Silkworms for Juvenile Beardies?

[torres114]

Is it safe to feed silkworms to juvenile beardies if I follow the distance between their eyes rule, or do they have to be a certain size, like in the case of superworms?

 

[Twobeardieguy]

You will be fine, just make sure no bigger then the size between the eyes! They have a very soft outer body and will be fine. Good luck..

 

[beardieaddict]

he will love silkworms and there really good for him too

 

[bluesoda025]

You can probably go a bit bigger than the space between his eyes for silkworms.. That rule isn't really absolute, and with certain feeders you can kind of go a bit bigger. Silkworms are just soft bodied worms afterall, and don't have those outer shells like some other worms. My beardie regularly eats crickets bigger than the space between her eyes and she is just fine. She just has to chew them up a bit more.

 

[DrDave2014]

When you say they should be smaller than the space between the eyes, are you talking about the thickness of the silkworm, or the length? I was just looking at some silkworms as a treat and they were huge! They are 1.5 inches long, so definitely a lot longer than the space between his eyes. They are also pretty big around, but their thickness is less than the space between his eyes.

Thanks!

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Should be fine cause they are soft.

 

[bluesoda025]

In my experience, you don't really have to follow that rule for silkworms.. it applies more to insects with harder shells like crickets and such. Mine has been absolutely fine eating 2 inch silkworms as a juvenile. She chews them up as she gulps them down, and plus they are so soft that I can't possibly see any risk of impaction. It's just like hornworms -- they are GINORMOUS (way over the space between the eyes rule) yet people feed them to their beardies without any problems because they're also soft bodied caterpillars. That being said, obviously you shouldn't be feeding a 3 inch silkworm to a baby either.. Feed within reason, and what you think your dragon would be able to eat without trouble. You'd be amazed at the size of caterpillars that beardies can eat.