help! my worms wont eat anything, fussy blighters

[NappiesGalore]

i have a wormery.
its only a few months old.
ive run out of the food they sent with it, for settling in - but they wont eat owt else.
what'll i do??

they will be eating it - but slowly. I was disappointed with their rate of consumption. our wormery probably copes with half to 3/4 of our veggie waste - from a family of 4. and I don;'t put anywhere near all our cardboard in - just the odd bit

sigh

i guess ill have to get a normal compost thing too

im being cautious about feeding them so far, like the instructions say, but they really dont seem to touch it.

i just put some bread in to see how that goes

not sure about bread - I only put veggie stuff in - I think it decomposes more "nicely" and is less likely to attract unwanted attention - mice or rats

yuck yuck yuck. if it makes you feel better my wormery has been neglected most of the winter and I just went to sort it out. god it was slimey and smelly and revolting. FULL of worms though. so I gave them a bit of air and worm food and will have to hope for the best...

We got our wormery a year ago. It took absolutely ages for them to eat all the stuff that we initially put in there. Literally about five months before it was established! One of the reasons for this is that they get a bit sluggish in the winter. They'll be a bit more hungry as it gets warmer. Don't put bread, cooked food, leeks, onions or citrus fruit in as they don't like them and will leave them until there's nothing else to eat. Also from experience, avoid banana skins until it gets established (really tough to eat). Cut everything up and remember to all about 1/3 ripped cardboard etc so it doesn't get too sludgey. Our worms are now very happy. We love our family pets . You'll probably get some fruit flies in a bit. If you do, on a nice warm day keep the lid off for a couple of hours and it should dry up a bit which will help.

hatwoman - what is this wormfood you speak of??

re the sludginess -i actually had to put water In mine ther other week, was bone dry and they all looked dead!

and yes about winter. i stupidly got mine in about january so thats why ive not been worried about it doing bugger all...till now.

thanks for the advice re what to feed them

um... this cardboard/wet paper stuff - do you get gloves on and mix it into the general melee, or put it on top as insulation? ( as per the instructions for setting up)

and the food - do you just chuck it on top, or put it under the layer of cardboard??

and if you put stuff in that they dont eat, will it go off and kill them?
am i better to put too much or too little?

worm food here

Oh dear we have had ours about a month and have been merrily chucking in cooked food ect! and no cardboard. I knew I shouldn't have let DH read the instructions...

there's a list at the end of this article of what's best to put in here

cece - do they seem to be eating it? have you looked?

i got a cheapo wormery from worm city -do you think a wiggly wiggler one would be better?

hatwoman - thanks for the link (you do realise thats a list of things not to put in though, dont you??)

just glanced at it but yes. I wouldn't dream of putting baked beans in - the effects are bad enough when I put them in dh. lord alone knows what the worms would do to them.

lol

funnily enough though, this faq sheet says baked beans are allowed

OMG no baked beans oh I hope they will be alright!