Hornworms?

I was thinking of breeding them, but I don't know if they'd make a good staple for a leopard gecko. Does anyone know their Ca:P ratios, or their fat percentage? I've heard that they were fattier than silkworms, but I've also heard they had less fat. And I've heard that you need to cut off their horns prior to feeding.

So any information you could supply would be greatly appreciated.

I was considering doing the same for my bearded dragons. I know that this is an old post but I was hoping that you might share your experience with them over the past couple years if you did end up trying.

Heck, I don't know what it is like in your neck of the woods, but around here if you put out tomato plants, you WILL have hornworms. And they get HUGE.

I thought that the ones found eating tomato plants would be toxic to bearded dragons. Every summer we plant ten or so but I've never seen any out there. Plenty of other things getting into the garden though!

Everything Ive every read about wild bugs and reptiles said NOT to feed them.

First, I wouldn't feed them to leos. They have been known to cause serious chemical burns on cresteds. Beardies don't seem to have a problem with them, because they're larger and have thicker skin than leos.
Raising them may be tough, as the moths are nearly the size of hummingbirds, and can fly. (Silkworm moths don't fly) You would definitely need manufactured food, because the toxins they get from tomato plants are passed to the reptiles.

Noelle

I was thinking of breeding them, but I don't know if they'd make a good staple for a leopard gecko. Does anyone know their Ca:P ratios, or their fat percentage? I've heard that they were fattier than silkworms, but I've also heard they had less fat. And I've heard that you need to cut off their horns prior to feeding.

Hornworms can make an excellent staple for many animals, I havent heard of problems with leopard geckos, personally. The horns are not hard or dangerous and do not cause problems, kind of fleshy actuallyI was thinking of breeding them, but I don't know if they'd make a good staple for a leopard gecko. Does anyone know their Ca:P ratios, or their fat percentage? I've heard that they were fattier than silkworms, but I've also heard they had less fat. And I've heard that you need to cut off their horns prior to feeding.

I got this off another site "I was thinking of breeding them, but I don't know if they'd make a good staple for a leopard gecko. Does anyone know their Ca:P ratios, or their fat percentage? I've heard that they were fattier than silkworms, but I've also heard they had less fat. And I've heard that you need to cut off their horns prior to feeding.

It wont let me edit the last paragraph was supposed to read:

I got this off another site:

"They are high in calcium, low in fat, have no chitin or exoskeleton so your animal will not have trouble digesting them. All this provides more usable nutrition for your animals. Calcium - 46.4mg/100g Fat - 3.07%"

Hornworms that have eaten tobacco or tomato plants do have toxins. The toxins do not leave the larva. Even if taken off a plant while small and fed non toxic foods they will still keep and retain whatever toxins they have up to that point. In other words the worms cant be flushed of toxins they already have.

Besides hornworm chow you can feed them unripe tomatos, carrots, eggplant the fruit not the whole plant, among other things. In fact some places that sell both silkworms and hornworms use the same diet for the hornworms. Basically silkworm chow that has been colored differently.

For those of you having difficulty following my last post and this one disregard the last paragraph of my previous post and replace that paragraph with this post.

Their ratios are roughly the same. Silkworms are 1:2.4, hornworms are 1:3. Silkworms will only eat mulberry leaves, or manufactured silkworm food.

Noelle