How to get birds to eat what they should love?

[nopEda]

I have some firefinches and gold breasted which are supposed to be live food lovers, yet they won't touch meal worms which I set out in plates in areas where they get down to eat seeds. So I put out some crushed up boiled eggs in three locations they hang out in, this time hanging in cups, in a desperate attempt to get these supposedly high protein loving birds to eat some protein. They pay them no attention at all. Is there some way to get them to eat the stuff? Or is there high protein I can put in their water so they have no choice? Or what???

[cindy]

Some birds relish this and other don't. Some will ignore it unless breeding or feeding young. What size mealies are you using? With the GB and fires since they are small I tried the mini's on them. The small size was to big.

[ac12]

Hang in there.
I mix chopped green veggies w my chopped egg then I sprinkle some seeds on it. It took a LONG time, but now they will eat the egg w/o the seeds in the dish.

[managermania]

I was in the same boat a while back and everyone on the forum told me to keep trying the egg food. They were all correct. All of the birds eventually took to it.

I do a very simple mix and they tear it up. 2 hard boilded eggs with shells, Quiko dry egg food, a scoop of seed and a scoop of baby bird formula. Pull it all in a chopper and then serve.

[finchmix22]

That is so close to my own mix of eggfood. I use 12 eggs, hardboiled, cracked and set them in fridge to dry out a little (about 8 hours) then I chop them in a food processor on pulse, add 1/4 cup of baby formula powder, 1/4 cup of LeFeber pellets and they eat it up! They ignored just the crushed eggs and will not eat anything that is not crumbly in texture. Good Luck.

[nopEda]

I was in the same boat a while back and everyone on the forum told me to keep trying the egg food. They were all correct. All of the birds eventually took to it.

I do a very simple mix and they tear it up. 2 hard boilded eggs with shells, Quiko dry egg food, a scoop of seed and a scoop of baby bird formula. Pull it all in a chopper and then serve.

Thanks, I didn't know about dry egg food or baby bird formula, but now I'll be trying to find some. Are the GBs eating it yet? Do you leave it out all day, or just put out enough for them to eat in a few minutes and then it's gone? Do you hang it, or put it in something on the ground?

[nixity]

Sometimes it's also all about presentation - I took Misty's advice and used a cheese grater on my boiled egg so that it looked like little worms, and this worked like a charm, my birds were much more interested in it offered this way than any other.

What size mealworms are you offering? Perhaps they are too large? I think most people use the mini-mealies.

[nopEda]

What size mealworms are you offering? Perhaps they are too large? I think most people use the mini-mealies.

I've been using the small because that's what the societies like. I'll try some minis and see if that makes a difference.