Mealworm and Calcium Dilemma?

[Fraudster]

Hi all,

Been reading a lot on mealworms for finches, and a lot of people say it has a crap Ca:P ratio. I am planning to use them to bring my finches (cordon, etc) to breeding condition, and am not sure whether I should use maggots instead (I really, really don't want to use maggots!). Could this problem be overcome by providing cuttlebone, egg shells, etc?

Cheers,
Fraudster.

[debbie276]

You should have available at all times a mineral mix in a dish of cuttlebone, eggshells etc.
So you could use whichever protein source you prefer.

Good luck

[Rox]

I feed thousands of mealworms during the breeding season for my waxbills. Every week I dish up mealworms to be fed out during the following week and add calcium powder to their bran in order to gut load the worms before feeding them to the birds. This is in addition to having egg shells, cuttle bone etc available.

It's not fool proof but definitely helps to ensure they get some calcium intake with the worms

[Stuart whiting]

Hi mate,

I know exactly what you mean, over here in the uk we use a muti vitamin and mineral powder called SA37 , it's actually really meant for cats and dogs and other animals but we sprinkle this each time on top of a small dish of mini or std meal worms are given to the birds, many of us have been doing this for many years and believe that this really does help,

Incidentally I'm also a big believer and user of small maggots for rearing purposes and have mastered this to a tee over the years

There is a thread about maggots a little further Down the page that may interest you that I've described in quite a bit of detail,

This may be of use to you amongst many others