Mealworms provide wild birds with a nutritious food source. Mealworms are especially useful during the breeding and fledgling seasons when parents need protein-rich foods to feed their young.
Mealworms can be fed live or dried as bird food and added to seed mixes, suet feeders or placed directly onto the ground. Learn more about this popular bird food source!
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High in protein
Mealworms are insects’ larvae that provide birds with essential nutrition. Dried mealworms usually contain over 50% protein and an abundance of fat; additionally, they’re an important source of calcium and vitamin D3.
Calcium is essential for wild bird bones and eggshells. Additionally, calcium also aids nerve impulse transmission and muscle contraction. Mealworms offer an excellent source of both calcium and vitamin D3 that birds can access easily in feeders.
While live mealworms provide numerous advantages for birds, dried mealworms may also prove beneficial. Once birds discover dried mealworms they become regular visitors at your feed station; just ensure to use a caged feeder or another type of feeder which prevents larger species from taking advantage of your bounty!
High in fat
Live and dried mealworms contain similar amounts of fat; however, their lipid (fat) percentage increases during soaking. However, dried varieties are less expensive and don’t require refrigeration, making them an attractive option for many backyard birders.
Mealworms may seem like the perfect lure to draw birds into a yard and breed, yet this claim simply isn’t true – this demonstrates an inadequate knowledge of bird biology. Birds require variety in their diet in order to be healthy so mealworms should only be fed sparingly as part of that regimen.
Add mealworms to your regular feed to draw birds to your garden and help with pollination. Mealworms provide protein for chickens, quail, other poultry or wild birds – recommended replacement rate is 10% of regular diet.
Low in calories
Live mealworms are unquestionably the best food to feed birds during breeding and fledgling seasons, providing protein-rich nourishment with moisture-retaining qualities – essential elements that ensure nestlings and fledglings have enough sustenance from their parents to survive.
Mealworm cultivation can be accomplished quickly by purchasing live mealworms from an online retailer such as Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm and placing them in a plastic tub with plenty of wheat bran bedding. They should be fed weekly, and their bedding must be refreshed periodically – if there are too many, simply store them at 5-8 degrees C until needed – they may enter a semi-dormant state and wait.
On social media, there has been widespread alarm among those who feed wild birds, bird rehabilitators and feeder store owners that providing young birds with mealworms will kill them. While feeding mealworms to young birds is certainly no way to lure a brood of young birds into an area only for it then to provide their diet needs, feeding young birds mealworms is likely fatal for any individual that consumes too many of these nutritious worms at one time.
Easy to feed
Mealworms are an easy, affordable, and accessible food option to feed year-round in various feeders. Additionally, their relatively low cost makes them attractive. Raised at home they can even ensure a constant source of nutrition for backyard birders.
Mealworms are an invaluable treat for wild birds. Live mealworms provide more moisture and hydration than dried varieties; this issue can easily be addressed by pre-soaking the mealworms before offering them to your feathered friends.
Mealworms can provide valuable vitamins and minerals for pets or wild animals; however, they should never form the bulk of their diets. Instead, mealworms should be offered alongside other food sources to ensure an appropriate balance of nutrition is being consumed by your pets or wild animals and they receive all of their essential vitamins and minerals necessary for healthy lives.
