Are You My Mother? - Worms & Berries

Both Heff and Heffer had very good appetites and wanted to eat all the time.  The local outdoor shop was amazed at the amount of worms I purchased each week.  Both birds were eating smashed blueberries and worms by the handfuls.  

At first the owner of the store thought I was purchasing the worms to fish with.  When I was back for more night crawlers and mealworms he had to ask me how the fish were biting.  I told him I wasn't fishing but feeding birds.  

Night crawlers have never bothered me, seeing my dad use to take me fishing when I was a little girl and he would have me put bait on my own hook.  So when it came time to feed the birds I had no problem picking up those slimy, wiggling, little critters.

Heff ingesting a night crawler

Heff taking the bait !!

Heffer making it up on the ladder and ready for a meal

Heffer making it to the second step

The most difficult task for me was to keep the worms on the paper plate.  I'd no sooner put 5 or 6 worms on the plate and they would immediately start crawling off.  The other important part of the feeding process was to wash and prepare the food first.  The night crawlers would come in chinese take out boxes buried in very dark, black soil. The worms would be covered with a very heavy dirt so I'd have to rinse them off in the sink. That in itself was a challenge for once the worms were clean, they were hard to hang onto and occasionally they'd slip from my fingers and head for the drain! 

Heff and Heffer had no trouble at all grabbing the crawlers, they actually have little tiny teeth lining the top and bottom of their beaks.  Once they grabbed on to the worm, he wasn't going anywhere but down the throat.

These birds are definitely no longer vegetarieans

Birds are much like kids.  Once they got a taste of the night crawlers and mealworms, they no longer wanted the berries.  I'd try everything to get them to ingest one or two berries at each sitting, and as far as my two boys, I still can't get them to eat all the fruits and vegetables. Trying to feed teenage boys is definitely for the birds!

Barbie