Maggots... Any one ?

[kyubi]

Hi guys n gals .... U just want to ask u guys , if u do collect wild maggots? How do u clean em ? Is it safe for the bird to eat ?

[KarenB]

I culture my own flies, and it is very easy, and I know exactly what they are eating because I supply it. All you need is a starter with some live flies, some medium for the larvae, and some culture cups with lids. I can get daily feedings from my cultures for about three weeks, at which time I start using the next one. I just keep them going. It's really easy and no maintenance once you mix up the medium and put in some flies. In about two weeks you'll have a population explosion, and then you start the next culture with some flies from it, and so on.....

[Sally]

KarenB I'd love specific directions on how to do this. I recently ordered phoenix worms (fancy marketing name for maggots). The first order, sent USPS priority 2-day, arrived after 13 days. Amazingly, the maggots were still alive, and my Purple Grenadiers went nuts for them. The company had sent a replacement order, which never did arrive. These are a little pricey, so until the mailing problem gets worked out, I don't want to order any more. Not the vendor's fault IMO, as the packages have been tracked to the USPS sorting facility, and that is where they disappear.

In the meantime, I decided to try another vendor. These were held at my local P.O. for pickup, and by the time I got them, they were black and not moving. I tossed the opened containers into the trash can in my bird room. In a couple of days, I had dozens of flies! I guess they weren't dead after all, though my birds would not touch them (maybe they were pupating?).

So I'm ready to try this on my own (must be crazy to want more flies in my house). What kind of container to use, where to get the medium, how to keep from having a jillion flies in the house?

[KarenB]

Sally Everything you need to get started can be found at joshsfrogs.com. They cater to dart frog owners. I used to have a vivarium with several different dart frogs. Anyway, the flies I culture are the flightless variety. There are two common types: Melenogaster and Hydei. I culture the Hydei because they are a bit bigger (meatier) than the others.

Generally speaking, my finches see me coming with the cup and they are ready to pounce. I never see any after a couple of minutes, and often I will "dump" them a second and third time in a row.

I have been getting my medium from repashy.com as they have a well fortified mixture that doesn't mold. But josh's is good, and you can get everything you need there. You can search for bargains on a lot of the cups with lids. Many years later, I still had a bunch left over from the frog days. Wish I could remember now where I got them.

If you need any more info let me know. But I will be out of town all weekend and will be trying to work from my tablet which is a pain to type on and will have spotty web service.

[Sally]

KarenB Thanks for the information. I will try the fruit flies too, but I was thinking you were raising your own maggots! I'm not sure I'm up to that, but I need to find a supply somewhere. One of my Purple Grenadier hens dropped an egg today, and I didn't even think she was in breeding mode. The upper beak of PG hens will turn quite dark, like a black stripe right down the middle, when they are in breeding mode, and her beak is just as light as can be. I'm thinking the maggots are putting her in breeding mode.

[saulosirds]

Sally

I am working on that article I PM'd you about. It will give a bunch of specifics about rising "fruit flies". Phoenix worms are a different type of fly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens

@kyubi

When you are talking maggots, are you referring to Green Bottle Flies? I use these: http://www.grubco.com/store/store_produ ... duct_ID=10 as an ingredient in my soft food/egg food mix. They don't hold very well unless they are very, very cool, therefore I blanch mine then freeze them so they don't continue to develop. I don't know of any way you would be able to harvest wild maggots without a lot of work. Fruit fly maggots can be harvested out of cultures but I feel that the flies are more beneficial to feed.

Rob

[Sally]

saulosirds Grubco is the company I used for the maggots this last time. Their product is a bit larger than from the Phoenix Worm company. I thought I would try them, as they are a bit cheaper than the phoenix worms, but that was a bust. The phoenix worms that arrived after 13 days were put into a wine cooler, which I keep about 50 degrees, and they seemed to do OK there.

Grubco says to keep their maggots close to freezing, so they would have to go in the very bottom of my refrigerator, and I don't think it is still quite that cold.

So you blanch them and then freeze them? How long do you leave them in the hot water before putting them in cold water? Do your birds eat them after this treatment? Mine wouldn't touch those black ones that I thought were dead.

[kyubi]

I mean... If I kinda found them near the garbage can and the flies r attracted to mine dog's poo ( gross)... Is there any way or solution I can clean with and are safe for mine birds to eat ?thanx a bunch

[saulosirds]

kyubi

There may be but I don/t know of anyway to do it. I use Grubco and it's already done for me. There is an obvious cost but the comfort of knowing they have been doing it for 60+ years and are used by a ton of big zoos makes me feel much more comfortable/

Rob

[saulosirds]

Sally

I blanch them for about 10 to 15 seconds, they float wen they are "ready". I freeze them then add them into my Ninja chopper when I make my soft food mix. I have feed them individual and the birds will still eat them but I prefer to add them to my food mix.

I blanch them as I am not able to keep them as cold as Grubco says to. If you don't blanch them and freeze them right away they will pupate and as soon as that happens my birds won't touch them.

I order their waxworm also but only use them in much smaller amounts as they have a ton of fat in them. I really only try to add them when my birds are feeding young chicks.

I was thinking about this and am not really sure why I blanch them, I guess you could just freeze them but the blanching makes sense to me for some reason. One other thing, you MUST take out all of the bedding material before you blanch and freeze them. It is wood shavings and and will freeze to your maggots and make it a pain to remove, even if you have a few shavings in there. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.

Rob

[Sally]

saulosirds Thanks for that information. I'll bet what happened with my shipment from Grubco is that it has been so hot, even with the cool pack they included the maggots pupated--I guess that is what I thought was dead maggots. And then the flies emerged! I'll have to try Grubco again, maybe when the temps drop a bit from 100. That is the company I use for mini mealworms, just got 20,000 of them!

I think I still need some live maggots to stimulate the breeding response with some of these species, and hopefully to get them to feed babies. Probably the fruit flies would do that almost as well.

[saulosirds]

Sally

There are 2 main species of fruit flies, one which is about twice the body size as the other (D hydei). I'd imagine these would be better to feed maggots as they are much bigger. I also feed the Phoenix worms. I currently have three containers that have sat in my bird room for about 3 weeks (at about 75 degrees) with no problems of pupating.

Rob

[Sally]

saulosirds It must be the phoenix worms. Cleaning out a cage that held a pair of Purple Grenadiers this morning, and when I pulled out one of the plastic plants, three eggs fell out! This hen also shows no sign of being in breeding mode, no dark upper beak.

I had moved these Grens into temporary cages, as I want to completely redo my bird room, just not yet. I am going on vacation in a couple of weeks, so I wanted to get the bird room set up after I returned. I may have to go ahead and redo part of it at least now, so I can get these Grens set up in their breeding cages again! Hopefully, I can stall them long enough that if they do have babies, they won't be hatching while I'm on vacation, though it doesn't look like they may wait that long. I doubt my pet sitter would be thrilled to feed fruit flies and maggots!!

[saulosirds]

Sally

The culture containers I use (http://www.snailtail.com/buy_supplies.html <--- just an example, there are better prices out there) have holes punched in the top with a fabric material for ventilation, I cut four holes in the middle circle out so the flies can crawl out on top of the lid and get picked off by the birds. I then put a culture or two in each cage I ant to feed and they have an auto fly feeder that they can just kinda hangout and eat off of.

It doesn't give you the best control but it does allow the birds to have a good constant supply of flies to eat and feed to their chicks.

Rob

[Sally]

saulosirds I like that idea! That is the secret with many of these waxbills, anyway--a constant supply of food. When they think it has run out, they are likely to toss. Years ago, an NFSS member rigged up a container that let just a few mealworms crawl out every so often, which kept the birds from eating them all at once. It was especially good for those species like BCCB which will empty a whole dish in nothing flat.