Dried Meal Worms & Gouldians

[D-Man]

I have offered my Gouldians dried meal worms but they don't seem to touch them. In order to make them easier to eat, I break the worms into small pieces and place them in the seed cup, but have seen no evidence that my Goudlians are eating them. Has anybody else had a similar experience? Is there a better way to serve the meal worms?

[debbie276]

My gouldians have never taken to bugs or worms of any kind in the 12+ years I've kept them.

[Sally]

Some species are more seedeaters, and others love insects. Gouldians seem to do fine without the insects, so I wouldn't bother with the extra expense.

[gsjohnson]

Same here...my Gouldians won't touch insects, live meal worms or freeze dried blood worms. They love the hard boiled egg mix though.

[paul-inAZ]

Mine eat 'em.
I have 2 pairs of Gouldians and put a dozen or less dried meal worms into a saucer every few days. No soaking or anything -just the way they are.

The breeder I bought 3 of them from said she fed them worms so presumably they got the taste for them early on.

They don't dive in the way they do with sprouted seeds but by the end of the day the worms are gone. The sprouted seeds are grown in a saucer until they are an inch or more high before putting them in. They mow the greens down.

[D-Man]

Thanks everybody!

My birds seem to focus on the diversified seed mix I give them, millet spray, and occasionally peck at the egg shell (but not the cuttle bone). They really tear into the spray millet. I have had less success getting them to eat the mashed, hard bolied egg, I have put into the cage.

I am thinking about trying some water-soaked bread to see if they like that.

[Sally]

I don't think I would bother with water-soaked bread, though I've heard of some people feeding it. Your eggfood may be too moist if you are feeding it just mashed up. My birds like it drier, so I add things like commercial eggfood/nestling food/handfeeding formula--whatever you might have on hand. If you don't have any of those, you can add some enriched yellow cornmeal. See if they will eat the eggfood then, and remember that with some finches, it takes them a while to try out new foods.

[D-Man]

Thanks - think I will try the enriched, yellow cornmeal. A few weeks back I took one boiled egg, mashed it up, and then dehydrated it in a machine I use to make beef jerky. They didn't go for the resulting "egg pellets."

[sk282012]

crush or grind it,and mix it in your softfood.

[wilkifam]

My gouldians don't like bugs. My OC Waxbills however love them.

The goulds love boiled egg though.

[gsjohnson]

Pretty much the same here. My Gouldians always hang out at the HB egg dish and ignore the meal worms..dead or alive. My Forbes, Dybowskis and CBs love meal worms, dried blood worms and live crickets.

[yunier2002]

It's funny, in my mix aviary I put live mealworms for my breeding RCCB and everyone eats them, even the canaries and gouldians, the male gouldian is the first in the dish tray, I guess they see others eating it and they gotta have it