FINCHforum

I'm fetching the Cordon Bleu's from the airport tomorrow - yay!!!! In preparation this evening, I came across a tub of dried mealworms which I bought for my current lot of finches. None of them touched them. But then, they don't touch the live ones either (except my female Star Finch, who will happily eat everyone's share, lol). I know the CB's I'm getting have been raised on mealworms and termites, so I know they won't have a problem settling in to eat.

Now my question. What is the nutritional difference between live and dried? I was looking at this tub filled with dried worms wondering if it could be used for when my live stock is low. I've read online that dried mealworms are higher in protein. Any personal experience?

Thanks as always!

I don't know the difference, but started giving all my birds dried mealworms, and my Goulds, who previously would not touch them are all eating them now.

this is an interesting fact sheet on mealies and how to raise them

http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm

I've never had much luck getting mine to accept the dried mealworms. Some grind them up and add them to their homemade eggfood, I need to try this one day.

I feed my fire finches freeze dried blood worms.
I refuse to deal with live worms in the house. My wife will freak out at me if she sees any crawling around.

I have to check into the dried meal worms, to give them a variety to pick from.

Cindy, thanks for the link. Interesting on what they feed their mealworms. I know bran is not good, will investigate this more

The packaging for the dried worms states crude protein at 52.6% and crude fat at 29.2%. I found a website that advertises their live worms at 48% crude protein and 40% fat. But this will also all depend on what you feed your mealworms.

I think I'm just going to give the dried worms a try with CB's and see how it goes for when my live stock is low. It's definitely more convenient to keep dried worms, that's for sure!

@ac12
I never knew you could feed them dried blood worms. Something new I can look into. Thank you!

Most cordons only eat the heads of the mealworms. Thousands of heads. They usually prefer live ones but the freeze dried bloodworms may be worth a try.

Interesting on what they feed their mealworms.

You ARE what you eat!

I learned about the freeze dried bloodworms here.
I get mine from PetSmart, in the fishfood section.
You really need to watch the sales, then it gets more reasonable in price. I was not thinking and only got 1 container when it was on sale, I should have bought at least 6.

You ARE what you eat!

Debbie, I completely agree! I just never thought I would be researching the correct diet for worms, lol!

Any opinions on Phoenix worms? These seem to be quite popular here in SA on the feeder insect lists

I tried phoenix worms when I had gecko's and they just didn't seem to be a hardy as the mealworms for me.

debbie276

Do you mean hardy as in to keep them? I've been told they will only survive max 2 weeks.

One of the local feeder insect companies brought me some phoenix worms this afternoon, as well as some grubs, to try out on the birds. They are trying to expand their business from reptiles out to birds/fish, so they asked if I would mine using my birds as a guinea pigs. Free bugs to experiment with, who am I to argue

After initially thinking the phoenix worms and grubs would eat them, the birds finally started nibbling on them when I mixed them with live mealworms. So will see how it goes over the next couple of days.

This is an old post, but I just recently got some Red cheeked cordon blues. I have been feeding freeze-dried mealworms because that was all I had and my zebra finches don't care too much for them. My CBs LOVE the freeze-dried. I also read that the dried ones are higher in protein so I'm going to keep giving these until I decided if I want to try live...I do a mix of chopped up spinach leaves and the freeze-dried mealworms like a salad lol. I do chop the worms up just a bit because they are bigger ones. My Firefinches I also just got don't seem to care for the mealworms, but love the chopped up spinach.

Dried mealworms can be stored for longer, and you can either feed them dry from the container or soak them in water until soft. They're usually quite reasonably priced and cheaper than the live ones.

I just read an article about feeding dried mealworms to the wild bluebirds in my yard. They have ignored the dried ones, but the article says to put the mealworms in a jar or bowl, pour boiling water over them, and let them soak for an hour or two, or even overnight. This is supposed to make them softer and more desirable to the wild birds. I'm going to try it.