As for sexing him, I tried feeling around the tail, but with nothing to compare what soft or hard feels like, I'm not relying on this. I thought it felt hard at first, but then I found what might be dried sperm on his log (he came with cage and accessories) so I'll just assume he's male. I will take a lot of pictures of him when he warms up to me (he actually backs away from the camera 
).
Now, I wanted to get silkworms, and I went to one pet store that didn't have them, and then another that also did not. The second store told me there was a viral infection amongst them, and they wouldn't have them for 2 months. Both stores were PJ's so I think where ever they get their silkies developed some disease. So in the second store I bought were 30 large mealworms, even though I asked for superworms
and a dozen waxworms.
The mealworms were in pretty terrible condition. Amongst them were dead ones and remaining parts which I believe were canibalized? There were many active ones, but then there were some that didn't seem to move very much. I also noticed they were kind of spasming or "bucking" often, but this is normal right? To flip over or whatever? Okay, so my first instinct was to separate lively ones from the dead and dying (half of them dying isn't a good sign is it?). So I picked out the active ones one by one into a cricket keeper and put in some plain oatmeal with them. Eventually there were 3 that would walk backwards slowly or lay on one side and move a leg or two. Then there was one that had some sort of neorological problem! It was arching it's back and twirling around in circles. Very disturbing considering all of them exposed to whatever that was. And now the ones in the cricket box, some are becoming slow like the 3 that barely moved. It's deffinately not cold, it's 30C here. Could it be that they are about to cocoon? I never had mealworm experience, but this is terrible. Are all 30 or whatever's left, contaigious and should not be eaten? I don't want to just throw them out, can I freeze them and feed them thawed? Hopefully that would get rid of what they have.
The waxworms were better, only one dead. But a couple have a black dot underneath their skin, on the back or side. I saw this in the bellies of mealworms as well. I don't know if it's related, but could that viral infection of silkworms, possibly infect other worms? I don't know anything about any of these worms, but I'll do more research on health now. Just thought I'd post and see if anyone can give me direct advice.
)
I just saw him enjoying snails and thought he'd appriciate living things more than just meat.
but I'd suggest digging a hole and seeing if you can find some and trying them out. I'm gonna do the same thing, so if you do it before i get off my lazy butt - let me know how you went!
