Freeze Dried Mealworms

[Alasdair Ingram]

Recently i have noticed an increase in freeze dried mealworms being sold through both pet shops and garden centres and i was interested to hear about other folks' experiences with them.
I have no doubt that they are of a poorer level of nutritional quality than their " live " brothers and sisters but my birds still take them willingly.
Have any other members got anything to say either positive or negative regarding them???

[kenny]

hi alasdair
i have fed them to my quail and the odd one has been taken by my javas ,but i dont think they go down as well as the live ones.i would assume that there is more nutritional value in the live ones but i have no definate proof only the fact that they all get eaten!

ken

[Strawblady2000]

Hello!

I have used them in the past...but I couldnt get the birds to eat them (strawberries and gouldians). I tried using freeze dried ones because of a disaster in using live food (some got away, lol, and started raising their own colony...which, I was NOT happy to find.

Of course, my gouldians still do not eat the live ones either...and my berries usually only eat them when they are either on eggs or feeding chicks.

The ones I have used are "flash" frozen...supposedly to help them retain more nutrition...but I think alot is lost. However, that being said, if frozen ones are soething that yours eat, and it works out better as far as supplying them, etc...then those would certainly work too.

2 benefits to live foor...the birds like it and some require the live food to stimulate them to breed. The other is the increased protein and amino acids...which can also be fed through other foods. While I believe live is better for both of these benefits, live isnt necessary to achieve both of these.

[chris]

the other thing you might want to take into account with mealworms is the cost. freeze dried are far mroe expensive, don't stimulate the birds as much and are nutritionally poor in comparison. if you want all the extra vitamins get a supplement powder you'll save money and have the live worms.

you'll also notice that they are measured differently to make them look cheaper, freeze dried were in 500ml tubs that i've seen, and were just under £5 (roughly $9 i think) now if you pick up the tub there is no way in hell that it weighs 200grams or more. not only that your paying for husks! my local petshop sells mealworms £2 per 100 grams, so i get more mealworms, all live, more nutritional value, and better breeding results due to feeding live food, and all for far less in costs!

i think i've made my point:lol:

Chris:wink:

[Strawblady2000]

Good points Chris.


Here it is the opposite...the frozen ones are less expensive than the live ones.

And...believe it or not, they are sold by count not weight, for the live ones.

Depending on the source, most pet stores sell 25 large or 50 small for about $4 a tub.
The freeze-dried ones are about a 500 count for $5 or so.

I have found a feed store that sells 1000 live ones for $12...so this is by far the best value for live worms.

And yes...the freeze dried ones are pretty much husks with some dessicated inards, lol.

[Alasdair Ingram]

I do acknowledge that the F.D.M. will be less nutritious than their living counterparts due to their shell like appearance and less than appetizing filling ( air mostly ;) !).
With regard to my original question ,i was wondering if anyone has successfully used them ( along with a smaller amount of " traditional " living worms) to bring their birds into a breeding type frame of mind??? , or have they solely been used just as something different for their birds to eat?

[Strawblady2000]

Hi Alasdair,

I did use them for that purpose. The birds didnt like them...and I needed to raise their protein levels to get them into breeding condition. I served them whole...then even crunched them up a little and mixed into soft fresh eggfood. They ate that alright, but when I stopped using the FDM, they continued to eat it...so I dont know if there was actually any benefit to using them.

I did offer for the purpose of conditioning...but ended up ousting them altogether and using supplements in conjunction with eggfoods.

Now, I'm back to offering live....and even then, except for my cordons, the berries only eat them when brooding.

[chris]

Hi Nikki,

if they cost that much over there you could make a killing by culturing them. i had a thriving culture, however since i left the lid open and didn't cover with cloth the grain mites got in and i had to throw the culture away or risk the bleeders eating everything in the shed!

Chris

[Strawblady2000]

LOL!!!

Well, I had thought of that...but there's one small problem. I'd puke on my shoes, as they kind of gross me out...and any money I made would be spent on replacing shoes.


:lol:

The first time, colonization wasnt intended...escapee mishaps, so to speak.

The second time was intentional...I had them on the deck and my 2 year old son knocked them off into the grass...as I went down to pick them up, he proceeded to sprinkle the substrate that spilled on the deck down below...right into my hair. Then my 4 year old teased me all day about having worm poop n my hair.

So....I've decided to not venture into a mealworm entreprenership for the time being.

:lol: :lol: