#cawmunity #Corvid #crow

I need some advice…

Since I happen to live in a breeding pair‘s territority I started to bond with the family. The parents have currently one young. They come around for peanuts and mealworms, eggs…
Since their offspring is leucistic I‘m happy to feed them, hoping this will deter them a little from raiding the trash cans.
Now I wonder if/when I should stop feeding them / change the food when they raise their next young in spring.
I heard that young in the nest can choke on nuts / are unable to digest them and that they need insects to receive the nutrients necessary for healthy feathers. Now the parents have raised at least two young badly leucistic. There‘s a lot of garbage around, people leave a buffet of fast food out and on top of that there‘s a lot of wellmeaning souls feeding old bread to any bird around… Even if I cleared the immediate area our black feathered friends wouldn’t have to travel far for the next culinary indulgence, so that‘s not an option.
What do I do? Would frozen insects for the first few weeks help?

Thanks for any help! I like them a lot but have no experience and surely don’t want to harm them.

@MarkLatrelle

If you can afford them and can bear to have them around, I bet they'd enjoy live mealworms.

We've been feeding them to our garden birds for years - they're full of protein and water so ideal for young growing birds.

I found them quite icky to begin with, but they're not slimy or anything - they're actually beetle karvae rather than worms.

We get ours from a company called Wiggly Wigglers, who are very good, but I'm sure there are other people who sell them.

@MarkLatrelle

If live mealworms aren't an option, dried ones (soaked in water to rehydrate them) are a reasonable substitute.