thinner, like you said) go a bit crazy and try to latch against the mating couple, so I put a cut out empty toilet paper roll on the mating couple so they are separated from the rest.

They are like my pets now! I'v become attached to them :lol: . Excited to continue this silk worm breeding journey!