# General Topics > Food, Feeders, Live, Frozen, Culturing, etc >  Hornworm food?

## TeeRiddle

Hi all,

I bought a cup of hornworms as a treat for my pacman, Orion. He loves them! The problem is the hornworms have just about finished off the food supplied within the cup and there's still about 15 - 20 worms left. 

So my question is what can I feed the hornworms once their food runs out?

Thanks!

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## Bruce

How big are the worms?

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## TeeRiddle

> How big are the worms?


Hey Bruce,

Most of the worms are around 2 - 2 1/2 inches long right now.

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## Bruce

Hmm, not full size.  I wanna say some repashy bug burger would do it, but there's no point in you spending that kind of money to feed them for a little bit.. Maybe try a cricket chow mixed with some water?

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## TeeRiddle

May try the bug burger. I have some thatI feed my crickets. I'll give it a shot. I'd hate to lose the hornworms since they are a bit pricey. I may have to feed Orion a few more of them each day. I've only been giving him one or two a day. I guess giving him three or four until they are gone would be OK.

Thanks for your replies!

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## Bruce

Yeah the bug burger should work, I use it for my dubias.

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## Jeff

The hornworms will ultimately die on anything you feed them unless it is their chow or of their prey plants (pepper, tomato, or tobacco). Unfortunately, all of the plants that they consume in nature are toxic for herps.

Hornworms will eat mulberry chow that is meant for silkworms, but they won'y be able to pupate properly on it. You can try feeding oak leaves or mulberry leaves if you can find some that you are certain have no been sprayed and they will likely eat them to survive. You can also try certain leafy greens, and I've have flaky success with butternut squash and other harder veggies like grated carrots... these foods will keep the worms alive with something in their gut but they will not "thrive" on it very well so try to feed them off as quickly as possible on this diet.

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## TeeRiddle

> The hornworms will ultimately die on anything you feed them unless it is their chow or of their prey plants (pepper, tomato, or tobacco). Unfortunately, all of the plants that they consume in nature are toxic for herps.
> 
> Hornworms will eat mulberry chow that is meant for silkworms, but they won'y be able to pupate properly on it. You can try feeding oak leaves or mulberry leaves if you can find some that you are certain have no been sprayed and they will likely eat them to survive. You can also try certain leafy greens, and I've have flaky success with butternut squash and other harder veggies like grated carrots... these foods will keep the worms alive with something in their gut but they will not "thrive" on it very well so try to feed them off as quickly as possible on this diet.


Hi JeffreH,

Thanks for the advice. I guess I will feed him as many as I can per day. 

I'm hoping 3-5 per day isn't too much for a pac.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2

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## lindasgonebuggie

Hi this is linda from linda's gone buggie I sell horn worms and there food and was noticing some of the comments, I experiment with all our feeders to see just what they can take. I have food that once they are big and run out of food you can refrig them, not many suppliers will tell you this because they want you to rebuy more but I'd rather give out all the infor that i can to people then a sale. This is what you do for next time..HOW TO TAKE CARE ON THEM
Once they grow to adult size you can put them in the refrigerator(take them out of the cup place in a brown paper bag with some newspaper in it to double insolate) they will go dormant for up to 2 weeks. When your ready to feed them bring them to room temp. Hope that helps. Linda.

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Sunshine

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