It can be difficult to know what to feed a captive-bred bird of prey, especially if you are new to handling them. There is a lot of information about ideal hawk food out there, and one of the things you’ll hear a lot is that your bird should be eating mice. Every day, a fresh thawed mouse is still the most popular food for captive raptors, but it isn’t always ideal.
While on some level, it makes sense to feed a hawk or falcon what they would ordinarily consume in the wild, doing so without understanding the broader context and the bird’s nutritional requirements is not a good idea.
Worms and Crickets for Your Pet Hawk
A wild bird of prey’s diet would consist exclusively of animals in a perfect world. They might occasionally supplement it with berries and other vegetation, but they’ll ingest most of what they eat in the form of whole animals, including bone material and organs.
In the case of smaller raptors like American Kestrels or Merlins, insects can be a small but essential part of their diet. In the case of larger raptors, animals are practically the only part of their diet. You can feed giant mealworms to your pet hawk, along with crickets, grasshoppers, or other insects.
Keeping Pet Hawks on a Bug Diet
If you are feeding your bird exclusively whole animals, the idea behind supplementing with insects is to give them some additional nutrients that they can’t get from eating mice. For example, if your pet needs proteins and calcium, giant mealworms can provide both.
Healthy Predators on a Balanced Diet
Insects can be an ideal hawk food, but you should also make sure that the rest of your pet’s diet is as balanced as possible. Avoid feeding too many mice if your bird isn’t a natural hunter – one or two each week might be enough to keep them at a healthy weight. If your bird needs extra calories, you can supplement with crickets or other insects.
The Right Amount of Protein for Your Pet Hawk
No matter what the rest of your bird’s diet looks like, one requirement is that they get enough protein. Try to avoid feeding your raptor exclusively on large mammals since their bodies cannot properly metabolize fat and calcium from these sources.
You can also get powdered supplements that include calcium and other nutrients in them if you have trouble finding a way for your pet hawk to get all of the key ingredients.
Buy Giant Mealworms and Other Insects for Your Pet Hawk from Crickets and Worms
Whether you’re feeding your hawk or falcon exclusively on insects like giant mealworms or trying to balance out a diet of whole animals with some nutritional supplements, Crickets and Worms can help. We sell live crickets, earthworms, superworms, waxworms, king mealworms, and more. You can also buy our live bugs at pet stores around the country. Order online today!
