Raising Silkworms
Created | Updated Oct 15, 2012
In raising reptiles I came to the conclusion that it would be very economical for me to raise silkworms for food. Silkworms are expencive to buy all the time and I saved alot of money raising them myself. Also they were alot more nutricinal for the reptiles and easier for them to eat. Also too the surplus I could sell. I bought a silkworm "kit" from my silkworm supplier, perti dishes and eggs. Each petri dish holds 500 eggs and they have to be glued down because they get static electicity in the dishes. I would glue 10,000 eggs at a time in the petri dishes. I would set the temperature in the incubator for temps between 80 and 86 degrees(sorry I can't remember the celsius) put them in and incubate them for 1 week. In a week the tiny worms hatch and look like little gray sticks. I would have the premade food ready for them, it's kept in the refrigerator, and slice it very thin and very small slivers. It's placed on toothpicks so as not to crush the tiny worms.Not too much food can bet put in at one time or it makes too much moisture and drowns the worms. They are kept at the same temperature for 2 weeks and fed every couple of days until they get bigger, then more often. When they are about an inch long they can be removed from the incubator and put in trays that separate their waste from them or as it is called "frazz" to keep them from getting sick. They are kept at room temperature now. Then I would feed them to my lizards that could eat them and sold the rest.
dazzlingLizardlady
