Feeding Grubs to Birds EXPERIMENT

[rolivier79]

Ok... today I took a small harvest and put it into a birdfeeder that I got at Wild Birds Unlimited. The grubs are alive and crawling... I'll be on the watch out to see what kind of birds come and feast on these guys...





 

Robert

[GW]

rolivier79, I've been wanting to feed my BSF to wild birds for a long time. Please let me know how it works out for you.

[rolivier79]

Tornado Warning... experiment on hold... will restart soon.

[vermontworms]

I've raised mealworms to feed to aquarium fish for many years now.  I put a few out in a cup hanging next to my normal bird feeders in February.  The chickadees loved it, especially since there aren't many insects out in Vermont in February!  I'm sure you'll get the same reaction with the BSFL, and BSFL are so much easier to raise than mealworms.  Mealworms take about 2-3 months to go through their cycle under the best of conditions.  Under mediocre conditions, it can take up to a year.

Tons of people feed mealworms to birds, especially bluebirds.  Wonder if you could get a real foothold for BSFL in that market.

[vermontworms]

rolivier79, do you normally have any bird feeders in this location (with seed)?  If you do, I bet the birds will grab the BSFL very quickly.  If not, be prepared to wait a few days for things to pick up.  It can take some time for birds to find a new feeder -- whether it's seeds or something else in it!

[Tarvus]

I tried feeding a few BSF grubs to my pet orange-wing Amazon parrot, Chico.  Chico took one look at his treat bowl and immediately hid in the furthest corner of his cage!  He's 11 years old and has evidently never seen moving food before and it scared him!  I'm going to try freezing some grubs and adding them to his regular food to see if that will work.

[GW]

Tarvus, my girlfriend has been a veterinarian for over 20 years and she's currently writing the chapter on avian acupuncture for a textbook on traditional Chinese veterinary medicine. I told her about your experience feeding BSF to your parrot. She said parrots and many other birds are slow to accept new things including foods, but that you can probably acclimate Chico to the grubs in time. Your idea of freezing them seems like a good strategy. She added that you should be careful how much BSF you let him have because of the high protein and fat content. She said this is less of an issue if your bird does a lot of flying.

[Tarvus]

Tarvus, my girlfriend has been a veterinarian for over 20 years and she's currently writing the chapter on avian acupuncture for a textbook on traditional Chinese veterinary medicine. I told her about your experience feeding BSF to your parrot. She said parrots and many other birds are slow to accept new things including foods, but that you can probably acclimate Chico to the grubs in time. Your idea of freezing them seems like a good strategy. She added that you should be careful how much BSF you let him have because of the high protein and fat content. She said this is less of an issue if your bird does a lot of flying.

Thank your girlfriend for the advice for me, Jerry!

I keep my parrot on a pelletized diet primarily, but do augment with protein occasionally (usually a small portion of scrambled eggs once a week on the advice of my vet).  But I am very careful NOT to over do the fats.  Chico only gets one or two sunflower seeds or a raw peanut as a rare treat.  I had not considered the fat content of the BSF grubs when I tried to feed them to him.  I will certainly follow her advice!

Now If I could just convince my wife to let me keep several CHICKENS, well - that would be a different story!

[Lumenos]

Chirp chirp, tweet tweet, we needs excess pupae or grubs, cheep cheep.

I don't know if the feeder is to keep pest animals from eating the pupae or to keep them from hiding and hatching.

[rolivier79]

Bruce Deuley in Comfort Texas operates a bird rescue center. He grows grubs with his BioPod™ to offset the cost of his grains. For the smaller birds he takes a small bait bucket with 1/8 inch holes in it and lowers it into the BioPod™. Only the smaller grubs can get through the holes and so he is able to collect a bucket of small grubs for the younger birds. They love the fat and proteins.