Mealies for Babies?

[lnlovesorange]

Got the fake stuff, real meal worms, but no alive.. from ladygouldianfinch.com wondering if the feldges will eat this.... I know live is best, but the birds are in my bedroom.. Until i get an Actual "Bird Room" i REFUSE to bring live maggots, or any time of crawly worm into my bedroom...just the thought of waking up...and ugh, I can't even think about it... anyway the non alive ok for fledges?

[Sally]

You can try the fake ones, such as freeze-dried, but many birds won't eat those. If not, you could chop them up and add them to egg food. In reality, you don't need live food for Zebra finches anyway. They will be just as happy with homemade egg food, which supplies the protein the fledglings need plus many vitamins and minerals.

[lnlovesorange]

Sally Awesome. Thanks Sally. I never really heard a difinitive answer about whether Zebras needed bugs, but I've heard they will eat them.... so I got the Mealies as a free sample figured I'd give it a try. Thanks for the answer though, they get plenty of regurg'ed egg food, haven't seen them try it themselves yet...but that doesn't mean they haven't...

[Sally]

My babies would always try egg food, or spray millet, or sprouted seed before they would try the seed mix.

[lovezebs]

Hi.
Crush up the freeze dried meal worms almost into a powder. You can then serve them mixed with egg, sprinkled on chopped veggies, or in a small dish on cage floor.

~Elana~

[isobea]

I guess I've spoiled my birds: they'll eat the live mealworms but won't touch the freeze dried worms (bloodworms). I've offered them in a separate dish and ground to a powder sprinkled over the egg food. Everybody turned up their beaks at that - to the point where they won't even eat that egg food at all. But I figured it's worth a try. So now the fish in our pond benefit...
Iso