How to feed mealies

[gemscout]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum, and pretty new to having a delightful pair of red cheeked cordon bleu finches. My hen just laid her first eggs since I got them last February, and after reading a great deal about what they need, I ran out and got several items.

One of my questions, is how to feed the meal worms. I put five in a shallow dish on the bottom of their cage before leaving for a few hours (only five so I could count and see if they ate any while we were gone... will definitely add more). When we returned all five are still in the dish. Do you feed them mixed in with their seed, or in a dish higher up and off the floor?

Any suggestions would be most welcome! Thank you, Vivian

[lovezebs]

gemscout
Hi.
Are you serving freeze dried mealworms, or live ones?
When I serve freeze dried meal worms, I pulverize them, or crush them into tiny bits, which my guys love.
When I'm serving live meal worms ( which my guys have really come to love) I serve them right after cage clean up in the morning on a piece of white paper towel, so that they are highly visible and don't get a chance to crawl into dark corners of flight.
Goodluck.

~Elana~

[Sally]

Most of the time, the mealworms you can buy locally are too large for the waxbills to like. Some will eat them, but often they are ignored. My waxbills like the mini mealworms, which I have to order online. You can try the f/d mealworms, though not all finches will eat those either. I grind up f/d mealworms to add to my eggfood, which increases the protein.

[MiaCarter]

I always have to crush them up (freeze dried, of course.)

My guys wouldn't touch the live ones, even the small ones.

It's also important to put new foods in a familiar dish. Sometimes they don't understand it's intended to be a food if you put it in a new dish in an unusual spot.

[gemscout]

Thank you all for your help! I was trying live ones so if they don't take to those after a while, I'll go with the freeze dried variety and add it to their feed.

[wilkifam]

When I serve freeze dried meal worms, I pulverize them, or crush them into tiny bits, which my guys love.

I always have to crush them up (freeze dried, of course.)

@MiaCarter@lovezebs

That is funny, mine won't touch the crushed up ones. I give them whole, and they crush them up themselves. Once they are crushed all up, they don't eat any more of them. Strange.......

[steve]

Hi all

My finches go mad for Mealworms, so much so that I have started breeding my own worms. I can put 60 to 100 in the Aviary and by the Afternoon they are all gone. The first birds there are the Blue Caps, then the Stars followed closely by the Grass Finches. I even have 1 Canary in that Aviary to teach the others to eat new foods and he also has a go at the worms.

Steve

[KarenB]

Oftentimes birds will eat differently depending on what phase or stage they're in.

I offer the same foods every day, year around, but the birds pick and choose what they want on a daily basis. Until they are feeding chicks, they don't always eat the live mini mealworms, but some will eat them any time they are offered.

Keep offering them. Once those eggs hatch, they may start taking them all of a sudden. You may ALSO offer the freeze-dried kind. Never hurts.

People tell me I spoil my birds, but I'd rather things be available to them than not. Just keep offering them. I usually put my live ones in a dish that the finches already eat out of and add oats for the meal worms to gnaw on. Keeps them gut loaded and nutritious for when they become food themselves.

[Jen]

My finches won't touch the freeze dried mealworm. ALL my waxbills LOVE the live ones, but my Goulds don't go near them! I've see my Owls "play" with them and they may even eat one or two, but I always find some left over in their dish. It's funny how some like it and some don't?!? I usually offer a few to my Goulds anyway, but my waxbills get lots of them mixed in with their egg food every day. Sometimes I can find the live "mini" mealworms, (they need to be really small for the birds to eat them) but if not I buy the "small" ones and cut them up! (I know what you are thinking) We all do crazy things for our birds! I even have my neighbors bringing over their leftover fresh pineapple! I leave it outside in the outdoor aviary to attract nats so my waxbills can have a special treat! But I never notice many because the waxbills snatch them up right away!!!

[lovezebs]

I'm actually contemplating trying to raise some mini's at home. My Orange Cheeks, Red Ears, Stars, Parrot Finches, Shaft Tail, and Cut Throat go nuts for them. Now my Societies have started eating them, as well as my Canary. For some reason, my Red bills and Zebras are not interested at all. My Gouldians try them occasionally, especially my two juvies Brian and Brionny . Everybody eats the freeze dried mw's when they are crushed and sprinkled over things.

Well I've been doing some reading about raising meal worms, and it can get sort of complicated, involving lots of bins and containers. I wonder if there is an easier way to do this (?) Any thoughts or ideas?

~Elana~

[Sally]

It really isn't that hard. I use these 3-drawer storage systems you can get at places like Walmart. These are the small ones, each drawer is about 12x12x3" deep. I place wheat bran (or you can use old-fashioned oatmeal or other substrates) about 1 1/2" deep in one drawer. Get some larger mealworms from pet shop and place them in the drawer. From time to time, place sliced potatoes or carrots in the drawer for food. These mealworms will eventually pupate, and then turn into beetles. Continue feeding the beetles. The beetles will lay eggs and then die off. Remove dead beetles. When all beetles are dead, remove all traces of potato or carrot.

Start a second drawer, following the same procedure as above. After you have gone through the whole process and the beetles are all dead, start a third drawer.

By this time, you should see movement in your first drawer. This is the tiniest of mealworms that have hatched from the eggs. Wait till they are about 1/2" long and then start feeding them to your birds. You can take some of them and start a fourth drawer, and so on. Eventually, you can have as many as six drawers in various stages, and if you use some of your own mealworms as starters, you won't have to buy mealworms again.

Once you have finished with a drawer (and by this time it is probably starting to get stinky from all the mealworm poop), just clean it out thoroughly, fill up with wheat bran, and start the cycle all over again.

You can gutload the mealworms that are ready to feed to your birds by crushing non-medicated game bird pellets or any non-medicated finch pellet and sprinkling this all over the drawer that contains the mini (1/2") mealworms.

[Jen]

I've looked into this too. More and more of my birds love them and now their babies are eating them! I watched several You Tube videos on how to do this and it's not difficult...the part that bothered me was when they were in the beetle stage...Ugh...bugs... but then there was a time when I said Ugh...worms...and I got over that....I might give it a try.