Mealworms and Dry Food

waynomelb · Post by **waynomelb** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:36 am

Hi,

I have been able to buy a bulk lot of Meal worms here in Australia, especially for my waxbills.

A few questions for all of you experts.

What do you keep your mealworms in? someone told me Bran is no good for them, it effects birds and makes egg binding common.

How do you serve your mealworms?

What are the most common dry foods you can feed finches.

Thanks

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:16 am

I keep minein unprocessed oats, the type you would use for making porridge or that the other half may use in cooking

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:07 am

I've always just kept mine in bran with a banana skin or two. I have heard though that nutritionally, the oats are better for them. I don't know how much merit this myth about egg binding has. I could think of dozens of better ways to avoid egg binding than not feeding your mealworms bran.
I feed mine out in a small glass bowl daily at the start of breeding and twice daily when feeding young. One tip I can give you for feeding the smaller waxbills is to select mealworms that are small and/or recently shed their skin (the whitish ones). This will encourage them to eat the whole mealworm and not just the head.