What is the best food?

[Lusiwarrior]

I would like to ask all those who have cultures of worms with which food are more successful? I read that if you give them milk powder in a week double their number, is this true?

Thanks

 

[Nathan050793]

I feed my whiteworms a slice of bread once every week or so. This can be augmented with other things like oatmeal, and it seems to work fairly well. I too am curious as to whether or not there is a better method...

 

[caudatadude28]

I feed my whiteworms primarly tortoise chow. I used to feed them bread but they grew faster on the tortoise chow so now I dont. I also supplement it with oatmeal, koi pellets, bloodworms, etc.

 

[Liorah]

Wow :shocked: I would love to know if the milk powder thing is true!! I've recently started culturing worms for Eve, and am hoping to be able to sell some in the future. I've just kind of been making it up as I go so far though X]

 

[Greatwtehunter]

I've used bread mainly in the past but have now swtiched to dry dog food (thanks to Bill). The culture is growing like a weed!

I've started a second culture 2 days ago using a commercial cricket diet to see if that will make a difference as well.

 

[Lusiwarrior]

Thanks for your answers! I have already hinted that the most common being the dog food or cat, but as I had none of that around here gotta give them the bread dipped in milk, and now there's something a few minutes supply them with a tablespoon of milk powder sprinkled with water! In a week I can confirm that the culure doubled in fact or not.

cheers

 

[eljorgo]

Thanks to a friend I started using dry dog food, Friskies and Pedigree some sort. I let in water for 24h switching the water 5 to 6 times. After putting them there and a stone in the top i can see "thousands" of them grabbed in the food It´s really the best! And I´ve noticed that some collembola that were there in very small numbers started to grow very fast! And their population is even bigger than in my own Collembola culture!! So I joined all in one since in the enchytraeus culture, things go really much faster!
I can see many round white things maybe with 1 mm in diameter. Really don't know what could be. Who made it? Enchytreaus or Collembola?

 

[Coastal Groovin]

I'm still crushing up dog food with a hammer, my worm culture loves it. It worked alot better than just bread. I was moistening bread with milk when I used bread in the past. I thought it might add some Vit D and calcium.I'm always trying to gut load my feeder items. I'm going to start soaking the dried dog food in just enough low fat milk to soften it.. thanks GWH for the name drop

 

[Otterwoman]

I mostly use wheat bread and other leftovers, but I put some dried cat food in a couple of my cultures today (I have no dog) after reading people's answers here to see what that'll do. Last week I couldn't buy bread (too lazy) so I tried some Cheerios I got at the gas station, but I wasn't impressed with the results.

 

[Daniel]

I use dried dog food, too, and had some very good results with it.
I just put one of those "pellets" or rings beneath some wood and sprinkle it with water.

The dog food already contains some vitamins and minerals so I hope that this is some kind of gut loading.

 

[Coastal Groovin]

I tried cheerios once cause I was also to lazy to go to the store also. LOL I was not impressed either.

 

[Lusiwarrior]

Hi people
on Friday, when put in soil that had prepared only with bread crumbs do not let them see with the small glass placed over the soil. Yesterday I added milk powder and there is instant, when I observed, were quite bonded to the glass and more than half of the powder has disappeared. It seems indeed, at least for now, to be working!

 

[Otterwoman]

I'm adding it to my shopping list.

 

[stitchpunk]

Interesting! I have dried catfood so I might give that a try too. My culture is barely alive after a couple of weeks of bread. I had a look yesterday and could only find half a dozen worms even though I haven't taken any out for a week. Not sure what I'm doing wrong - I have them in moistened sterilised garden soil in a plastic container with holes in the lid. Mind you, its pretty warm here and the daphnia are struggling, so maybe its too warm for the white worms as well?

 

[Lusiwarrior]

Yes they do not get along with heat is a fact, here in Portugal have spoken with people who grow them for some time and say that in the summer if they lose enough, but the whole culture! Now there's one thing the milk powder should be added to other foods and not given food only as unique!

 

[Daniel]

White worms should best be kept at a temperature range from 18-24 °C, best around 18 °C. They stop reproducing below 13 °C but I couldn't find any upper limit. And they should be kept in a dark place. I have my culture in the cellar.

 

[stitchpunk]

Ah, thank you! I had their container sitting next to the tank so they were probably getting too much light. I'll move it somewhere darker.

 

[Coastal Groovin]

I should add that my culture is in a plastic shoe box. There is 2 inches of garden soil on the bottom. I keep a peice of cardboard cut to size on top. I also feed them 2 table spoons a dog food every 5 days or so. Really its whenever I'm digging for them and I see t he food is gone. I dig a 8 inch long trench down the middle. I sprinkle the food in there and cover it with soil. Then I give it a good spraying with water. They seem to like it on the wet side but not enough water that they are sitting in it. I only water them once a week. Unless I see it getting real dry on the surface. I also never cover them. Keeps the mold down and I never seen them crawl out so it really dosen't matter. How is everyone else keeping their culture?

 

[Nathan050793]

I keep mine similar to Bill's- Tupperware container, few inches of soil/coco-fiber, misted (when I get to it), usually pretty damp. I keep it in my cellar, in the darkest room where it generally stays in the 50's or lower F most of the year.

I've been bad and really neglected mine, due to not really needing the white-worms recently. They may have all died off, but I tried the dried cat food dampened with milk yesterday. I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

[Lusiwarrior]

A moment after coming peek at this thread reminded me of going to see my culture! I am simply amazed, you see them in droves pasted on the glass and milk powder have almost all disappeared. In fact is giving the same result in about 2 days back to give them more if they continue to lead I will go only to give them that. Just curious dog food and cat give them that is canned or biscuits?
Thank you all!