Bugs for Birdies

[MiaCarter]

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread where we could share what insects (live or dead) we feed our birds.

So...
- what bugs do you serve your birds?
- how do you serve them? (alive? dead? etc.)
- do you catch them yourself? If so, how?
- are there any bugs you tried but they hated?


I'll start!
I feed those little nutrient coated flies that you find in the reptile section. They love those.

We've done mealworms too; they definitely enjoy these. Unfortunately, I haven't had a good source of those lately.

I tried the pineapple trick, letting it go off and attract fruit flies, but nobody showed up! I think the bird room is too closed off for this to work.

We also did (dead) crickets over the weekend. They were met with mixed results.

One thing I was curious about was cockroaches. Can/will they eat cockroaches?? Are they safe?
We have them by the bucketful here in Florida. I'm sure I could attract them quite easily. But I'm not sure how I'd kill them (definitely NOT feeding those live!) Maybe put them in a bag in the freezer?

[lovezebs]

Urrgghh! I'm not much on bugs. These guys get dead mealworms and I have tried dead bloodworms. The mealworms were accepted by some, the bloodworms not so much. As for fruit flies, I get them in the house occasionally but they seem to disappear (:-D) I wonder where? That's it for bugs.

[KarenB]

I offer dried and live meal worms, wax worms, fruit flies and these critters that are called high calcium worms meant for lizards and such. I tried freeze dried blood worms and frozen thawed bloodworms, but my finches were not impressed with either. I think of all I offer, the wax worms and flies are their favorite across the board.

If I had to feed cockroaches, my finches would starve to death.

[Rox]

If I had to feed cockroaches, my finches would starve to death.

Hahaha, totally agree with you Karen!

This season I only fed live mealworms. I have my own colony going, which to be honest is a bit of a pain in the bum but it is worth it. I get to pick out the worms at their best size (mini) for my waxbills.

Here in SA, we don't have as many options as those of you in the States. Live mealworms generally come in reptile size only - large. I had some of the guys from an insect feeder company come through to me with their variety of bugs but again, most were too big for my birds. I am going to try fly maggots again next season. Buy and freeze, rather than rear my own though.

Tried and failed to rear fruit flies. Will try again next season with Perfex's pineapple idea. Ordered some mini crickets and my birds thought they were evil Termites are your first prize always for waxbills but not that easy to find and a lot of effort to dig out and transport etc.

Otherwise, I'm lucky that my birds are outside in planted aviary's. Lots of bugs are around and crawl/fly into the aviary. I also move pot plants around once a week to uncover the bugs. The birds love it

[MiaCarter]

Ooh -- I hadn't thought of maggots.

I see them all the time when I'm walking the dogs on the night before trash day.

We all have the same city-provided trash barrels with a black plastic lid. The maggots are white, so you can easily see them crawling on the lids at night. I could get loads that way! (Better make sure I do it at 2 am, so I don't get a reputation as the creepy lady who collects maggots! LOL)

The cockroaches don't bother me. They're just winged beetles. Good thing, as they're everywhere here in Florida!
My cats looove them. You occasionally see them in the garage and sometimes, they'll sneak into the house when you're coming in-out of the garage. Unless I catch it, the cats will get them within the matter of an hour or so. They're evil about it, though. They always pluck the legs off and then lose interest, leaving them alive and legless. Shudder.

[Corkysgirl]

I'm a bad mother. I can't do it. Eggs...they will eat eggs. Nothing that moves. Nothing that was just moving a few minutes ago. I fed pinkies to my turtles. How did my finches live this long without bugs if they were supposed to eat them? I didn't know. I thought they were snacks...and snacks are a luxury, not a necessity...right? The only bugs in my house are spiders and ants will be here soon. Mosquitoes. My husband can feed them mosquitoes right? There are millions of them. I'm a bad mother!

[MiaCarter]

What are pinkies?
I always knew pinkies as baby rats/mice, given to snakes and other reptiles. But I've never heard of a turtle eating a rodent, so it leads me to wonder if pinkies are also something else?

I'm okay with bugs that are small, as long as I don't see them as a sentient being.

Spiders are really cool and what got me about them was their eyes. I was peering at a big orbweaver and saw she had eyes! So that made her a being to me. I've actually come to love spiders.
Ants are super cute when you look at them magnified. (Plus, there was Antey from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.)

Cockroaches are really big, which makes them like an animal to me. But I haven't made friends with any, so I think I could off some of the smaller ones.

Same thing happened to me with meat. I met a chicken and couldn't eat chicken. Met a cow and couldn't eat beef. Kept fish and can't eat fish....and so on.

But I haven't made friends with any flies and maggots, so I'm good with those! LOL

I believe they could eat mosquitoes. My neighbor had a bug zapper and during the daytime hours, the birds would hang on it eat the dead bugs in the little tray at the bottom. I imagine it was mostly mosquitoes.

[Corkysgirl]

Pinkies...yes little mice. We had 4 box turtles and they ate them. You wouldn't make it here. My in-laws, husband raise our beef, turkeys, broilers (chickens) that we eat, and kill the broilers. The others they take to have "processed." I named the baby bull "dinner" the first year I moved here, but then I couldn't eat him.
I'm not a fan of roaches. I can tell you crazy stories about giant ones in Florida. Mosquitoes I HATE and will feed gladly to the birds if they would eat them. There are so many that my husband has to use the "zapper" as he comes up the stairs into the house just to kill them so he won't bring them in to me. Spiders freak me out. I have tons of them outside my windows but I know they're good bugs so I let them live. Ants are great, smart, cool, but not in my kitchen. I can't feed my birds bugs. My husband can give them mosquitoes but I'm not watching. Yuk!

[MiaCarter]

Corkysgirl - You know what works beautifully to get rid of ants naturally, without harming them?

They use chemical trails to navigate their way to food sources. I'm sure you've noticed how they come in in a trail. At our house, they come in at night and leave by dawn. (No idea why....maybe they're smart and it's just too darn hot to come out during the day?)
So I just wait for them to leave and note wherever they're coming from. Then, you mix up borax and water and spray the trail. Only mix up as much as you need, dump any excess and wash the spray bottle well. Otherwise, it crystalizes and gums up the sprayer.

No trail, no ants. Works beautifully.

You just need to make sure wait until they leave before you spray away their chemical trail. No trail means they'll be unable to find their way out!

[lovezebs]

Are zapped bugs ok? I have a zapper somewhere and we do have lots of mosquitos around (I know 'cause they eat me alive) So if they're zapped and dead, the birds will eat them? I think I can do that.

[Corkysgirl]

lovezebs I don't know if zapped mosquitoes are okay. I imagine they are like pop corn. If dead meal worms are okay...then dead mosquitoes seem okay too. What do I know! Mine eat eggs. MiaCarter the only thing that concerns me about the maggots....no not the only thing, but something I keep thinking is, what about the germ factor. You're getting them from people's trash. What if there is E-coli, or staph, strep, etc.. or other bird droppings that have some disease in them?

[Justino222]

Hmmm ive never fed my finches live foods (dont have my finch anymore but are getting back into it now) but i did think it was a luxury thing. Now i want to have small meal worm farm. I think itd be the easier way. Of course would take some of my time but ya know. Lol. I know a guy who buys meal worms for himself.

[Corkysgirl]

Justino222 My husband just reminded me my son "Justin" used to grow his own meal worms for his Iguana. It was their project. It was easy to do. Yuk!

[Justino222]

Hahaha i thought yuk at first to but it really looks easy. Ive been watching vids and researching it. I think its be really neat. hope it doesnt smell though. That woukd make me get rid of it haha

[Corkysgirl]

I don't think it was bad. I think he had it was semi covered in a plastic container...if I remember right. It was many years ago. It's worth a try.