FINCHforum

I started my wingless fruit fly cultures a few weeks ago and still do not have my frogs. He is suppose to ship them to me this week. Anyway I have fruit flies galore. Gazillions of them. . And no frogs yet to feed them to. Sooooo, after starting new cultures I decided to feed the flies to my birds before they (the flies) die. Life cycle is 10 days.

Well, the birds all went bananas. They love them! So now I will keep these part of their diet. And hopeffully it will encourage the waxbills to start breeding. The fires especially go ape over them.

If anyone would be interested in feeding fruitflies to their birds I am posting this link to purchase them and the supplies. Original cost is about $50 (More or less depending on your purchase choice). If you make your own medium the upkeep is lots cheaper. Medium through dealers is pricy. When you get the cultures they include a sheet with formulas to make your own medium which is really nice of them.

Also I use pint size mason jars instead of the plastic containers they sell. They are much better and are reuseable. You just remove the insert in the screw top and use a paper towel as a cover and screw the lid over the paper towel. I use the plastic canvas cut in strips to insert into the medium for the flies to have something to crawl on to to breed. See my pic

http://www.flycafe.net/

They are easy to culture and produce fast. There is a larger fruitfly that is the same price but they take lots longer to produce and don't produce as much as the smaller malanogaster sp.

If you decide to try it Good luck! Your birds will love you for it.

That's wonderful! Do any kind of birds like the flies?

Years ago when I bred CBs, Stars, and strawberries, I fed the wingless. I always had cultures going and I would set a container nest to cages and hook a staw from the jar onto the cage bars. As the flies would crawl up the bars of the cages the birds would pick them off. I loved watching them.
These are great live food for most any insect eating birds but it seems the waxbills relish them most and I do believe that was why I had so much success with the CB's.

Looks like you have some serious culturing going on

Candace I have 24 jars going at a time. So you know the amount of flies that 24 jars can produce.

The straw thing is very clever.

John, that is good...set up the nests and let the breeding/feeding begin!!!

Candace the straw idea is a thumbs up. Wonder if you can get the straws that are open like a spoon at one end (like they give with slushies). Put the spoon part through the bars into the cage....it will act like a dish of sorts for the flies to gather in as they come up the straw and act as a dish for the birds to eat out of.

cindy wrote:John, that is good...set up the nests and let the breeding/feeding begin!!!

Candace the straw idea is a thumbs up. Wonder if you can get the straws that are open like a spoon at one end (like they give with slushies). Put the spoon part through the bars into the cage....it will act like a dish of sorts for the flies to gather in as they come up the straw and act as a dish for the birds to eat out of.

Cindy... you are too funny. You always think of these
creative things to do.....

Donna...you have to provide a good serving plater when presenting a delicacy to your adoring family!!!!