FINCHforum

Looking for advice about starting a fruit fly culture .

I have the fruit and container .
Generally speaking how long would it take for some flies to hatch from fruit left out for this purpose ?

Regards ,
Mick .

I'm curious to hear about this too.

I tried this twice with a pineapple and nobody showed up for dinner! LOL

I ended up with a moldy disgusting pineapple. No fruit flies to speak of!

When I have a piece of fruit/vegetable go bad in the basket on my kitchen counter, it seems like I immediately get fruit flies. Does that say something about my house?

I've tried it. I let the fruit start rotting outside in a bowl (basically hanging right next to my aviary), full sunshine. Lots of mush developed but no flies... Go figure

Hope it works for you!

I have put some fruit into an enclosed bird bath hanging on the outside of the flight cage .
Will be interesting to see if it develops into a fly culture and not a bowl of mush ?

If there's any news good or bad ill let ye know folks .

Regards ,
Mick .

I culture flies for my finches who eat live food. It's super easy. I bought a starter culture and just keep it going. Check out Repashy.com for info. I'm at work right now so don't have time to explain it all at the moment. Will check back later.

KarenB

Glad to see you finally took the plunge. The Repeshy stuff is pretty good and fairly easy, don't ya think?

Rob

saulosirds, Rob, I love it.....well, as much as anyone could love a fruit fly culture medium, at any rate. But YES! Finally I have success, and my parrot finch parents are feeding them to their clutch, as many as I dump in for them! Thank you for prompting me to get it. It definitely works well. I am just now nearing the end of my first culture with it, so it has lasted quite a while! I was about to throw it out when I noticed more larvae crawling around. I am into my second producing culture and just started my third the other day.

I had ordered the medium right after you mentioned it, and I got it within a few days. When I discovered my owl finch hen laid another clutch, I went ahead and started the culture. I had planned to get some flies from an exotic pets place, but it was quite a drive and I had been putting it off. Then, I went into a national pet supply chain store and, voila, there were two small tubes of about 25 or so flies in each one, just enough to start a culture, just sitting there waiting for me too! Ha! Saved me a long trip to the exotics place!

Update on the fruit fly .

The fruit stinks , the flies are all over the place , adults maybe 10mm in size , the birds don't seem too excited with them but ill leave it there for the time being .

Mick .

Banana are great to attract fruitflies. Once it gets black they are all over it.

MariusStegmann wrote: Banana are great to attract fruitflies. Once it gets black they are all over it.

Added some this morning for good measure thanks .

Mick .

I set some peaches that were going bad in a dish next to one of my Purple Grenadier cages. I've been too busy to sit and watch them, so don't know if they got any, but when I moved the bowl, fruit flies were all over the place, but not in the cage. So I set a small dish with some of the peaches right on the floor of the cage. This morning, there is no sign of any fruit flies on these peaches. I'm hoping that means my birds are eating them!

On the down side, I now have fruit flies in my kitchen. The bird room is just down the hall.

Sally wrote: I set some peaches that were going bad in a dish next to one of my Purple Grenadier cages. I've been too busy to sit and watch them, so don't know if they got any, but when I moved the bowl, fruit flies were all over the place, but not in the cage. So I set a small dish with some of the peaches right on the floor of the cage. This morning, there is no sign of any fruit flies on these peaches. I'm hoping that means my birds are eating them!

On the down side, I now have fruit flies in my kitchen. The bird room is just down the hall.

Nice one Sally ,

You could always let the bird's fly free around the house to catch up all those unwanted flies ?

The fruit in my tub is putrid and covered in flies , the only way for them out of there in into the birds first before any possible escape , hope they get some for their chicks .

Mick .

Mick M.

I wouldn't worry about them feeding flies, once they realize what they are, they will sit all day waiting for them to come out.

I put my fly culture cups in my flight with the top off and my birds sit on the edge and pick them off like they are under siege. The flies are a huge trigger to breeding. Most of my birds started laying soon after I put flies in and have recently stopped as I have no active cultures to feed right now.

Congrats on the Cherries and Straws by the way.

Rob

Thanks Rob .

Particularly pleased how this pair of cherry's have gone , couldn't get them to breed at all in bird shed and took a chance with them in this set up
Couldn't believe my eyes when a fawn chick fledged today also
Its all good with this project , ill be trying other foreign finch's next year that have proven difficult to cage breed .

Mick .