LIVE FOOD? NEED HELP...

[Sally]

lovezebs The Phoenix worms are maggots, and my Grens love them, they gobble them up right away. They resemble termites in a way, so I guess they will work as a substitute for feeding termites. Those who have access to termites have the best success with the waxbills. I haven't found a source for frozen pinkies (maggots) in the U.S., they are readily available in Europe.

With the mini mealworms, that is the size that is best for finches, especially waxbills. If you just want them for feeding to your birds, keep them in the fridge so they don't get bigger. You can take them out once a week, let them warm up, and feed them some potato or carrot. That night, remove the veggies and return the mealworms to the fridge, they will stay small for you.

If you want to breed the mealworms, there are many videos on youtube about how to do that. I have a three-drawer plastic storage drawer system. I used to use a cart, but you don't need something that big. My system is two sets of three drawers that measure about 12x12x3.

I am just getting started with the fruit flies. I have come to accept that if I want to breed some of these waxbills, I will have to feed live food. Mealworms alone aren't going to do it, they need a varied diet with insects, just like they do with everything else. Plus, mealworms aren't the most nutritious thing I can feed.

[lovezebs]

Sally
Thanks Sally.
My little meal worms are in a mix that looks like some kind of cere.al or bran. So if I want more of them, do I take them out of this medium for an overnight feeding of , is it grated carrot and potato? Then pick them out of the food and stick them back into the same medium they came in, or do I put them into something else back in the fridge. Will they multiply that way? Or should I put them into a bigger container with more medium (but what sort of medium should I use?)

[lovezebs]

MariusStegmann
Thanks for response. Sally, tells me that Phoenix worms are termite like maggots. Thought they looked like maggots, but wasn't sure. Might have to give them a try as well.
I haven't come across anything called 'pinkies' here, so that is not an option. I found these fruitless flies, I mean flightless fruit flies. There are so many in the container that I'm almist scared to open it. LoL.
So I should keep the mini meal worms in bran, not oat meal? Ok, can get bran. When you feed them, do you fish them out of the bran? Then fish them out of food to put back in the bran? Will I get more of them that way?

[KarenB]

The Phoenix worms I get are called Calci worms (same thing), but my finches don't care for them as much as the wax worms. The Phoenix worms don't have to be refrigerated, but I find them stinky.

[lovezebs]

KarenB
Man o man.... please, no more stinky things in my house. What do they smell like anyway? And if it's anything like decomp. they are not setting a foot (do they even have feet?) in my house!

[Sally]

lovezebs If you just want to feed them to your birds, then you want to keep them refrigerated so they don't grow. When you refrigerate them, you need to take them out of the refrigerator about once a week, let them warm up, and feed them. I use slices of raw potato, others use carrots. Doesn't really matter if you grate them or not, those little buggers will eat whatever you put in the bowl with them. Next day, take any remaining food out (you will have to knock off the worms) and put the worms back in the refrigerator. The cold temps sends them into a sort of hibernation, so they don't grow.

If you want to breed/raise them, then you keep them at room temperature, as you want them to grow, pupate, turn into beetles, and then lay eggs, thus giving you an endless supply of mealworms. Some keep them in wheat or oat bran, others keep them in plain old-fashioned oats (Quaker oatmeal kind).

And if you want to breed them, you will want to put them in larger containers. They can't stay in those little containers from the pet store.

[lovezebs]

Sally
Thanks Sally. The first batch, we'll just see how it goes, if birdies are even interested. If I see a great amount of interest, then I will consider breeding them (maybe )
Tomorrow we shall see. Going to try the fruit flies with the wax bills and the rest of the crew will be trying the mini mealworms. I wonder if it will be a feeding frenzy, or if they will look at these things and go: YIKES! And run to the other side of the flights.

By the way Sally, I noticed that you have some Black Crowned Waxbills just now. A funny coincidence, I was just looking at their pictures on the internet, thinking how pretty they are. What are they like, and where did you get yours?

[Sally]

lovezebs I'm trying to remember if I got them from Frank Tromp or David Calvin. They are beautiful birds, but have shown no inclination to go to nest. Maybe the live food will encourage them. Also, they are monomorphic, so I'm just hoping I have a male/female pair.

[lovezebs]

Sally
Does the male sing at all? I know with my little OC's, I had no idea whoes who or what until I saw that egg, and then I saw my boy do a little song and dance routine, at which point I knew I had a boy and girl.

[Sally]

lovezebs This pair are in a mixed community flight right now, so I've never had the opportunity to see if either would sing. They are wild-caught and very flighty, so when I come around, they usually hang on the back bars of the flight, waiting for me to leave.

[lovezebs]

Well, tried some 'live food' as of this morning.
And here are my adventures...

First I offered some fresh meal worms to my flight with the Goulds, Socies, Stars, and Parrot Finch. The Goulds and Socie s, stared at then aghast and stayed away. The Stars were the first to try them out and seemed ro enjoy them . Alfie, the Parrot Finch, tried them next and had a good snack.
So the meal worms were a partial success.

Now to the Flightless Fruit Flies... I tapped them down in the container and tapped them down again. Then I pulled off the cover and scooped out a bit of them on a spoon. As I tried to replace the cover these damn things were surging upwards in the container and the ones on the spoon were going all over the place. Finally managed the cover and tossed the spoon and contents into the Waxbill flight. There were Fruit flies running in all different directions. I reached inside the cage to grab my spoon, and had FF's racing up my arm and falling on the floor. Doing a quick dance I tried to stomp on them before they got under the furniture. The Orange Cheeks were interested but it took them quite a while to get down to business. The Red bills couldn't care less.

Since then I've been hunting these silly things all over my kitchen and dispatching them.
Not the best of experiances I must say.
So 'live food' feeders, how do you keep these things from running all over the place?

[MariusStegmann]

If you want to make mealworms more nutritional you must feed them on fishflakes. Like those you get for tropical fish. If you give your mealworm just bran. their nutritional value would be low. I can't afford to feed my mealworms fishfood, because I have thousands, but I put carrotpeals and appleslices etc in the bran. Before I feed them to the birds, I tale out a few handfull and put them into a container with oats. I believe that makes their nutritional value higher.

[lovezebs]

MariusStegmann
Hello.
Have fish, so have fish flakes. Should I just add a bit to the container they are in? We are talking a tiny container with only 50 (?) mini worms in it. This is just a trial run at this point, to see if they will show any interest in the worms.

How often do you offer worms to your birds?

[KarenB]

Dispensing the flies: Holding the closed container of flies in one hand, open door to cage/flight with the other hand. Tap flies down to the bottom of the container. Take off lid. Tap again to keep them down for a few seconds. Reach into the flight with container in hand. Tilt container and tap out some flies. Immediately hold container upright and tap down flies again. Pull container out and replace lid. Close cage/flight door. Voila. No escaped flies. Then stand back away from the cage and watch the show.

[KarenB]

I should clarify about the worms. It's not the worms themselves that are stinky, it's the media they come in. You only smell it when the lid is off.