Bugs in birdseed??

[Lorrah77]

Just bought a brand new bag of (sealed) bird seed at my local bird store. So far I've seen two tiny beetle-like bugs in the bag since I've opened it. Anyone else ever had this happen? Kinda grossing me out!

Laura

[Wolf]

Must be a city girl, That's ok though. You know I really don't know what is so gross about a bug, most of them are really quite beautiful creatures if you stop to look at them. If you find more than a couple of bugs in the feed, I would return it to the store for a new bag or a refund.
Most parrots eat bugs in the wild, but being raised in captivity they may not recognize the bug as food like their wild cousins do.

[Pajarita]

I've never gotten beetle-like bugs but I've gotten pantry moths several times over the years and those don't bother me much, I just get the pheromone traps.

[pennyandrocky]

my cousin found bugs in her bird food so she asked our avian vet about them. he told her give it to her birds any way it wouldn't hurt them since like wolf said they eat them in the wild. my son fed my an ant once he loved it

[KimberlyAnn]

Moths and beetles found in seed? It means it's good seed! Lol I don't trust food that bugs won't even touch.

But if you don't want bugs to invade your pantry, try sticking the seed in the freezer for a few days. Other then that, no big deal. Like others said, good for the birds. I feed my GCC meal worms. She loves them! I'm not a city girl, but it is pretty gross...watching her shell live meal worms. Yum.

[marie83]

Moths and beetles found in seed? It means it's good seed! Lol I don't trust food that bugs won't even touch.

But if you don't want bugs to invade your pantry, try sticking the seed in the freezer for a few days. Other then that, no big deal. Like others said, good for the birds. I feed my GCC meal worms. She loves them! I'm not a city girl, but it is pretty gross...watching her shell live meal worms. Yum.

I haven't tried mealworms with the birds but the mice have them sometimes, there's always a mad rush to get to them when we drop a few in. Nothing funnier in mouse mansion than mice who are desperate for a snack except when loads of them try to use the flying saucers at the same time.

[Lorrah77]

Definitely not afraid of the bugs themselves- just don't want it to turn into a massive infestation in my house. Oscar would probably think they were a yummy treat though!

[KimberlyAnn]

LOL Marie. Mice are so much cuter in bunches. And talk about a home infestation...A friend of mine brought a snow white mouse home and her parents said she could not keep it so my mom said she would take it to give to her friend that keeps mice. My mom's friend lived a few hours away so our mouse guest would have to hang around our house for awhile until my mom went to visit her friend. Before we could rehome the mouse, she became pregnant. Except we had this mouse for well over two months! How did this happen?? Then one night, I went to go to bed and here comes this brown field mouse squeezing through the bars of our mouse's cage and quickly went through the doggie door. Of course this nightly love affair could not continue. The mouse was quickly rehomed and a new higher doggie door was installed. Poor mice. Lol

And Marie, try giving Ollie a mealworm. I bet he will love it! It took Emmi a bit to figure out what to do with them after she felt them moving. Now she just lets them coil over her beak until they die. Yuck! But whatever...it's good protein! I always put Emmi on the table over paper towels and make her stand in the middle. That way when she shakes her head and wipes her beak...it has not gone everywhere. Lol

Lorrah, your best bet is just to freeze any bags of seed that you bring into your home. This will kill all the bugs so they won't get to your food, but finding bugs in seed is very common. No worries.

[Pajarita]

I don't recommend freezing nuts or seeds. I once read a study that found that oils change their chemical composition when frozen (that's why they always tell you not to freeze coffee, to keep in the fridge, instead).

As to meal worms, be careful how much you feed to the parrots and when because they are pure protein. And you don't need to offer them alive (some have been found to have salmonella), they have them dried (I feed them to the cardinals, the canaries and the button quail because they turn insectivores in the spring and summer but completely granivores in the winter - and have given a couple to my mouse, too).

[marie83]

LOL Marie. Mice are so much cuter in bunches

A bunch... hah, we started with 2 of them. Given up because the womans boyfriend was really "sensitive to the smell" and threatened to release them. They were 6 weeks old at the time and given to me as 2 bucks. we now have a grand total of 22 mice as she was pregnant when she arrived, she gave birth a couple of days early so I hadn't removed the male (I had actually planned to remove him that evening anyway) but did within an hour or 2 of them being born but he must have already caught her again. There was 12 in the first litter but 2 died and 11 in the second litter but one died.

I was supposed to rehome the babies but it never happened, we now have 1 neutered male living with his sister and 8 daughters. The 5 males from litter one are all living together atm and the 7 males from litter 2 are living together too, your not supposed to keep male mice together so I'm making new houses for them, it's taking a while though but I'm not too worried atm because the male siblings get on better than the females but know that could change at any moment.

I don't recommend freezing nuts or seeds. I once read a study that found that oils change their chemical composition when frozen (that's why they always tell you not to freeze coffee, to keep in the fridge, instead).

As to meal worms, be careful how much you feed to the parrots and when because they are pure protein. And you don't need to offer them alive (some have been found to have salmonella), they have them dried (I feed them to the cardinals, the canaries and the button quail because they turn insectivores in the spring and summer but completely granivores in the winter - and have given a couple to my mouse, too).

Why on earth would you freeze/chill coffee? or are you talking about the beans that you grind?

Yes the mealworms are very high protein, that's why I don't really feed them to the parrots. The mice only really had them whilst they were growing/pregnant/lactating and even then in conjunction with low protein foods.
The mealworms I were getting were from a very reputable source who were pretty thorough with ensuring their reptiles came in clean of salmonella and left in the same way so I'm confident they were really careful with sourcing their original live foods stock