Need everyone's insight on possible insect food options for supplement feeding martin food.

[Dave Duit]

I realize that a product may already exist and I just haven't found it. My mission after many years is to find or develop a new purple martin supplement food source or product other than superworms, crickets, wax worms, meal works, etc...or dried. I don't need to remind all of the landlords out there about the cost of these insects, especially bought online. I found a possibility listed below, but I don't know if they are pellet or powder in their physical form. If they are in powder form, could they be formed and baked into a pellet form ? I know that martins can be trained to utilize raise platform feeders with scrambled eggs and or crickets. I'm just trying to get everyone thinking about the topic of optional, less expensive martin food sources that martins would actually eat and are safe for their digestive system. All ideas and insights are more than welcome.

$59.99 for 5 pounds
TropicZone Performance insect meal is made from 100% pure farm raised whole insects. Naturally dried and ground into a tasty and extremely nutritious blend. Used to supply or supplement the daily diet of any insectivorous species, TropicZone Performance Insect Meal is a nourishing combination of Black Fly Larva, Meal Worms, Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Silkworm Pupae. With added cuttlebone powder – natures perfect source of dietary calcium- your pet’s protein and calcium requirements are guaranteed. TropicZone Performance Insect Meal can be mixed into processed diets or fed separately to provide the perfect supplementary insect content to your pet’s diet, and contains absolutely NO filler products, artificial flavorings or colorants – Just pure insect nutrition your insectivorous companions will thrive on.
Ingredients: Farm raised naturally dried: Mealworms, Black Fly Larva, Crickets, Grasshoppers, Silkworm Pupa. Natural Cuttlebone Powder.

Analysis: Min. Protein – 48%, Min. Fat-12%, Min. Fiber-8% Moisture – 5%

[C.C.Martins]

Hmmmmmm thank you. Ill take a look

[randyM]

I typically harvest a natural bounty of insects each summer and fall for the next year's supplemental feeding. In SD during late May and early June every third year there is a large hatch of June beetles that swarm my yard light each night for a few weeks. I'll spend an hour or so each evening before bedtime picking grounded beetles up from the driveway. I usually harvest a few hundred each night until I have a gallon Ziplock bag filled that is stored in the deep freezer. Also, each fall I'll collect grasshoppers in my garden or grassy areas with a butterfly net until I have another gallon Ziplock bag filled and store that in the freezer until needed the following spring. An hour or so before sunset as the temps dip into the 40's and 50's the hoppers slow down and are easier to catch than in the afternoon warmth. I know it's not practical or even possible for some landlords to engage in such insect collecting activities, but I live in a rural area and take advantage of the natural insect resource at hand. The whole process of personally harvesting the insects is more gratifying to me rather than purchasing insects from a store. It does save me a fair bit of money not having to buy crickets, but does take some time, commitment and effort to get the inventory/reserves that are needed for my large colony. The insects store very well in the freezer, and if the weather the next spring is nice and the martins don't need supplemental feeding, the insects will keep for another year or two in the freezer, they just need to be soaked in water or Pedialyte before being flipped or offered in trays.

Additionally, when adult martins are feeding their young, sometimes dragonflies are dropped and land on the ground beneath the bird housing. I collect any such dragonflies I find, store them in an empty ice cream bucket in the freezer and offer those for supplemental food the next year as well. I have at least 4 dozen dragonflies I gathered last summer that are ready for feeding martins this spring. I've found that the quickest way to get martins to accept insects flipped into the air is to first flip their favorite food (dragonflies) in the martin's general direction. In less than a dozen flipped dragonfly attempts, it's almost certain a hungry martin will take the flipped offering. Dragonflies are quite large and if a bird does not chase and catch the offering initially, the dragonfly is easily found by the landlord to be flipped again. After a dragonfly or two have been caught and eaten by martins, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, etc. can be tossed and will be readily accepted.

I also train martins at my site to eat from a feeding platform by mixing hoppers, beetles, dragonflies and mealworms in with eggshells in an elevated tray during the nesting and brood rearing season. They may occasionally take a few insects during this time of the year while mostly looking for the eggshells during nice weather, but they learn this elevated tray is a source of calcium and food. When some of these experienced birds arrive at my site the following spring, when the weather gets nasty, they habitually return to the tray for a reliable source of food I'll provide, thus I won't have to flip as many insects.

For whatever reason, martins at my site in the past have not accepted any pieces of egg, either flipped or offered on a feeding platform. In the past when I ran out of insects to offer, the martins would catch egg bits I flipped, but they would drop them and hover over my head waiting for a better insect offering. I'm sure if they got hungry enough, they'd eventually accept the egg offerings, but I guess I must have just spoiled them with the variety of insects that I offer.

Randy

[Thomas Maddox]

Randy, this is gold. Thank you

[Dave Duit]

Hi Randy, Awesome post. I especially liked the section about Pedialyte. Well done.

[Dave Duit]

CC Martins. Looking forward to what you may find and add here. This is the closest I could find at this link as to what I'm steering toward in the future. My concern would be with the bakery products, honey, vegetable protein extracts.
https://www.versele-laga.com/en/gb/nutr ... teepremium

[C.C.Martins]

Dave,
The bakery products don't seem to make up a large portion of the product. Perhaps a sticking agent to keep it all clumped together? Don't know.
All the food mentioned in it, we use or have used for martins. I like it, and your right. The prices are sky high.

The real challenge is how to present to them. Pellets? Can't be powder. Need more thought.
So adults may be hard to trick, but id bet a lot of money a jumper, dehydrated, perhaps a runt, and starving would love this. They can be difficult to feed until they figure it out....we dip crickets in pidialyte or however you spell it, and feed them. Why not give this to chicks?
But, honestly, perhaps PMCA can weigh in? I know they cannot be for or against products. Even a neutral, " won't hurt" is a win.
I like it, just spent 80 bucks at petco for all the crickets I could get and a bunch of wax worms...and yesterday bit more than that on superworms.

Ps: randyM,
I like it, like what you do. It sounds like fun too. Last few years iv been collecting June bugs when they emerge. By the hundreds, many, many hundreds. In one night. When they are done emerging and thin out iv thousands, just in time for the martin chicks.
In fact, a saw a guy who made a bug vacuum for his kid and so made one out of a battery operated dustbuster, few changes and bingo a bug vac. Saves my back from being completely destroyed.

[Thomabear]

Very interesting Dave and thanks for starting this topic. In the past I tried an egg and mealworm omelet by waiting until my wife wasn't home and running eggs and mealworms through her blender, adding plenty pulverized mealworms to turn the mixture brownish in color. I then placed the mixture on parchment paper on a cookie sheet then baked and cubed (about 3/8"). They never ate it, but they weren't food trained at the time. The mockingbirds loved it. I would definately be willing to try the product you shared now that my birds are trained. Just need to get them acclimated to the B&B feeder. It sounds very healthy. Might be time for a group buy, LOL Thanks for sharing.

[Dave Duit]

Thanks CCMartins and Thomabear for the ideas. The wheels are turning in my head with some of your suggestions and idea. The blender, dustbuster to collect june bugs, baking into pellet form, etc... All great points that I need to consider in this quest to find a shelf stable martin food alternative to the the high prices of crickets.

[C.C.Martins]

Very interesting Dave and thanks for starting this topic. In the past I tried an egg and mealworm omelet by waiting until my wife wasn't home and running eggs and mealworms through her blender, adding plenty pulverized mealworms to turn the mixture brownish in color. I then placed the mixture on parchment paper on a cookie sheet then baked and cubed (about 3/8"). They never ate it, but they weren't food trained at the time. The mockingbirds loved it. I would definately be willing to try the product you shared now that my birds are trained. Just need to get them acclimated to the B&B feeder. It sounds very healthy. Might be time for a group buy, LOL Thanks for sharing.

I'm telling.....

[Thomabear]

I just told her… I promise!

[C.C.Martins]

I just told her… I promise!

Whew, close one. And you are alive!
I read your very dangerous experiment to my wife. She said dont you dare.

[Phil01]

Lmao! That’s hilarious Thomabear! Why are there all these cricket legs on my countertops?

The other day I got so over zealous when I finally got them to eat flipped crickets that I broke my wife’s favorite soup spoon in half.. It flips almost as good when it’s shorter…

I’d be interested to see what everyone comes up with for the pellets as well.. Like Thomabear mentioned, if they are trained to eat scrambled eggs maybe they could be mixed in somehow? Not sure if it would be cheaper with the price of eggs though? Maybe if you have chickens. Last time I looked 1000 1 inch crickets where like $18.00 plus shipping… I need to order more today as a matter of fact.. Anyway, following to see what all you intelligent and innovative landlords come up with!
Phil

[Dave Duit]

Good points Phil. I have ordered crickets online in the past and noticed that some are short on the numbers they say in the box. I will continue to research the possibilities of creating a new product of pellet cricket or insect food for martins.