Worms, just like people and other animals, have a very particular diet that they need to abide to. There are certain foods that they will devour, and others that could kill them.
There are already a lot of articles online describing what you can and can’t feed your worms. I am not going to go tell you what you can and can’t feed them in this article, but instead describe how I experiment with feeding my worms.
There are a few categories of food that should be pretty obvious that you should stay away from, such as foods that are:
- Fatty
- Oily and greasy
- Meats
- Salts
- Acidic
- Spicy
- Dairy
Who knows, maybe some people feed their worms these types of foods and have had good luck with it. I don’t think I have the guts to try this yet. Maybe if I had an actual test bin that I could try this out with, then maybe, just maybe, I will try. But until then, NO!
In my opinion, those categories could either kill them from the salts or kill them from making your bin too acidic. Or they could make your bin smell like something died from the decaying fats, oils, grease, dairy, and meats. They might even attract some kind of varmint, like mice!
I have not yet added any of those items to my bins and I do not intend to experiment with them, yet. Not too sure what the spicy food will do to them, but it just does not make sense to feed it to them.
I think beyond that, try feeding them anything else you want. Experiment with them. Put a small amount of something new in one corner of your bin and see how your pet worms react to it.
Here is what I have tried myself so far:
- Cardboard – They love it as long as it is wet and soft, otherwise the cardboard doesn’t do much.
- Newspaper – Over time, they will eat it
- Watermelon, rinds all all – They love it
- Steamed Vegetables – They love most of it, but I try to stay away from broccoli because it ends up stinking pretty bad.
- Mulberry leaves – Love it, probably the most along with the rabbit poop
- Paper towels – Take it, it breaks down quickly
- Strawberries – Love’em
- Pumpkin – Really love them
- Banana peels – Take it, but it takes a while
- Rabbit poop – Love it, probably as much as the mulberry leaves.
- Lettuce – Take it
- White rice – Take it, but I don’t like giving them much of it since it tends to mold pretty quickly and goes down slowly.
Some of my tips:
- I always bury the food. This helps prevent them from molding and stinking.
- Add a little fine dirt every so often. This apparently helps with their digestion.
- Pay attention to the foods that add moisture, verses the ones that do not.
- If your bin becomes too wet on the bottom, add something dry like dry cardboard or newspaper to help soak up the moisture.
- If your bin becomes too dry, add something more wet, like watermelon, or sprinkle a little water on top.
- I have one bin that does not have a drain on the bottom and I have not yet had any problems with it becoming too wet when I pay attention to the moisture levels.
- Do not overfeed. I feel that the food should not be in the bin for more than a week. If it is, you are probably feeding too much, the food is too tough, or they don’t like it. If it is not causing issues, leave it.
- Occasionally, add a little garden lime to reduce the acidity in the bin.
- Take notes, write a journal, keep a good memory…something so you can remember what they like and dislike.
I see a bunch of questions on social media where people ask if it is okay to feed their worms this particular food they have in mind. If it is a food on my list above to stay away from, I would recommend you do not add it. Otherwise, maybe you should experiment with it. How else will you learn what they like or dislike? Maybe one thing will work for you better than how it worked for someone else or you will find something that works great that someone else has not yet tried.
Mulberry leaves, for example…I had no idea that my worms would love them so much! I wanted to give it a try, so I did. I found that they were going for those leaves before anything else I would give them. The same goes with the rabbit poop.
I like to experiment with the food because I may come across something that someone else may not have, and that makes it a little more fun!! I recommend you do the same. Why not?