Earth Worms anyone?

[Justino222]

Hahaha so i shouldnt switch??? I heard Pellets were a great balancedndiet

And idk…. I would use red haha

[Justino222]

How Would I crush them to dust?? Put them in the my dehydrator???

[lovezebs]

Justino222
I use the freeze dried mealworms (just to clarify) I put them in a small container and use the bottom of an old glass and practically pulverize them into tiny bits. For heaven's sake don't try it with fresh worms... ugh!

As for pellets... I'm not saying don't feed them (lots of people do, I guess).It's just that once birds are used to a seed diet, they rarely want to go on to pellets. 'I feel', that their natural diet is seeds and thereby that's what I feed them, along with veggies/fruits/eggs and so on. I have bought some fruity pellets at one point, and offered them as a snack along with their regular food. They looked at them, looked at me, and I got the message loud and clear. If they could talk, they would have said: You eat them!!!
One thing I would advice, is never try to take away their seeds to force them to eat pellets. I really think that some birds would gladly starve to death.
Anyway, goodluck.

[MiaCarter]

Justino222
What kind of wine does one have with sauted earth worms? White or red?
Why are you trying to switch finchies to pellets? Where in the world of nature do birds find 'pellets'?
As for mealworms. Crush them to almost dust then offer them on a plate.

I'd go with red wine.

I tried pellets once. They were completely ignored.
A very clear: "Nope. No way. No how. Absolutely not."

I get the mealworms freeze dried and I just smush them in the bag.
I'll put a bunch on a spoon while inside the bag, then you pinch the bag and smush them against the spoon. Easy peasy.

I guess you could put fresh mealworms in a dehydrator and crush. I'd make sure they're dead first. *shudder*

[Justino222]

MiaCarter lovezebs hahaha thanks guys. I will try dehydrating them (in which im sire they woukd die) hehehe and then crush them. Im gonna wait though and see if they will eat the Mini one once my mealworms breed:)

[Justino222]

Oh… and ok ill stick with seed. I just need to buy good seed blocking trays cause ughhhh i hate sweeping twice a day lol.

[lovezebs]

Justino222
Sweeping only twice a day, eh? I have an ongoing pile of seeds/hulls and what have you that I add on to everytime I walk into my kitchen. The vacume is parked near by, plugged and ever ready for action. When the pile gets higher than is reasonable, vacume gets used and ffitt all gone, until next sweep.

[Corkysgirl]

Okay, this is a little off the point, but that is my specialty. You're talking about worms...so this is about worms. Close enough!
This was posted on my grandson's face book page and it made me laugh.
"It's so hot right now, I swear I saw a bird blowing on a worm before he ate it."

[Justino222]

Sorry we got off point

[lovezebs]

Corkysgirl
Gotta love that one.

[lovezebs]

Justino222
No need for apologies my friend, Corkysgirl just wanted to throw a wormy joke in there.

[Justino222]

Haha. I know i was reading about people eating meal worms cause. You mention sauteing them. They actually dont look that bad… maybe more appetising after a few. Glasses of RED wine lol

[Sheather]

Earthworms are nothing any finch would eat, big and wiggly and slimy - not a seedeater's forte. They spread gapeworms and other nasties, also.

On the topic of pellets my birds absolutely love them and I love the lack of seed hulls, so offer them exclusively when I'm really sick or going to be out of town to prevent mess while I can't be there to clean it up. Otherwise, I offer them at all times in addition to seed mix. My finches prefer seed if they haven't had it for a few days, but otherwise eat both foods equally. They get Zupreem and sometimes Lafebers, and eat both but prefer the former. All of my societies, my javas, and my new canary happily accept them, but they only make up part of the diet along with seed and fresh food.

[RC Cordon Bleu lover]

You all crack me up with this worm talk. LOL. I think I'll stick to seed and Romaine lettuce. All of my finches love lettuce. RC CB

[Stevie]

I got a wormery!!

Birds - I know nothing.

Worms - I know a lotta, lotta stuff


How to set one up
Pretty much kept worms to make compost for years and years.
If anyone does fancy it here is how to set one up, from my boat blog

How to set up a wormery

The worms used for this are Tiger Worms, in the US they are often called Red Wrigglers I think. Not sure if this is the ones mentioned.

Constant free supply of worms
The worms breed to match the amount of waste you put in your womery. This means you can have a fairly constant supply of baby worms if you wanted to, which are white thread like and very, very tiny. Then you'd have sizes upwards from that to a full size Tiger Worm. Which is about the size of an earthworm, maybe a bit smaller if anything. leaving the big ones in which are too big means you are leaving in the ones that are breeding.

Cleaning worms
I think sterilisation would be a problem. I am planning on finding a way to do it. Maybe a UV light steriliser, often used in beauty salons, would work. As it would probably not kill the worms. You'd have to wash them first which could kill them as worms hate water. I recon there is a way it could work.


Be careful with animal waste
Unfortuatley, you can't put anything with bird p** in your wormery unless you precompost it first. It has too much nitrogen and ammonia in it. Two things worms do not like.