I just give it a good tapping, hoping that if there are any eggs I'll knock them off. Then I throw it away.

I'm LOL, WonderWhiskers, at "turning up their little worm noses at Red Delicious." And to think I thought we were bad by being trained by the bluebirds to ONLY feed live mealworms. ... I'm new here. Just came to post a question about helping BB's get calcium. Now .. uh-oh ... I may never get to FaceBook to catch up with folks. I'll be reading here all I can. ... So ... Q: Oats? Wheat bran? Does it matter? (Oats sounds nice, since they can easily be sifted through it. Same with wheat bran, though?) We want to start feeding ours to keep them alive longer when needed, get them bigger if that is still as nutritious for the birds, and maybe raise our own, eventually. We want to feed the birds more than we can afford to. ;) 'Currently buying our mealworms locally at $15+tax per 1000 worms. While we can, I want to support local business. Our bluebirds raised one brood and have 5 more eggs laid now. [New male in training. 1st male disappeared. Neighborhood cat or ?? Who knows. I just know that Mama-Bluebird is busy training the new young male. He won't yet feed the fledglings, but is feeding the mom, and is dutifully taking a worm to the house - again, in training? :) Love, love these little birds.] BYW, this set of bluebirds is also willing to eat the dehydrated mealworms. !! Never before! Is it okay to feed more of them than the live ones, with plenty of clean water available, of course? Please see my post asking about calcium if you have time. Thanks. Lori

Lornas, There may be enough bugs out that they do not need the meal worms. If your babies are very young they wouldn't feed the meal worms anyway. If they really wanted the worms they would try to run the Robins off. Do you have an actual "meal worm feeder"? I have one that has the plexi on both sides and the holes for them to get in. I took one of the plexi sides out. The Robins feed on the ground under the feeder where worms have been dropped. If the Blues REALLY wanted the worms they would get them.

I never give them anything that is bigger than medium. I ordered small ones once, but they didn't like them very much. I never realized birds could be so picky. They are as bad as my cat. For now I'm spacing out the mealies I have and will dip into my breeding box if need be for a few each day. I ordered some waxworms to try. Of course I realize that these birds were fine without me and my mealworms, and they'll be fine without me. Heck, if they could just eat a few mosquitos they'd be stuffed. They are really big this year! Thank you all of your responses. I found lots of info on later pages. I just didn't look as far as I should have. tara