# Silkworm food recipe



## arachnocat

Anyone know what silkworm food is made out of (besides mulberry)? What makes it stick together? I know it's a closely guarded secret of people who sell silkworm food, but does anyone here know what it is or can make a guess? If it's too top secret you can send me a PM  
I want to use something similar to make cockroach food.


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## NevularScorpion

me too pls because i plan to make a moth garden


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## Stickytoe

I would like to know the recipe as well! Please pm me if you know!

As for roaches, I have had great success mixing pureed dry dogfood with the Repashy Superfoods gecko diets. I have the ingredients on my website under 'diets'.

____________________
Nicole Chaney
www.stickytoegecko.com


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## Black Widow88

Stickytoe said:


> I would like to know the recipe as well! Please pm me if you know!
> 
> As for roaches, I have had great success mixing pureed dry dogfood with the Repashy Superfoods gecko diets. I have the ingredients on my website under 'diets'.
> 
> ____________________
> Nicole Chaney
> www.stickytoegecko.com


Me too! I plan to have these someday.

Black Widow88


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## arachnocat

Crepsis from the bidabug roach forum said it might be agar agar. I think that's what it must be. I'll give it a try and let you guys know how it works out  
If I can find it that is. Need to check my local hippie markets.


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## Stickytoe

you should be able to order agar through almost any biological lab supply company. It is quite common. Agar is used in tomato hornworm lab diets as well. I suspect this is a primary ingredient in the silkworm chow because you are supposed to boil it first....that is how agar is prepped.


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## rgwheels

*hornworm*

do you guys know a site for the hornworm food???

please pm me if you know of one... I'm thinking of raising these to feed my chameleons.

~Rob


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## Tleilaxu

rgwheels said:


> do you guys know a site for the hornworm food???
> 
> please pm me if you know of one... I'm thinking of raising these to feed my chameleons.
> 
> ~Rob


www.mulberryfarms.com I use them for everything hornworm related!


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## fantasticp

arachnocat said:


> Crepsis from the bidabug roach forum said it might be agar agar. I think that's what it must be. I'll give it a try and let you guys know how it works out
> If I can find it that is. Need to check my local hippie markets.


Isn't agar agar sold in asian supermarkets in little packets? It's a gel former right?


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## arachnocat

It's made out of seaweed. I found some for pretty cheap at a local health food store. I'm going to try making some this weekend. Will let you know how it goes


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## colorcham427

Where did you read or hear that? Sea weed??? 

Mulberry chow is made up of mulberry leaves. The smell comes from soy.

    It MUST have agar in it, agar solidifies when it hits a boiling point. The agar that is in this chow is specifically designed to harden at a nice soft cheese-like tofu consistency. 

    Silk worms only eat mulberry leaves or the artificial mulberry chow, that powder that is sold regularly in the US.

    Silk worms will eat dandelion leaves and grated carrot. But, that is only used as a substitute if you waiting for more mulberry chow to be delivered or have'nt found a mulberry tree.


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## colorcham427

Not so sure if any person here in the states is capable of competing with prices from Mulberry farms and Coastal Silkworms...

Both of those companies bring in the food by the quantity that has a low price. In order to get this powder imported, you would have to buy at least a whole ton. Literally a ton. That is thousands of pounds.

Not only would you need to do that, you would have to find a reliable source. Over sea transactions are risky. If you get robbed, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it unless you are the President lol...

You need to go through the food customs, DEA customs, etc. DEA is involved because if you are ordering a ton of any sort of product, especially powder, you could smuggle in drugs, weapons, etc.

Not only do you need a reliable source to purchase the chow, you would need a sterile facility to produce this chow.

I normally buy 40-60 pounds at a time. I cook small amounts at a time. Easy to maintain and keep in a small clean environment.


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## Elytra and Antenna

I have books with silkworm food recipes. It seems hard to believe that someone could order in a ton from overseas and save money. The ingredients aren't that expensive.

Reactions: Like 1


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## What

Elytra and Antenna said:


> I have books with silkworm food recipes. It seems hard to believe that someone could order in a ton from overseas and save money. The ingredients aren't that expensive.


Why dont you post the recipes here, in a thread that is relevant to the topic, instead of continuing to try to sell your "books" through not sharing information?

(If you arent trying to sell *your* books with that post, then please, go ahead and post the book title/recipe...there are people here who would find that interesting, I think.)


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## Elytra and Antenna

What said:


> Why dont you post the recipes here, in a thread that is relevant to the topic, instead of continuing to try to sell your "books" through not sharing information?
> 
> (If you arent trying to sell *your* books with that post, then please, go ahead and post the book title/recipe...there are people here who would find that interesting, I think.)


I don't publish any books with silkworm recipes. Your rudeness isn't going to goad me into stealing other people's ideas from their copyright works and illegally pasting them on the internet.


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## What

Elytra and Antenna said:


> I don't sell any books with silkworm recipes and stealing other people's ideas and pasting them on the internet is illegal.


Posting a recipe with attribution to the source is completely legal.


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## Elytra and Antenna

What said:


> Posting a recipe with attribution to the source is completely legal.


 Attribution doesn't void copyright theft.


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## What

Elytra and Antenna said:


> Attribution doesn't void copyright theft.


Umm... http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html 

(Even if recipes were covered under copyright, posting a slightly reworded version of the recipe with attribution to the source is fair use, "...the fair use of a copyrighted work...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, *teaching*, scholarship, or *research*, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include: 1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes(which this is) 2..." - 17 U.S.C. § 107)


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## Elytra and Antenna

Posting content on a message board website would not be considered teaching or research in court. Is this site registered nonprofit? A recipe without measurements and explanation would be useless even if it would skirt the legal definition.


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## dtknow

I would be willing to bet it is something along the lines of.

Dehydrated mulberry leaves-leaves dehydrated in a food dehydrator and crushed to fine powder mixed with agar agar(the ratio would need experimenting). Perhaps you could add trace amounts of reptivite or chlorella/spirulina algae to it just to make sure they are getting all the nutrients.


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## What

Elytra and Antenna said:


> Posting content on a message board website would not be considered teaching or research in court. Is this site registered nonprofit? A recipe without measurements and explanation would be useless even if it would skirt the legal definition.


Why dont you at least share the titles of these books, then? 

I would be happy to look them up and write up the recipe for the people here to use for noncommercial purposes(fair use) because I understand the law and dont hide behind cop outs. 

(And I also believe that information should not be hidden behind pay walls...or in 50 page "books"... Care information and food recipes should not be charged for, they should be circulated to the hobby to be built upon, refined, and discussed.)



dtknow said:


> I would be willing to bet it is something along the lines of.


Probably, but it would be nice to know an established recipe, and because recipes arent subject to copyright...


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## dtknow

Hey, you could always experiment yourself. Thats how recipes are made.


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## What

Anyone other than me still curious about what books E&A has found recipes in?


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## Pssh

If you do a little research you will find that just about any books with such recipes in them are very expensive. I have not found one for less than $200, but I am not looking very hard.

There is more to the recipes than just dried powdered leaves and agar agar. There are a number of other ingredients that are required for nutrition, attractants, biting factors, and for digestibility. I'm working on something myself, but I don't want to say anything definitively about it without testing it first.

Edit: egging her/him on isn't going to make her/him want to post it any more. This odd behavior puts me off from posting any informational leads as well.


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## What

Pssh said:


> If you do a little research you will find that just about any books with such recipes in them are very expensive. I have not found one for less than $200, but I am not looking very hard.


That is pretty much what I expected... But Im more curious into which specific books E&A, the font of information he is, refers to in this case, Im his #1 fan. 


> Edit: egging her/him on isn't going to make her/him want to post it any more. This odd behavior puts me off from posting any informational leads as well.


Im really not trying to egg him(I believe that is the correct pronoun) on... I am frustrated by a trend in his behavior and asking him for information invariably has ended in failure thus far, but he claims his information to be better than other sources...so it sounds like it would be a good thing to share. Thus I feel compelled to continue in my quest for informative posts.  If you have informational leads, I would greatly appreciate a PM if you are uneasy about publicly sharing. 


> There is more to the recipes than just dried powdered leaves and agar agar. There are a number of other ingredients that are required for nutrition, attractants, biting factors, and for digestibility. I'm working on something myself, but I don't want to say anything definitively about it without testing it first.


Thank you, this is the most informative part of a post in this thread!


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## Louise E. Rothstein

Copyrights are not immortal.
An expired copyright frees something from its restrictions.

The question is:

How new are these recipes?
Are ALL of them still so recent that they ALL remain under copyright?

And,if all of them are,well...

When will they be free?


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## Tiana

Elytra and Antenna said:


> I have books with silkworm food recipes. It seems hard to believe that someone could order in a ton from overseas and save money. The ingredients aren't that expensive.


 Hi Elytra and Antenna, I know this was back in 2010 but if you still have this book, i would love love love the title or author. Please & thank you in advance


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## NevularScorpion

I manage to raise silkworm but my formula is incomplete because they will only get to large size but die in metamorphic stage. 

I mix milk, agar agar, yeast water and sugar. I tried making powder mulberry leaves but it did not work for me. They did not eat it. Also, if you observe the chow they eat when you buy a cup it does not look like it has raw malburry in it. My formula is still incomplete.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## ChollyMo

Recipes are not covered by copyright, at least not in the USA or Canada. A


Elytra and Antenna said:


> Posting content on a message board website would not be considered teaching or research in court. Is this site registered nonprofit? A recipe without measurements and explanation would be useless even if it would skirt the legal definition.


simple google search would verify that. https://www.lexology.com/library/de...t law, facts,protected by copyright in Canada.


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## The Snark

BTW, Silkworm diet (from the land of silk production). Mulberry leaves, Carrots, Silkworm Chow, Iceberg lettuce, Violet leaves, Beetroot leaves. ONLY Mulberry can be solely fed to the larvae. All alternatives should be mixed. Silkworm chow, web search for recipies, contains Mulberry. Dandelion leaves have been added at times.


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## BearBrad

From a bit of Googling I came across an expired patent whose main focus was patenting silkworm feed without mulberry in it.  But in the documented experiments for this feed, they use a recipe (Feed A) which does include dried mulberry leaves as a basis for comparison.  The patent is _Method of raising silkworms on artificial feed_ - US3488196.  The patent, others it references, and patents that reference it are an interesting read.  Some include other feed recipes (i.e. 32% mulberry, 10% crushed soybean, 58% other "additional perishable ingredients").  Other pertinent expired patents include _Process for preparing food for silk worms_ - US1990343 from 1935 and _Feeding silkworm larvae feed containing propionic acid_ - US3295983.  Both have recipes that might be worth trying.

The patent descriptions on those links appear to have been generated by OCR of the original docs.  The tables are unrecognizable.  Just look at the PDF version of the patent to see the info in a more readable form.

Reactions: Like 1


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