"Shock frosted" mealworms

[Ursula]

Finally, no escaped mealworms anymore in my aviary!

For a few days now I successfully fed the mini mealies to my finches in the morning after putting them in the freezer(!) for 20 minutes or so first. They seem to be a little startled by the frozen mealworms at first, but they thaw very quickly and by the end of the day all mealworms are gone or mashed to pulp with only some skin remaining. (Sometimes they don't eat the entire mealworms but only chew them.)

I did the same procedure with mini crickets before and they needed to be put in the freezer only for a few minutes and were dead. But the mealworms, when I put them in too short (5 minutes or so) they are NOT dead but thaw back to life! But 20-30 minutes seem to really kill them.

I cleaned out the entire aviary bedding this weekend and replaced it with new aspen shavings. (My leg muscles are still sore today from all that bending and shoveling! ) When I cleaned out the old stuff I found a ton of worms, beetles and larvae. I knew I had some in the shavings under the table where I feed the worms, but they were in all sorts of places in the aviary and much more than I thought. So no live mealworms anymore for my birds.

By the way, it wasn't a problem of "escaping from the dish" but the birds taking a mealworm, flying off and dropping it. Or only partly chewing them and dropping them under the table...

Now I only hope that there aren't any mealworm eggs stuck to the floor or table legs or something that I didn't catch when I was cleaning. I'd really like to keep it bug free for a while...

[monotwine]

LOL the picture I got in my head of your cages with breeding meal worms!

They are very good at staying alive and hiding. I have found meal worm lavae in my compost heap after throwing out old bedding! go figure they seem to be able to live anywhere except when I try to breed them.

[lovemyfinch]

Thank you so much for posting this Ursula...I tried it this morning and it worked. The shafties are just tickled pink.

[Ursula]

LOL the picture I got in my head of your cages with breeding meal worms!

They are very good at staying alive and hiding. I have found meal worm lavae in my compost heap after throwing out old bedding! go figure they seem to be able to live anywhere except when I try to breed them.

Well, it's actually a walk-in aviary, a former sun-room that I turned into an aviary. I have aspen shavings as bottom cover for the floor, that's where they lived happily and thrived... I have button quail who are supposed to pick up fallen mealworms, but they are getting lazy I guess. Luckily, the mealworms stayed in the bedding and didn't migrate to the adjacent living room... But I think that won't be cozy, that has a laminate floor.

And you are right: I tried to breed them several times but I never could get as many as the finches eat and had to buy some anyway. I also always got these grain mites in the mealworm bedding and that creeped me out a little, so I threw them out again recently. I hope the birds outside had a feast...

[dfcauley]

OMG>.... this is why I have no bedding on the floor of my aviary.
I use either newspaper or towels under poop areas. Then I can sweep every day.

I am afraid I would have to give up my finches before I could deal with that.

That's a great idea about the freezing them. I am going to begin giving my birds minis as soon as I finish my aviary addition. The courdons are really missing them I think.

[B CAMP]

I can't understand why the quail didn't get the ones they drop,maybe you have to much food for the quail and they don't have to forage for food

[Rayray]

reading this i am laughing hard , because there's still people around that don't believe that the mealworms survive like anywhere and they will find food even its an old newspaper or woodchips ...

the frozen ones is a good idea ... what they do here is giving the mealworms a real good meal with vitamins and calcium an hour before the put them into the freezer ... more better for the birds

Ray

[cindy]

Ray, I was thinking the same thing...gut load the mealworms with whatever vitamins, minerals, greens and proteins you want the birds to benefit from then freeze them. Sort of like a frozen popsicle for finches. A mealie-sicle!!!!!

It is like hiding the good foods you want your kids to eat in another food they like.

[Ursula]

Ray, Cindy,

That's a great idea! Since I feed in the morning before going to work, I can put some in a small dish at night with "power food" and then put them in the freezer when I get up in the morning. Before leaving the house I feed them to the finches.

Thanks for your feedback!

[cindy]

Ursula, when raising various lizards we would 'gut load" the mealies and crickets with foods rich in whatever we wanted the reptiles to benefit from. Motto: Feed the insects the food you want your reptiles to eat...in this case it would be what you want your finches to eat.

If you use a powdered vitamin, eggfood feed it to your mealworms mixed in the foods you feed them. I used thawed and warmed edamame mashed, carrots, apples, romaine etc for the mealies and crickets. I also fed warmed edamame to my uromastyx lizads.

When I feed my finches I "try" to go by what I did for my small and large hookbills, it is like what the pediatrician told me to go by when my girls were young. It is not so much the daily intake look at the total intake of a balance of vitamins, minerals and body's essential needs in one week...did you meet the weekly requirements?

So gut load your mealies with really good foods for a few days, let them absorb it into their system and then give them a good last meal before your "popsicle" them!!! Bon appetit little finches!

[Ursula]

Thanks for all the good advice, Cindy! I will try that...

[monotwine]

Ursula I have the same problem! Mites. What I have done so far that works is very shallow layers of bran which I change weekly. So far my mealies have done well and are breeding without mites.
Don't know however how I am to change bran without loosing the eggs. So am leaving a shallow layer in the tub and I will see how it works out.

[B CAMP]

monotwine
Well I still find it easier for me to buy my mealies but I had this link saved tells how to separate them seems to be good check it out
http://www.finchsociety.org/cfa/livefood/mealies.htm

[cindy]

Ursula...I may just try the frosty approach to mealworms. I am sitting at my kitchen table working on some emails when something went flying through the air and landed in from of me.

It was a squirming mealworm from the shaftail cage 4 ft away...the male flung it.

Frozen may be better!!!!

[lovemyfinch]

Cindy, I have been freezing them ever since Jan 4th, when Ursula mentioned it. I have been having great results, they eat them and no more stray mealies if they decide to fling.

What I do that may be a little different however, is just to make sure because a few of them do come back to life when they defrost is once frozen I break them in half...thus...no more mealies alive and loose in the aviary.