FINCHforum

I broke down today & bought 50 live mealworms for $3.99 at a Pet Supermarket. How do you feed them to the birds???? I'm so afraid they're going to crawl out. Do you feed them on a dish on the cage floor or in a treat cup hanging from the side.
Not that it matters too much as today I found a very small baby draped over a perch. It was very tiny; only about 3/4" of an inch. But I am still hopeful; maybe it was a tiny one dead in the nest & there are other, bigger live ones in there.
I used a tweezers to take them out of the container (ugh!) & put them in a treat cup hanging next to a seed cup where the RCCB always eat. So far, they haven't notice them.
The store said to store them in the fridge. How long do they keep?

Mine only ate the heads. They ate HUNDREDS of them when they were raising young. (Other finches either suck out the insides or eat the whole worm but not cordons.) I would freeze them first before feeding them so they don't crawl away. Mealworms keep well in the fridge but need to warm up occasionally and feed. I used carrots and kept mine in oatmeal since the bran they are in is not very nutritious but since they only eat the heads maybe it's ok. You can buy thousands at a time online. I also fed my rccbs freeze dried blood worms and was lucky to have white ants living in and under an old pine log in the aviary and would vacuum them up when I moved the log.
Good luck and I hope they raise young for you.

Mine BCCB prefer the mini meal worms from Grubco. I just spoon them out of the canvass bag they come in and serve them in a dish with steep sides so they dont escape. My birds eat all of the worms when I feed the minis.

They will keep for a while in the fridge. They go in to a suspended state (or something). You should go through 50 in no time though. Put some type of dish or bowl (maybe a casserole dish) on the floor of the cage. I usually serve them with the fresh egg food. Once they figure them out, they will go nuts. And yes, sometime they will eat the heads and suck out the good stuff leaving you with just the shell.

My CBs also go nuts for mini mealworms and I also order at Grubco. Online ordering is much cheaper than buying in the petstore. I usually order 5000. I transfer them to a plastic container with holes punched in the top, with wheat bran, and they last like this in the fridge for up to several months. Feed every few weeks at room temperature overnight with sliced apple.

Before I feed them to the birds I put the amount for the next day in the freezer overnight. That kills them but they are still fresh when the birds eat them, but when they accidentally get scattered around they won't hide and grow and multiply. (Been there, done that... ) I serve them in a shallow dish.

By the way, for taking them out of the bran I use a sieve, scouper for cleaning reptile sand. You can get that in the petstore.

Not to hijack the post, but are you currently breeding any birds Ursula?

managermania wrote:Not to hijack the post, but are you currently breeding any birds Ursula?

No, I'm not. My birds get a few mealies as treats every day. It's mostly the BCs and button quail that eat them right away.

I think the size of the meal worm has a lot to do with just eating the head or not. The minis are about .25 inchs in length and the birds seem better able to ingest the entire worm. The small size are .5 inch or sligtly more and my birds will just bite off the head. I see them try to eat the entire thing it just appears that the worm is just too big.

I haven tried the freezing thing but I havent had any escape yet. I store mine in the fridge for a couple of months.

Ya'll have eased my mind. I am now a mealworm expert

Someone seems to be eating them; I think it's the canaries.

The RCCB have an egg in their nest; I suppose that is to replace the dead baby I found the other day. OHHHH, I get so mad at them!

There are many mealworm farm videos on youtube to watch if you want to start raising them. I raised many in my garage before switching to finches that will raise on boiled egg and eggfood.

trentfysty wrote:I think the size of the meal worm has a lot to do with just eating the head or not. The minis are about .25 inchs in length and the birds seem better able to ingest the entire worm. The small size are .5 inch or sligtly more and my birds will just bite off the head. I see them try to eat the entire thing it just appears that the worm is just too big.

I haven tried the freezing thing but I havent had any escape yet. I store mine in the fridge for a couple of months.

My CBs don't even touch the bigger worms, but they eat the entire mini mealies. (The buttons eat all sizes, up to the giant size. )

Hi guys,
I've been following the discussion and was wondering whether anyone knows that Gouldians eat mini mealies? I only have Gouldian finches (the senegal wont eat them) so would be getting them (well actually i've ordered them onlline already) for the Gouldies only.

Cheers

I never saw my gouldians going even near the mealworms or insect food....