FINCHforum

A mate of my has been telling me about how good maggots are as a live food and that I should have my own fly box.
Well thanks to the crafty skills of my mate, I finally have one
He has made it big enough so I can fit four 2ltr ice cream tubs in it.
The mixture in which the maggots will be blown in is made of bran, vitamised dry dog food and water.
Although the mixture when wet isn't pleasant to the nose, I know it works very well,
And by the time the maggots are ready to be dished out, the mixture is fairly dry and crumbly - kind of reminds me of the texture of magic sand.
Being the start of breeding season in the next month or so (start of spring) I look forward to giving my breeders the maggots I produce and I'm keen to see how well my breeders do feeding them to their young.
Depending on my success I may not have to use mealworms again.

I think I'd rather use meal worms. Maggots just are too gross for my taste, but go for it! Let us know how it works.

I've just received an order of Phoenix worms, which is a nice marketing way of saying maggots! I've read that they are very good for those insectivorous species that are giving me fits, so I'm going to try them. They are fairly pricey here, but I'm not sure I want to try raising my own. Mealworms just are too lacking for the species I raise (or try to raise).

If i had my birds outside in a shed i'd definately try culturing maggots/flies and crickets but as the're in house i'm limited to mealworms/waxworms, an option i was thinking about trying is frozen pinkies (another way of saying maggots) but only place i can get them is a 2 hr drive and as the're frozen they can't be shipped.

The maggot/fly culture would be a great source of live food as they culture so fast, mealworms take forever to reach a usable size and waxworms require 29 celcius to culture.

The culture box you got looks ideal and should work great.

Great idea! Please let us know how it works

I'm not keen on culturing my own maggots but I will be buying some in summer for my waxbills. Hopefully the maggots, along with the mealworms, inspire them to breed!