Hi,
We've been feeding our wild birds a variety of food including dried mealworms and have recently been recommended to buy the mealworms from a well known company on the web.
Upon reading the information on the meals worms i found that they are grown and processed in China and as we are trying to stop buying goods from China, mainly due to the carbon footprint of everything, i looked to source some mealworms that are UK grown. Further research revealed that feeding mealworms to chickens in the UK is illegal due to the risk of disease. This is mainly due to the suppliers feeding mealworms animal protein and basically anything they can lay their hands on to fatten up the mealworms.
So my question is, or should i say my questions are, is it safe to feed wild birds the same food? Are they able to resist the possible infections or are we just not bothered? Is there a chance for wild bird to eat infected mealworms and transmit this to chickens? Is it really responsible to the planet, inc wildlife, to buy irresponsibly manufactured goods from around the world to try to help wildlife.
Ultimately i find the whole save the wildlife by feeding the wildlife produce manufactured without a care for the planet very frustrating.
Thank you :-)
There were quite a few questions in there clumped together, which made it a little hard to cipher at times.
While I'm not able to offer any answers, I am intrigued what will transpire, particularly as so much comes from China these days, making it difficult to make a choice.
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler