This video breaks down what is best for you and your backyard songbirds when it comes to live or dried mealworms. We look at budget, nutrition, preference, handling, seasonality and so much more.
Some of the answers may surprise you. And to make this video educational and truly informative, I investigated research papers and even performed my own experiments to really determine what is better for your songbirds.
-MEALWORM SUPPLIER FROM THIS VIDEO-
A great online supplier of live and dried mealworms that many bluebird hosts trust is Rainbow Mealworms. www.rainbowmealworms.com
-VIDEO ABOUT EASILY SEPARATING LIVE MEALWORMS FROM BRAN-
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-LINK TO FIRST ROUND OF MEALWORM PREFERENC EXPERIMENTS-
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**Use the table of contents to navigate to the video in the page.
*As of right now, this video is NOT sponsored and links are currently NOT affiliate links.
References:
Blem, C. R., & Blem, L. B. (2006). Variation in mass of female Prothonotary Warblers during nesting. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 118(1), 3-12.[ Ссылка ]
Dubois, S., & Fraser, D. (2013). A framework to evaluate wildlife feeding in research, wildlife management, tourism and recreation. Animals, 3(4), 978-994.
Freed, L. A. (1981). Loss of mass in breeding wrens: stress or adaptation?. Ecology, 62(5), 1179-1186.
Graveland, J., & Van Gijzen, T. (1994). Arthropods and seeds are not sufficient as calcium sources for shell formation and skeletal growth in passerines. Ardea, 55(1–2), 299-314.
Johnson, L. S., & Barclay, R. M. (1996). Effects of supplemental calcium on the reproductive output of a small passerine bird, the House Wren (Troglodytes aedon). Canadian Journal of Zoology, 74(2), 278-282. [ Ссылка ]
Kröncke, N., Grebenteuch, S., Keil, C., Demtröder, S., Kroh, L., Thünemann, A. F., ... & Haase, H. (2019). Effect of different drying methods on nutrient quality of the yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.). Insects, 10(4), 84.
Mariod, A. A. (2020). Nutrient composition of mealworm (Tenebrio molitor). African Edible Insects as Alternative Source of Food, Oil, Protein and Bioactive Components, 275-280.
Wahome, C. (2022, May 26). Eating mealworms: How it can benefit your body. WebMD. [ Ссылка ].
Zhao, X., Vázquez-Gutiérrez, J. L., Johansson, D. P., Landberg, R., & Langton, M. (2016). Yellow mealworm protein for food purposes-extraction and functional properties. PloS one, 11(2), e0147791.
