FINCHforum

Hi All,

I checked on my small 'mealworm farm' today, and was pleasently surprised. After many attempts and quite a few failures, I finally found all of these, plus a sizable container that has hundreds of miniscule baby mealworms that are busy growing.

And here they are...

Congrats on your mealworm farming success! I have a friend who has a little mealworm farm and when she showed me her setup, I turned to my husband and asked if he'd let me give it a go. No dice, I fear, so everyone just has to stick with the freeze dried stuff.

Looks like your kids are in for a real treat!

If you don't mind me asking, how many can zebra and society finches have? (Newbie here)
Those look like very healthy mealworms.

Celeris

Hubby turns green when he sees mealworms, eh?

If you keep them contained in boxes, there really isn't a problem. It's not like the make a break for freedom, lol.

If you were to see my little mealworm farm, all you would see is some tupperware containers on a shelf, you wouldn't even know what was in them.

lovezebs

I think it's the beetles that "bug" him (Haha! Pun intended!). Those are definitely more likely to make a break for freedom and he's just not okay with the notion. But who knows... I'm now up to eleven birds and three of those were absolutely his idea. Maybe I'll talk him around on the worms, too. Patience is the name of the game.

TheMadGirl

I know for my quail, the rule of thumb is 5-6 each. Not certain if finches also have a recommended portion. lovezebs Any idea?

TheMadGirl

Because I have large flights, with many birds, I usually just grab small handfulls and offer them in a dish without really counting.

Because they can be fattening, you don't want to offer too many mealworms. For healthy active birds, I would suggest maybe two to five per week, but that's just a guess on my part.

Perhaps some other members will chime in with their thoughts on the subject.

lovezebs

Good job! insect farms are facinating!

Thank you both for the help.
I have lots of mealworms, as I also have hamsters and sometimes I add some to the finches bowls, they seem to enjoy it, I usually give about 4 mealworms for each one per week, I think I will keep that number then.

I purchased jumbo mealworms a while back. Canaries sure love them. I actually tried a handful. Nutty taste. But chew too long and the taste is like bad cardboard.

Christian

We have a member on here, who roasts them and eats them regularly, says they're great.

Somehow I don't find them at all appealing, blehh, but to each his own, right?

My Canaries, have not shown too much interest in them really. They sort of look at them with disghusted fascination. The only time I saw the try them, was when I had some Waxbills in the same flight, then everyone had to try them, lol.

Might want to kill them and break them apart. Mine only eat them if broken up.

Christian

If they can't pull them apart themselves, then I'm afraid they'll have to do with the pulverized freeze dried kind that I add to their egg food. I draw the line at chopping up worms, yuck.

My Waxbills, Socies and Zebras, squeeze them out of their skins, leaving the empty tube behind (like kids with those yogurt tubes you can buy). My Cutthroat CT, used to just chew them up and swallow them skin and all.

TheMadGirl

Hamsters eat mealworms?!