Meal worms for Quaker Parrots?

You can try mealworms, but I have never known a parrot to really enjoy them. You do have to be careful with mealworms. If you feed them live and the bird swallows them whole there is a slight possibility of the worm eating through the birds crop. Its rare, but it does happen. I would suggest giving your bird hard boiled egg with the shell on or cooked chicken for protein. The other advantage to eggs or chicken is that they wont crawl out of the cage! :-)

I think its great that you care so much for your bird!

“Mealworms can be every bit as useful a feeder insect as the Zophoba or any other insect choice when wisely gutloaded and dusted. Don't believe for a second the bad hype against them. I know of many birds and reptiles that were raised mainly on Mealworms in the early days by pioneering keepers and they turned out just fine. Even back in the dark ages a few brilliant people had figured out that bugs of any kind were good as long as they ate good food before feeding them to a animal.”

http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/oct2003/meal...

Mealworms are the larval form of the darkling beetle.; they are used as live food for reptiles and amphibians many of whom who will ONLY eat live prey (insectivores and carnivores ). The worms need to be “gut loaded” before being fed to pets: that entails feeding the worms a highly nutritious diet for at least a few days prior to you feeding them to your pet. On their own mealworms are not very nutritious: the herpetologist above reminds us that we need to dust our feeder insects with vitamin and calcium powder in addition to having them “gut loaded” first. You can see by now this is maximum hassle for very little benefit. Parrots are omnivores and as such can safely eat what we humans eat (except for chocolate and alvacado, of course). Small amounts of lean, cooked chicken, beef and egg is great. My African grey parrot will eat salmon: if your quaker will too that would be fantastic. The DHA and EPA Omega-3 fatty acids in fish is the healthiest thing there is going! Remember also to keep the salt content down to an absolute minimum- or - better yet - to eliminate it altogether. Your quaker may also enjoy a bit of hard cheese or yoghurt on occasion. My grey likes feta cheese: it’s much lower in fat than regular “American” cheese(s) and high in calcium content. Experiment a bit to see what your quaker enjoys. Have fun and bon appetit!