FINCHforum

Okay. So today I put some meal worms down in a saucer in the finch room. All my finches were very interested but not snatching up a worm. I went back to check on them later and they had eaten all the meal worms. So, my question is how often should I offer a meal worm? The ones they ate today were "mediums" so I got some "small" ones at the pet shop.

dunker817

Gouldians, will eat mealworms sometimes (if they see other birds eating them). The Cordons, will eat them, and the Parrot finches, will suck them up like there is no tomorrow (in fact the PF's will eat so many, that they will get very fat, very quickly).

As to the Cockatiels..... I don't think so.

Regarding the Cairn Terriers, being of the Terrier Nation, anything is possible .

Elana

Cordon Bleus will often bite off just the head, or they will suck out the insides, tossing aside the exoskeleton. Waxbills usually prefer very small (mini) mealworms, and you normally can only get those by growing your own or ordering online. Mealworms will often act to bring birds into breeding condition, as the higher protein content is what does it (just like egg food stimulates breeding). I offer small amounts daily when trying to get them to breed, and then if they are feeding babies, they get unlimited amounts multiple times during the day.

With the species you have i'd only consider the mini mealworms being important to get the cordon blues breeding, the other species don't need them and be careful with the parrot finches getting obese from gorging on mealworms. I stopped giving the parrot finches mealworms for this reason and only give them my eggfood mix while breeding now.

I'm certainly no where near the experience level to attempt breeding. So I guess I will be conservative with feeding insects. I blend the dry meal worms up into my egg food. Is that too much protein?

If you aren't interested in breeding, I'd be very conservative with not only the insects, but the egg food/dried mealworms as well. All those are high in protein, and as others have said, Parrot finches can get fat quite easily.