Ants

[ann]

Maybe I should have started this under Diet and Nutrition, but here's my question. If I leave something like fresh eggfood in a cage for too long, the ants will come. My birds don't eat the ants, in fact they won't even go near them. Wouldn't you think that some ants would make a nice live-food snack for a bird? Does anyone know why this is?

[MisterGribs]

Well, a lot of birds (especially small ones) get overrun by ants in the wild and sometimes their eggs and chicks are even eaten. Ants will always try to beat you to tossed wild chicks, in my experience.

Also, they don't taste good (to birds). Ants are filled with a substance called formic acid, and their bites and stings can be pretty painful for us, let alone to something one 400th of our size.

These are just wild guesses why birds might not like ants, I'm not really sure the exact reason.

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

I've actually brought home some flying ants which I bashed in the head
They loved them.

[Shannylee]

ann, my insect eating waxbills won't touch the black ants that have taken up residence in the aviary either. The ants smell bad if you stir up their nests so my guess is that they taste bad too. The ants will be eliminated as soon as my AIL arrives!

A cicada managed to get in the aviary last week and you should have seen my little Orange Cheek male with it. He ate all but the head and wings and wouldn't share with anyone, including his mate. The bug was almost as big as him.

[ann]

Shannylee

How funny! Can you catch some more so they all can have a taste?

[Shannylee]

ann, cicadas are weird critters. They emerge from the ground every 17 years...or some craziness like that. They are huge, fly-looking monsters and very elusive but SO loud. They are normally up at the tops of trees. No clue how it got into the aviary because the larvae are the ones that emerge from the ground and this guy was an adult (with wings). I usually feed mealworms but I think I might try crickets since the birds are, clearly, not concerned about the size of the insect.

[MisterGribs]

Shannylee oh mylanta, a whole cicada!? I bet his overstuffed food-boob was hanging below the perch.

[Shannylee]

MisterGribs, right? The bug was almost as big as the bird. He devoured all but the head and the wings and didn't share. It was like the seagull scene from "Finding Nemo"...."mine, mine, mine".