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I am a newbe here and have 3 bins set up. The problem I seem to be having is that both my wife and I travel for work (airline pilots) with the kids now off we generate very little garbage. I was colecting what we had and froze it for later but that isn't going to work. I need a scourse of worm food I can store and use as needed. Has anyone used the Purina worm food? I do have a large mass of leaves, the reason I got started with worms to begin with. Could I simply just add the decaying leaves chopped up when needed as a food?
Any thoughts will be appreciated.Tom
Cape Cod
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mikel
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 74
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/18 19:14I know one grower that uses the Purina Worm Food and he said that is all he uses. I like to use laying mash myself. I was talking with a grower yesterday and he said he uses egg crumbles. He is 83 years old. He said he was paying around $13 per 50lbs. I am paying around $13 per 100lbs of laying mash.
You can use the leaves, but IMO a higher protein content will yield bigger worms.
Post edited by: mikel, at: 2009/04/18 19:20
Post edited by: mikel, at: 2009/04/18 19:20
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jasdip
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 43
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/18 19:26Hi there, I've gotten produce from my grocery store. Some stores don't allow people to take home their garbage, but it doesn't hurt to ask. I came home with a huge box of lettuces, cabbage, herbs, fruit, etc etc. They give it out freely for people's rabbits, guinea pigs etc.Southwestern Ont. Canada
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a3holerman
User A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 23
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/18 20:49Thanks all for the replies. What I need is a non perishable food that I can stock and have available to feed by my wife when she is the only one home. I also need to be able to feed once a week if necessary. Have read most all of the threads here and gained a wealth of knowledge. Question: does the Purina chow and the laying mash have to decay,ferment before the worms will take to it? If so how long before its ready to chow down approximately?
Thanks again,Tom
Cape Cod
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BigTexWorms
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 50
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/18 21:57I have found many red worms native in my leaf mold piles in the yard. You can try the leaves. Worms can go weeks with neglect, sometimes do even better than when we mess with them all the time. I use cardboard when I am going to leave for a while. They munch on it for weeks without looking any different than when I left them. I have used my purina chicken crumbles in the past. I just sprinkled it on top and misted it with water and left. BUT I have noticed that it molds pretty bad. The worms dont seem to mind but it looks gross. In my opinion, I would not go spend $13 for feed, I would just add some extra bedding before you leave, monitor moisture and feed as often as you can with your scraps.Liz aka BigTexWorms http://bigtexworms.webs.com
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mikel
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 74
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/18 22:08a3holerman wrote: Thanks all for the replies. What I need is a non perishable food that I can stock and have available to feed by my wife when she is the only one home. I also need to be able to feed once a week if necessary. Have read most all of the threads here and gained a wealth of knowledge. Question: does the Purina chow and the laying mash have to decay,ferment before the worms will take to it? If so how long before its ready to chow down approximately?
Thanks again,
On the laying mash a few hours and they are all over it. Not sure about the Purina, I haven't used it. If you need to know I can make a phone call this week to find out.
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Larry C
User A Mature Breeder Earthworm
Posts: 96
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/19 00:01Tom,
The fellow I bought my redworms from at redwormcountry.com, will sprinkle dry rabbit feed on his beds and then spray it with water. The worms love this and this is how he fattens up ones for bait. Shredded newspaper and rabbit feed should both be good non-perishable foods.
Larry
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jasdip
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 43
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/19 09:55Worms love bunny poop, if you know of someone with pet rabbits. Just make sure you rinse the berries thoroughly of urine. This is a real treat for them.Southwestern Ont. Canada
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jasdip
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 43
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/19 09:56Can you not get some food scraps and freeze them for future use? I have lots of frozen worm food and just take out a bag when I want to feed. This way you'll have a steady supply and it's easy to do.Southwestern Ont. Canada
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a3holerman
User A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 23
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/19 12:04Again thanks everyone for all the replies.
Just returned home after about 6 days away. Before I left the lady I bought my EF's from suggested I put about a 1/2 cup of cornmeal moistened to a paste in each bin. Was anxious to check the bins and found that in all 3 bins the cornmeal was mostly in tact with a bunch of worms around the bottom and quite a bit of mold on the top. Not much had been consumed as far as I could tell. Your right BigTexWorms the mold looks bad but I guess from what I read its OK. I am still confused if the cornmeal or mash needs to start to decay before the worms will attack it. I didn't sprinkle it just put it in a hole in the bin in its paste form. I must say I am having a lot of fun with this prodject. There is a refrig in the basement near the worms so I can store frozen scraps. Added some more cornmeal spread out a bit and no lights so we will see how this get used up. Have shredded a bunch of decaying leaves and will try this on top in a few days if they don't go for the cornmeal.
Read on another forum, which I emailed the webmaster several days ago to join but havn't heard back yet, that some other wormers use laying mash only and have huge EF's just on this feed....
Post edited by: a3holerman, at: 2009/04/19 12:05Tom
Cape Cod
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timnbama
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 167
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/19 18:51I use a mix of ground rabbit feed that I had left over and plain flour, corn flour (like the tamales and tacos are made from) alternating with water soaked rabbit manure. And of course their mainstay is shredded paper. Cornmeal is too coarse for the smaller worms to eat and don't do anything but mold so I have used only 1 bag of that stuff in over a year.
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mikel
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 74
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/19 21:19I take the laying mash straight out of the bag, sprinkle it on the bedding and wet it down. In a few hours they are eating it. Usually in less than 24hrs it is gone, depending of course on how much I put in.
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wellsworms
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 624
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/20 08:36Hi tom If you are buying food for when your away. get a few cans of [ you guessed it ] pumpkin puree, put the entire contents . In the bin do not spread it around. The worms need a safe place to go if the new food heats depending on how many worms in each container this should last a month or so. Be careful about the added moisture that is in the pumpkin. I always add shredded paper to compensate.FEED IT TO THE WORMS WELLS,vermont jerry walker 2008
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a3holerman
User A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 23
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/20 20:30Jerry,
Thats a ggod idea. We have an Ausi Shepherd dog and put a dolop of Pumpkin pure in with his food per the vet so we have many cans laying around. I am on vacation for 3 weeks so will be able to experiment.Tom
Cape Cod
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herogamer
User A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 11
Re:Need help on chow - 2009/04/24 12:12could try to get expired canned food from stors or from salvation army (type place)
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He said he was paying around $13 per 50lbs. I am paying around $13 per 100lbs of laying mash.
