live food

firetailone · Post by **firetailone** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:07 am

hi
just wondering i live in australia and when you purchase mealworms they come in a contanier .lets just say if you give the birds half of this where do you put the rest .e.g. fridge, cupboard,how long do they stay perishable for the birds.never used them before and curious.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:22 am

sorry for laughing couldnt help it, no offense meant.

with mealworm though I tend to fee it twice a day to my birds in breeding season and once a day through the rest of the year.
I allow 5 - 10 mealworm per bird per meal, this will vary upon your birds though some will thrive on live food while others wont touch.
mealworm should be kept in the fridge after purchasing, this slows down their metabolism which means they stay smaller for longer, small mealworm are what the birds prefer.
a 50g tub of mealworm only lasts me a couple of days but I do have over 50 birds in my aviary and this number is growing daily

firetailone · Post by **firetailone** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:26 am

ah! thats the trick ,
i guess it was funny.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:31 am

there is a great egg food recipe available on this forum, there's a link to it somewhere lol, give that a try as well the birds love it

1of42 · Post by **1of42** » Thu May 15, 2008 10:21 pm

Yeah the fridge is probably the best place to put them. I volunteer at a Birds of Prey Center and there are always some extra mealworms in the refrigerator to give to the Screech Owls and such. Also, if you want to save money on continually buying mealworms, you can keep them in a ventilated container, give them potato slices, and get them to breed. See this: http://www.wormman.com/mealworm_breeding.cfm