Silkworms

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pawsfoot

Guest
I only have 3 leos so I figured that I would buy some silkworms and it wouldn't be too expensive to feed them to my leos. Well I got the silkworms and some butterworms and even some pheonix worms the other day. Now for some reason my leos won't eat. They all have semi nice tails so I'm not afraid they're gonna wither away to nothing in 2 days, but I just don't know why they won't eat them. It's very frustrating. Plus I'm angry at the silkworms because they keep getting silk on the mealies and PWs and they all stick together in a big clump. GRRR I just wanted to give my leos variety and now it's back-firing on me. Should I put the silks in a separate feeding dish? Should I just give up cuz they don't like them? They like the butters, they were gone this morning. Most of the mealies were there though. Some of the PWs were gone as well. If anybody has any suggestions I would appreciate them. Thanks
 
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Nastynotch

Guest
silk worms tend to be more fatty for geckos in general. not good as a main diet.

its might be worth a shot to feed the different kinds of worms seperately on different days and such.

i guess it all boils down the the personal interest of the geckos?

i suggeset find something they like and stick to it.

also dont be shy of a cricket here and there.
 
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pawsfoot

Guest
I didn't realize my mealies would eat the silkworms. So I separated them. I put a lil dish of silkworms in tonight. About 2 silkworms per gecko. I put a lil dish of butterworms in a dish, only 1 per gecko. I left the pheonix worms in with the mealies because everything seemed fine with those 2. The majority of food is the mealies and pheonix worms. Supposedly PWs are a good source of food. Anywho I used to feed crix but my geckos are in a new enclosure where the ventilation areas are on the side of the cage. The cage is made of wood and the crix can get out. That's why I was so worried about different kinds of worms and varieties since it's not crix feesable. I tried the putting the gekos in a tupperware container to feed them criz and the just hated that idea. Thanks for the advice. I'm gonna see how it works out tonight and let you know tomorrow if I had any success.
 

gothra

Happy Gecko Family
Messages
3,790
Location
HK
Vicky, maybe you want to try dangle a silkworm if front them (by their own silk), their struggling motion might excite them; this works better when they're half asleep in their hides. That's what I did to get some of my geckos to attack a silkworm. :)

BTW, I thought silkworms are VERY nutritious, and great as feeders too.
 
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Nastynotch

Guest
darn i could have sworn it was silkworm that were extremely fatty.

maybe it was something else.
 
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Nastynotch

Guest
o snap that was it.

so many types of worms these days. i get lost
 
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pawsfoot

Guest
So I now have 3 different dishes to keep practically everything separate. I have butterworms in one, silkworms in another, and finally PWs and mealies in a 3rd. I am starting to worry because they have all decided not to eat at the same time. The females are in one enclosure and the male is in another. I got their poo tested and no problems there. They all seem healthy, running around and being kinda crazy like usual. Do you think it is just cuz they don't like the new food and I should take everything out and just have the mealies? All the feeders are supplemented and gutloaded and they all are in lil dishes with calcium and there is even just a lil dish of calcium that I don't put any feeders in. What should I do???
 
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Nastynotch

Guest
really. the best thing to do (in my opinion)is just feed one item day at a time.
see what they like best, and stick to it.
its better than loading a cage with 5 dishes

if the feed is nicely gutloaded you should probably only provide solid calcium once (or twice) a week.

if i recall you said the geckos were new, they maybe a little stressed about the enviromental change. give em time. theyll go back to normal
 

BalloonzForU

New Member
Messages
7,585
Location
Grand Blanc, MI
I agree, only try feeding them one type of food at a time. One day the silkies, next time butters, then mealies, etc. They may be confused by all the different feeders. Also as Nathan said, if they are new then they may not eat yet, as they usually won't eat til they are acclimated to their new home.
 
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pawsfoot

Guest
I've had them for 2-3 months now so I guess I just call them new. Sorry if I caused any confusion on that part. I guess I just worry when they don't eat for a night or 2. They all seem to be doing quite well gaining weight since I got them as babies. I will try giving them just 1 option a night and see where that takes me. The mealies I have been buying lately seem to be really sluggish and don't like to move even when they heat up. Do you think that could be part of the problem? I was thinking about making supers the staple instead since they seem to be more active. Or do you guys think I'm crazy and that I need to just chill out? I guess I just worry so much since I don't have kids and my animals are the only things I have to care for.
 
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pawsfoot

Guest
Haha. Well up until like 1 month ago I thoughtall I had to do was dust them with calcium and vitamins until I got on here and people talked about gutloading them. So I have been gutloading my feeders for a month. Well I leave most of them in the fridge and every night I take out more to put in the gutload and feed my geckos the ones that were in the previous day. Does that make sense? For some reason they look a lil bigger this time too. Do you think they may be going into the pupae stage and thats why they are sluggish? I think I'm gonna go with supers. No warming up and all that craziness. Timberlinefisheries.com has small ones so I think I'm going to go with them. I can buy 500 for 15 so I figure thats no more than I was spending every 2 weeks on melies before. Thanks for all your help.
 

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