FINCHforum

Hi everyone. I was hoping someone would have some advice for someone new to the hobby regarding mealworms. Here are two quotes from this article ( http://www.cliftonfinchaviaries.org/cfa ... alworm.htm ) in case you are not willing to read the whole thing. I recommend it reading it.

"I am not a nutritionist but the gist of it was that bran causes the production of, or at least the build-up of, phytic acid in birds which can upset the calcium/phosphorous balance and actually leech calcium from the birds system. By replacing this bran with pollard and something he called ‘mill-run’ he stated that the better nutritional value of the mealworm culture medium will show far greater benefits in the mealworm – guess in a simple sort of way you are actually gut-loading the mealworm to benefit your finches."

"So, no need to drastically alter your live food feeding regimes but maybe it’s time to turn from the dark side (keeping mealies in bran) and let the Force guide you towards the light and start keeping those mealies in a far more nutritional medium.
Finch keeping is all about problem solving so before hitting the panic button take a deep breath and start researching the information presented and then have a look at the way your keep your live food as it may be YOU that is at fault and NOT the humble mealworm at all for, using the premise of ‘you are what you eat’ maybe Mike was right in that who really wants to eat cardboard – not our finches!!"

My dilemma is that my mini mealworms just arrived and I wanted to put them in a more nutritious medium but I can not think of any way other than using tweezers and spending HOURS sifting through a bucket of bran trying to locate 500 tiny worms. A very daunting task if you ask me. Does ANYONE have ANY ideas that would save me the time effort I imagine this taking? I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
Pete

Waxbillman

I've never had mealworms arrive in bran. Mine always arrive in cloth bags with lots of crumpled newspaper, so I just have to shake them out of the newspaper. I use either Grubco or Rainbow Mealworms.

A belated welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on finch care. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier for members to help you.

Dear Sally
Thank you for all your replies. I read them both. I did not know those websites ship them in cloth bags. I will look into this. Many places I read said their mealies arrived in bran because it is a cheap source of food if you want to call it that. I will look at those sites right now. it would make my life so much easier. I have two of those sized cages stacked on top of each other because I also have a pair of green singers currently sitting on some eggs. I had purchased a big cage when I initially got them and housed them together but the green singers would bully the little waxbills and so I had to separate them. I replaced the big cage with two cages which are roughly the same size stacked together as the big cage. I will see if I can do something about that but I will need to wait until after the greenies are out of the nest first. Thank you for sharing your input Sally!
Pete