Can Corn Snakes Eat Silkworms?

Can a Corn Snake Eat Silkworms?

No — silkworms are not appropriate for a corn snake.

Silkworms (Bombyx mori) are one of the few feeders that are genuinely good rather than merely convenient: roughly 64% protein and only 10% fat by dry weight, over 80% moisture, and a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio of about 1:1. Most feeder insects are badly inverted on that last one and need dusting to correct it. Silkworms mostly do not.

They are also soft-bodied and highly digestible, which matters for a young animal, a recovering one, or anything that struggles with hard-shelled prey.

How Many, and How Often

None — corn snakes eat whole prey.

Why Silkworms Suit a Corn Snake

Corn snakes are rodent feeders from hatchling size. Insects are not part of the diet at any stage.

What Else to Feed

Silkworms are excellent but they have no real exoskeleton, and a diet of nothing but soft prey leaves the gut underworked. Run them alongside appropriately-sized frozen-thawed rodents rather than instead of them.

More detail in the complete silkworm raising and care guide.