Aussie Finch Forum

Hi all you Mealworm breeders,
Just a quick question, will mealworms eat the seed husks and debris etc. from the feeding trays, or is that better off in the compost?
Just thought it would be a convenient way to get rid of all the empty husk.
thanks,
J

Its safe to feed to Mealworms but still add bran and carrot

Thanks Henry,
Yeah I wasn't thinking of feeding them JUST that, they'd have the usual mealworm stuff as well, just wondered if they would eat it.

Jay I grow mime in seed husk as its plentiful and still feed them veg, you could mix the husk with other medium like bran or pollard. People also use oats as the base for their medium.

I put some mealies in a shallow dish in my food tray. After quite some time (probably a month) when I went to empty the husks I was surprised to find live fat mealies in the husks. They would have haqd nothing but husks and seed during that time.

MadOzzie.

Great! Thanks guys!!
This will help me with an idea I'm going to go ahead with in my big aviary remodel weekend after this one can't wait!

Do I have mealies breeding in my avairys - Yes. Do I breed mealies - No. They have always bread with no help from me in the husks etc that I leave on the floor. I clean my floors in such a way that there is always a section of floor left "unclean" and they breed continually in the husks etc.
LML

You are what you eat! If you only feed husks there is very little nutrition in them and if the mealies are able to survive they likely won't be particularly nutritious and they will take much longer to grow. I visited a commercial meal and super worm setup in the Philippines a couple of years ago and asked about feed. The guy there told me told me he could get rice bran really cheap but the beetles take twice as long to mature and eat almost twice as much so it was just not economic to do so. In spite of the extra cost he preferred an imported wheat-based chicken starter crumble. I used starter crumbles for my colonies up there and was very satisfied with it. It's unlikely that the beetles surviving in your aviary are contributing much to the birds in the aviary but if they are being regularly taken my concern that you may be inadvertently providing a parasitic worm with ideal conditions. I don't know if AFF has any parasitologists that may know if Australia has any worms that can utilise mealies and finches like this but I seem to recall that the compost heaps promoted in aviculture have now disappeared because of the danger setting up parasite-host life-cyles in aviaries.

GregH wrote:You are what you eat! If you only feed husks there is very little nutrition in them and if the mealies are able to survive they likely won't be particularly nutritious and they will take much longer to grow. I visited a commercial meal and super worm setup in the Philippines a couple of years ago and asked about feed. The guy there told me told me he could get rice bran really cheap but the beetles take twice as long to mature and eat almost twice as much so it was just not economic to do so. In spite of the extra cost he preferred an imported wheat-based chicken starter crumble. I used starter crumbles for my colonies up there and was very satisfied with it. It's unlikely that the beetles surviving in your aviary are contributing much to the birds in the aviary but if they are being regularly taken my concern that you may be inadvertently providing a parasitic worm with ideal conditions. I don't know if AFF has any parasitologists that may know if Australia has any worms that can utilise mealies and finches like this but I seem to recall that the compost heaps promoted in aviculture have now disappeared because of the danger setting up parasite-host life-cyles in aviaries.

You are spot on Greg. Mealworms on the aviary floor acts as the perfect reservoir for tapeworm and gizzardworm - they feed on the faeces (containing the worm eggs) that fall on the floor (much yummier than seed husks) and then the parasite lifecycle develops within the mealworms, waiting patiently for them to get eaten and complete the cycle in the next bird.

perhaps not then.....