Needing some feeder advice

[PonchoandDaddy]

Hey guys, Poncho has always ate crickets and he absolutely LOVES them! But the problem is I'm paying about $15-$20 a week bc he eats so many of them and here lately I have had a lot die. The $15-$20 a week wouldn't be a problem if they didn't die, crickets are just fincky. And honestly I'm tired of messing with them. They smell, they smell...ohh and they smell. Soo my questions is...

What is the BEST feeder worm? He isn't quite long enough for supers (around 13").

I have it narrowed down to hornworms, reptiworms, silkworms, phoneix worms, and butterworms. The only problem is, I am worm dumb. I know zero about any of them except that hornworms are big, silkworms are good for pain relief, phoneix worms are good calcium source, oh and waxworms are like candy bars.

So does anyone with experience PLEASE help. I would also like to try to breed my own eventually to save money so of them, which ones are the easiest to raise? That is less important right now though as I just want to get something for my baby boy to eat. I am going to release what is left of my rancid cricket collection in about 5 minutes. Don't worry, he eats salad like a champ and we have chicken babyfood on standby. He won't go hungry. Thanks in advance y'all are great!

 

[Claudiusx]

IMO, the best worms are Silkworms and Butterworms.

Now, you can't breed butterworms because they get imported from Chile, and before they leave are hit with radiation so that they can't reproduce since they are considered pests.
But, Silkworms, you are able to breed. Mullberryfarms has a good section on how to do it.

Crickets will be about the cheapest insect you will find, besides breeding your own dubia colony.

Silks are slightly expensive (raising them from eggs cuts down on this cost) and Butterworms are probably the most expensive out of the possible feeder worms.

But, if they weren't good they wouldn't be expensive :mrgreen:

-Brandon

 

[PonchoandDaddy]

Thanks Brandon!!! I bought 200 silkworms from Mulberry Farms. I'm going to see how Poncho likes them and roughly how many he eats a day and then go from there. I had to get small silkworms because that's all they had avaiable. I will look at them and if they are too small I will wait a day or 2 before feeding them to him. I was looking at the eggs as well. I would like to eventually be able to have a self sustaining silkworm colony.But if all goes well with the silkworms this time and I don't kill to many of them, I will try raising them from eggs and try to just have a good rotation going of eggs hatching, worms big enough to feed, and new incoming eggs kinda thing. I was looking online at how to make a homemade incubator (for the eggs) for under $20 then youtube stopped working. lol I will finish some other day when I get closer to being ready to tackle that.

Thanks for the advice. I'm excited for something other than crickets!

 

[cybercat]

I have been doing research on feeders of late as we have no options here but crickets. Like you I do not want to feed crickets. Here is some help. Mulberry Farms carries a small snack pac that you can try for babies. Or make your own. The best ones would be, not in any order preferance: silks, phoenix, small superworms, butter and some wax or roaches. Since shipping is fairly fast I would do a small order to see what your dragon like then order a bigger order. Ofcourse since we are still in winter pay attention to temps at night.

Phoenix and silks are the most recommened for baby dragons. Having good ratio on calcium. Butter have higher calcium but not in a good balanced ratio. Look for 1/2 inch to 3/4 size for your dragon. They can eat small superworm at the size of your baby. You could also order enough to start your own colony which will take about 4 months to get going. For that buy the larger size. At 13 inches it will not be much longer before he is ready to eat larger size worms.