Cat food and finches?

[TweeterinColorado]

The local finch store owner told me about her method raising mealworms. She raises / feeds them Purina cat food -- and feeds a cup of the mixture (worms and catfood) to her finches. She has had great success and says the cat food is high protein -- better than some egg food (and cheaper)

Has anyone had experience with this approach?

[cindy]

If she owns a pet store why is she not using a good balanced food made for birds like Roudybush or Zupreem. The use of dog and cat food is a very old time method of feeding the birds. I had this discussion with a big bird breeder years ago. He told me that the use of dog kibble and cat food was an old practice used because they did not have the nutritional information and foods they have available to them then as we do now. Also they use to throw fish heads into the aviaries to attract flies, the flies laid eggs in the fish heads, maggots would emerge and the birds would feast on them.

Dog and cat foods are species specific according to their nutritional needs, stick to the birds foods such as Roudybush, Zupreem, Lafebers....they are designed with the birds nutrional needs in mind. The cat food may be lacking or have to much of certain ingredients that the birds require.

[wellingtoncdm]

Gut loading mealworms is common. Many people use dog food or chicken feed. I have never heard of cat food. I think boiled egg is a better option for protein.

[Sally]

My parents had a mynah bird back in the 70's, and there was not a commercial food made for it. They were told to feed it dry dog food soaked in water. This worked, but today there are specific foods made for various species of birds geared to their requirements. The cat food would be cheaper, which is probably the reason many people use it. Many people also use unmedicated game bird starter for their mealworms, I have done this. As Charlie has brought up, mealworms are not the best source of protein anyway, eggs are much better. Mealworms are primarily used for those species that will not breed or feed their young without live food, but they are not nutritionally as good as plain old hardboiled eggs.

I will move this discussion to the Diet/Nutrition forum so that it gets more attention. It will be interesting to see what others have experienced.