best insect for waxbils

[Chrismurdoch3]

So I have been trying to avoid the thought of feeding live insects to my birds for a long time, but the more I am absorbed into the waxbill species I see that it is very hard to have any success with them without feeding live insects during their breeding season. So my question is what is the best live insect to feed waxbills? (mainly cordon bleus, gold breasts and fire finches) Also where can I get them in the U.S. for a decent price? I have done quite a bit of reading on where to get the insects and on what to feed them but I was hoping I could get some more current info from the forum members, maybe you could help me find out where to get the insects for a good price and what's best to feed during the breeding season. Any help would be appreciated thanks guys.

[dan78]

Well having had all three before I would say the mealworm as a basic food source as these are easily to Aquire. I would suggest live maggots (fly larvae) grown for animals and not the ones you just find are eaten with gusto and apparently are better balanced with fat to protein ratio compared to mealworms. Micro crickets I have also used and found they were very slow at the start to be taken but would be taken by certain pairs over mealworms. As for pricing I can't help but I know places that sell reprisals and fish will stock these if not only a few so a ring around the area could help you land a constant supply as prices vary as well as quality. If you find that your finches do well with the live food you could even look into breeding your own as these aren't super difficult just more time consuming.

[lovezebs]

Chrismurdoch3

All my little guys, love meal worms, with the exception of my fires. They tend to look at them with disghusted fascination. However, they will eat crushed, freeze dried mealies. I have tried canned grass hoppers and mealies, and no one wanted anything to do with them.

Where I'm at, up in the frozen waste lands of Canada, I get my live minis in pet shops. They usually sell them for fish. You might need to ask for them. As for the freeze dried variety, I get them at Walmart, in the wild birds seed section. It's a nice sized green bag, put out by Kaytee for around $7-8 bucks, and it lasts for quite a while. I crush them almost into a powder, and everyone loves them.

~Elana~

[Rox]

Termites are the best but unfortunately not accessible to all of us (and quite frankly, I don't want them in the house, lol!). Next best bet is mealworms, maggots (fly larvae) and fruit flies. These are the easiest to purchase or breed yourself.

The mealworms can be a problem as they can inhibit calcium absorption, due to the calcium/phosphorus ratio in the worms and feeding bran doesn't help the matter. I counter this by adding both calcium powder and a general vit/min powder to the bran which the mealworms are kept in. The reptile folks call it gut-loading. I separate a portion of worms that will last the next couple of days and give these worms the supplements. Otherwise you are wasting it on worms that will not be fed to the birds in a few days. I have a lot of wild caught waxbills that will not touch egg food. By gut loading the mealworms, I get the calcium and vit/min supplements into them that way.

Maggots (fed on bran etc not meat) are an excellent source of protein and calcium. You can even feed Pheonix worms (black soldier fly maggots) at their smallest stage and the birds love them.

For fruit flies, you are lucky that in the States you can buy them pre-packaged. Here in SA, we have to rely on good old fashioned heat and fruit in the sun. I have a dish of fruit in my aviary which gets changed weekly - the birds love eating both the flies and any larvae that happens to hatch.

I've also tried the canned bugs but none of my birds were interested. Mini-crickets are also apparently good, if your birds will accept them.

[Chrismurdoch3]

Awesome thanks for the replies. I have researched a lot on the meal worms and fruit flies. I would like to try the mini's but I can't seem to find anything local that carries them. I also haven't had much luck surfing the web for worms smaller than 1 inch meal worms.
I have tried meal worms with my waxbills in the past and they seemed to only eat the heads off and leave the majority of the body on the ground. So I wanted to try a worm that is smaller to see if I would have better luck with those. I never have thought about fly maggots are those hard to keep? And I wish we had termites in the U.S. they seem to be a great source of food for waxbills. Also is there a good method of feeding fruit flies to the birds so that the flies don't escape from the aviary?
Do you guys know of any vendors on the web that are trustworthy and have quality products?
Sorry for all of the questions I just would like to get the most info that I can so that I don't jump into live insects blind and end up hurting the finches or something. Thanks

[Sally]

Mealworms are the cheapest to buy and easiest to raise yourself. I have used both Grubco and Rainbow Mealworms as sources, they both sell the mini size, which is what you want. If you decide to raise some yourself, there are tons of youtube videos on how to do it, or you can search this forum, it's been discussed before.

Phoenix worms are fabulous, but they are pricey, and I had problems with delivery (first package took 3 weeks to arrive, second package never arrived at all). It seems they were disappearing in the USPS system.

Fruit flies are also good. You can either do it yourself with the rotting fruit (cheapest way) or you can buy the flightless fruit flies. You can also raise them yourself.

[Chrismurdoch3]

Awesome thanks Sally I made an order from rainbow worms and I'm hoping to try the mini worms and the fruit flies and see what success I can get with them