Can Hedgehogs Eat Silkworms?

Can a Hedgehog Eat Silkworms?

Yes, with a caveat worth knowing before you buy a cup.

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

One or two silkworms a couple of times a week, as enrichment.

Why Silkworms Suit a Hedgehog

Silkworms are far leaner than the mealworms and waxworms hedgehogs are usually offered, which makes them a better treat for an animal that gets obese easily. They are still a treat, not a diet.

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 a quality hedgehog or cat food base with insects as enrichment rather than instead of them.

One Thing That Kills More Silkworms Than Anything Else

Never refrigerate them. Cold is the single most common cause of a whole cup dying at once. Silkworms are not crickets or waxworms — they want room temperature, and putting them in the fridge to "keep them fresh" is what kills them.

More detail in the complete silkworm raising and care guide.