FINCHforum

Has anyone had problems with mealworms escaping?

I built a cage that is nearly impossible to change the bottom of the cage so I just added several pounds of crush walnut shell. It has a solid bottom and sides that are 6 inches tall.
I've fed mealworms just a few times on the cage floor in a separate tray and then shortly after that I saw a few beetles crawling around. Then I noticed the Owls were digging around the floor of the cage finding small mealworms on their own which I thought was pretty cool.

Now I'm finding beetles crawling around the carpet. Then I noticed I had worms in the carpet under a box. I'm not sure what they've been eating for the worms to get so big. If I do offer worms again, they will be de-headed!

I have found a stray mealworm before but it was on light colored ceramic tile and was detected quickly. That's crazy you have beetles running around
I do not raise mealworms any more...I still have some boxrs of live ones that I will feed but not breed anymore. I have all of my birds successfully rearing young on eggfood. Mostly straight boiled eggs. The goldbreast have fledge young on eggs alone, the RT parrots have fledge 2 clutches on eggs alone and many gouldians. So I am saying goodbye to the meal worms.

I use the canned Mini-Mealies from PetSmart. They are small, look and feel (yuk) like the real thing, and my birds love them just as much.

Yes, the thought of beetles crawling on the floor and worms hiding in the carpet is disgusting. Had I thought any of this out, I would have put tile or lineolium on the floor instead of carpet.

I haven't tried the dried mealworms. I mainly used the mealworms when I had Shaft-tails. No need for them now. I feed hardboiled egg to the Owls, Stars and Gouldians.

They make a small special dish meant for reptiles, you put the mealies in, they can't get out.

This is the site:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=11494

It looks cool, but those don't work. Finches still pick them up and drop them and not necessarily back into the container!

personally I haven't tried them with finches but they work for geckos. It keeps the mealies from climbing out. My owls take them and go to across the cage to a perch, they must drop one or two here and there. I find them at the bottom of the cage, most the time I find dead body parts.

Are you using a low sided dish or deeper bowl?

I have tried any number of dishes--clay saucers to glass bowls--and I still find stray mealies under the newspaper when I change it out. Most of my finches will carry mealies up to a perch, and then they drop them once in a while.

Cindy, I was using a shallow dish. They couldn't climb out. I think I'm done with mealworms for the moment.

I too use shallow glass dishes (like custard dishes) and the mealies cannot escape but as others said, the birds pick them out and sometimes drop them in the cage to wriggle away...

My birds would not eat the DRIED mealworms, but really gobble up the CANNED Mini-Mealies. Got everything the live ones have except the 'crawl'.

I have been debating over whether to get lived or the canned. I don't like crawly things in the house and had my fill of raising crickets and the mess that went with it when we had reptiles (I was doing the good mommy thing and exposing our children to various animals and their care...must have stuck our youngest is off to start college next year to become a vet. ANYWAY :>

I am going to pick up a can of them tomorrow, my owls are very curious and try everything, the GB and St Helenas and Orange cheek don't go near the live ones.

I am going to try to expose any chicks my finches give me to a larger variety of foods than what the parents may or may have not been exposed to.

The mealworms that I get are tiny tiny tiny......

My birds eat everything and there is nothing left.

I have learned the hard way, that just because they empty the dish doesn't mean that they ate them all. Lately we've been picking up beetles from the floor (and putting them in the farm). I am thinking that it was when I thought that they were eating almost 100 a day while nursing, obviously one or the other was having a flinging fest. Hilarious little brats until you encounter one on the stairway.

In my flights with a solid floor I find that the birds will find and eat any escapees that get tossed out of the dish. In my cages with the grates worms definitely get dropped and then live in the paper tray.