Raising Mealworms

Post by **Sally** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:06 am

In reading the article on raising mealworms from the finchinfocenter, the following ingredients are added to bran:

"Fill the bottom of the container with 1-2 inches of bran mixed with ground-up Science Diet dry dog food, eggshell, Cheerios cereal, and hulled sunflower seed kernels. Insects for feeding insectivorous birds should be raised on these high protein and calcium gut-loading supplements, because if they are fed on vegetable matter or bran alone, their protein and calcium content may be too low."

I have been using bran alone, or bran with unmedicated poultry kibbles, with cabbage wedges for moisture. I would like to try this combination, but I wonder how much of each of the other ingredients I should add to the bran. Can anyone help?

EmilyHurd · Post by **EmilyHurd** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:20 pm

Sorry... can't help here, the thought of worms makes me want to vomit

EmilyHurd · Post by **EmilyHurd** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:21 pm

Plus none of my birds will eat them... I have tried a couple times. I have two pairs of waxbills, and they won't even look at them....

But if I were to guess, add as much as you feel necessary of each item..

Post by **Hilary** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:46 pm

I may be doing it wrong, but a couple of weeks ago I set up my "farm". Mealies are in with bran and rolled oats, and the pupae and beetles are in a mixture of whole wheat flour, cornmeal and bran. They can burrow in the flour mixture, but sometimes get stuck on their backs and can't get back up.

Post by **Sally** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:59 pm

EmilyHurd wrote:Sorry... can't help here, the thought of worms makes me want to vomit

The first time I got mealworms from the pet store, I was not thrilled at having to actually touch them! Now I'm so used to it, never think twice about it. I'm going to try adding these other ingredients to my mix. Seems like it would be a lot of eggshells, so I may try oystershell grit ground to a fine powder instead. I'm using the Carol Heeson method of raising mealworms, as found at Birds2Grow, except I use a 3-drawer cart instead of 4.

Post by **Hilary** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:04 pm

I'll have to check out that article - seems like everybody has a different method. My mealies first established themselves in the trays of the waxbill cages - I'd go to clean and find very healthy colonies living off spilled water and seed.

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:35 pm

hi hilary
there is a link here that may help

ken
http://www.wormman.com/mealworm_breeding.cfm

Post by **Hilary** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:23 pm

Thanks for the link, Kenny! It's actually exactly what I'm doing, so it's nice to know I'm not that far off base. I found I had to separate the beetles - otherwise they'll eat the pupae (ick).

zookeeper · Post by **zookeeper** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:22 pm

another mealworm link
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/worm.htm

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:03 am

You guys may find this research article interesting (the science takes a lot of the guess work out of gut-loading mealies).

Increasing the calcium content of mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) to improve their nutritional value for bone mineralization of growing chicks.

TammyS · Post by **TammyS** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 2:32 pm

I did raise mealworms for awhile last year. It took quite a bit longer than I thought it would to get the colony going. I followed the simple instructions on efinch.com...here is the link:

http://www.efinch.com/mealworms/mealworm.htm

I used chick starter and corn meal for my colony...along with carrots and potato's for moisture.