A friend of mine is in the process of moving house, and he’s been trying to get me to take a lot of his stuff off his hands.
It’s a long way they’re moving, so they want to travel as light as possible.
One thing he found while rummaging through the house was several large bags of bird feed, specifically mealworms.
He asked me if they would be any good for my conures—I wasn’t sure, so I decided to look into it.
So, can conures eat mealworms?
Yes, conures can eat mealworms. They are healthy and safe for them, and make a great snack every now and then. It’s important to only feed them in moderation, though, as they are quite nutrient rich and your conure will only need a small amount. Don’t overfeed them.
So, the short answer is yes, mealworms are great for conures.
They’re a good snack, filled with extra protein, and plenty of other useful nutrients.
You just have to be careful of how much you give them.
Let’s look further into this.
Are mealworms good for conures?
Yes, they are, in lots of ways. For one thing, never underestimate the value of a good range of treats and snacks.
Your conure will love mealworms, most likely, and this will make them a great treat that they love.
This will do wonders for their mood as well as their bodily health.
Beyond that, though, mealworms have plenty of nutritional benefits.
For one thing, they are a great source of additional protein.
While your conure doesn’t need a huge amount of protein and will get most of it from its regular diet, a bit extra can always be beneficial.
They also contain plenty of great sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which are really important for a balanced diet.
They have been shown to reduce cholesterol.
Mealworms are also rich in monounsaturated fats.
They are really nutritionally dense.
They are also a good source of fiber.
Fiber is a really important part of your parrot’s diet, and helps everything move through its gut smoothly.
Finally, mealworms also contain many healthy minerals, like potassium and phosphorous.
These minerals serve a variety of functions in the parrot’s body, from the healthy functioning of the immune system to blood health.
So, yes, mealworms are good for parrots in many ways—but there are, as always, important caveats to this.
Are mealworms bad for conures?
Not inherently, no.
They don’t pose any specific risk, and are not toxic or dangerous.
However, they can become dangerous if you aren’t careful about how much your conures eat.
Too much can quickly become a problem, due in part to the fact that they are so nutritionally rich.
Because of this, your conure only needs to eat a small amount before it has extracted all the benefits it can.
Beyond that, it will just be further calories that it struggles to digest.
This will cause digestive issues.
Beyond that, excessive protein can be problematic in the diet, as indeed can the minerals found in mealworms in high quantities.
At most, once or twice a week is plenty of times to feed mealworms to your conures.
Be sure to swap them out for other treats during the rest of the week.
This will give them the best possible balance in their diet, and stop them from getting bored of the same snacks.
But there are multiple kinds of mealworms you can get for your conures—so which are good and which are not?
Can conures eat dried mealworms?
Yes, conures can eat dried mealworms, and this is probably going to be the easiest way for you to feed them mealworms.
They are easy to find in most pet stores and even just department stores, as they are commonly used for outdoor bird feeders.
Conures can eat dried mealworms no problem, and they will enjoy the crunchy snacks this way.
Since most of their diet is made up of seeds and vegetation, they will be more likely to prefer dried mealworms.
They do eat a number of live insects in the wild, but far less.
Dried mealworms are perfectly safe for your conure, and will make a great snack.
What about live ones?
Can conures eat live mealworms?
Yes, they can also eat live mealworms.
Live mealworms are often sold as fishing bait in tackle shops, so if you happen to have such a shop nearby, then this could be the easier option for you.
While your conure will almost certainly love them, there is more of a chance they will be less interested in live mealworms.
It’s certainly worth a try, but if they don’t seem interested, don’t try and force it.
Live mealworms come with virtually all the same nutritional benefits as dried mealworms, though some nutrition is lost in the drying process.
Overall, though, there is more value in feeding them dried mealworms than live ones.
Conclusion
In short, as part of a balanced diet, mealworms make great snacks for conures.
They are a tasty treat, as well as being filled with lots of additional protein and other nutrients.
Your parrot will be happy to have them as a snack, in moderation. But the moderation is the most important point of feeding them mealworms.
If they eat too many, it could cause a wide range of problems.
Make sure they are getting plenty of balance in their diet beyond the mealworms.