Can Red-Eared Sliders Eat Silkworms?

Can a Red-Eared Slider Eat Silkworms?

Yes — silkworms are one of the better feeders you can offer a red-eared slider, and they can be a regular part of the diet rather than a treat.

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

3–5 silkworms weekly for a juvenile, less for an adult.

Why Silkworms Suit a Red-Eared Slider

Juvenile sliders are building shell fast and need the calcium. Adults shift toward plants and need far less protein, so this is a feeder that should taper as the turtle grows.

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 pellets and greens, with insects as a supplement 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.