You want the food to mold. They cant directly chew whole foods, but they re-digest whatever else helps get the food into small pieces.

worry not. but DO keep them moist. (mist sounds good, drippy-soggy is bad)

Due to lack of better judgement, I will again respond with answers and tips! Please remember, I am not that experienced, I only know what works for me!

I believe mold is good, the worms actually eat stuff after it has started to decompose, which mold is a part of. This next statement is a personal experience only: I have overfed the worms before resulting in some nasty, moldy, clumped up stuff the worms didn't want, due to an item more of interest to them in the other corner. If any food item hangs out too long, and it just doesn't 'flow with the chi of the bin' in your opinion, feel free to toss it. I don't think that you 'need' to toss it, but with 2 kids, I'm sure you have plenty of stuff to give them.

Sometimes something I've given the worms sits there too long, and it just bugs me. I've had no ill results from 'tossing it' when I want to. I had a ant infestation last night, and tossed what the ants were all piled on top of (white bread), I think they were giving me a sign. Sorry guys, kids dig white bread.

As far as the lid goes, I assume you are leaving it off to get the light in. I'm not sure if it's necessary--I only take mine off in case of problem like last night with ants. But you could consider seran-wrap to let the light in and keep moisture in too. Poke holes in it.

Congrats on the worms, I hope you have as much fun as I do!

Swamp

mouldy food is fine, and dont worry if the worms dont eat to begin with, theyre still settling in to their new home and it may take a week or two before you notice theyre eating very much. Im not sure why do you have the lid off?

I read several posts that said to keep the lid off and the lights on the first few days. See link below. I started putting it on though because it was getting too dry and it's been 3 days since I put them in there.

Should I always keep the lid on?
Thanks,
Tina

Here is a link that might be useful: uh oh...chuck's post

Worms, being worms, eat dead stuff. The deader, the better. Stinky, moldy rot and dead stuff hang around together a lot, and my worms would rather eat mold than almost anything excepting almost any kind of excrement, which they really get all squirmy over. Since the mold usually visits the dead stuff first, the worms eat it up before the stinky rot arrives...unless the herd is overwhelmed.

That doesn't mean the vermi themselves are unsanitary, no, quite the contrary. In his/her infinite wisdom, the Creator made them that way knowing that one day people like you, and me and swampboogiequeen and garnetmoth, and all the others would want to put a big bin of them in our kitchens, so he engineered them to eat the spoiling stuff as it decomposes thus creating the smell of.....nothing at all. He/She did lots of other stuff to help us along until we invented garbage trucks and "sanitary" land fills...which we promptly decided were vastly superior to His/Her ideas.

Ain't nature grand!

Chuckiebtoo