FINCHforum

So I’ve heard it’s good for your finches to have live food however have not seen them go anywhere near a fly when I left fruit in once and fruit flys aleared instead they moved out the way of them

So how do u actually make them eat them and how would you set up a thing they eat them from instead of just having the entire aviary full of flies

Fraza

Hi Fraser,

Most Societies and Zebras, are not great live food eaters, although mine will eat live mealworms (after they've seen the Waxbills and Parrot Finches eating them).

In fact I was just watching a 'mealworm tug of war' between two Zebras a couple of days ago. It was hilarious as they were dragging each other around the bottom of the flight (less funny for the mealworm I'm sure) while everyone else ate the rest of the worms, laughing at these two .

If they feel the need for live food, they will catch those pesky fruit flies, no worries.

Zebra and society finches are biologically vegetarian and do not require any insects in their diet. Some will still eat things such as mealworms, but mine never did.

Firstly you'll need to actually understand what yer birds require IE zebras and bengalese do not need live food,

Live food is fed to finches that are not only seed eaters but are insectivorous aswell when it comes to rearing young, many finches will not even take any live food until they literally have their young in the nest IE like strawberry finches,

Other Estrildid finches like waxbills that I specialise in are virtually all live food takers and require an abundance of small live foods like fruit fly, small maggots, mini meal worms and mini crickets etc to successfully rear many of the waxbills.

There are certain finches that are predominantly granivorous meaning they really only eat seed and and are not normally associated with eating any live food what so ever, these are mainly finches like yer manikins and munias etc.

Understand more about the finches and you'll then come to realise what diet some of the various finches actually need

Okay thanks everyone so basically they don’t need live food and they eat mealworms and dried bugs just not live but thought it would be good watching them hunt for food

https://youtu.be/R1vDxRh5ZCg

https://youtu.be/HiyOcPGzI6s

https://youtu.be/dGePXT9IzVU

Thank you lovezebs I think I might buy some of these and put a little bowl into the aviary and see how they react they eat dried ones so should eat real.

Are they just the ones you buy in little boxes from pet shops or could these be harmful do you have to buy certain ones

Fraza

I have been growing my own for a while, but yea it's the litte containers that they sell for reptiles and fish. Over here they come in 50's and 100's. Get the mini mealworms for your birdies.

I keep them in a plastc container with bran, adding a slice of potato, apple, carrot, etc once a week or so, let them feast for the day, then the extra food comes out, because you don't want it to mold.

If you don't feed them right away, keep them in the fridge, so that they don't grow too fast and turn into beetles (just warn family members what they are, so that no one has a nasty surprise and freaks out) .

you can also gut load them on pellets, what the mealworms eat the birds eat so you want good nutrient rich foods... gut load them/feed them a few hours before you feed your birds. When you get a new shipment or batch of mealworms put them in clean substrate (bran flakes) so they can clean themselves off with clean substrate.

The dried mealworms should be ground, live ones they eat only the insides and discard the exoskeleton... dried mealworms they eat the exoskeleton, it is sharp, rough and can cut/nick internal organs, throat opening the bird up to bacteria... grind to a powder and mix in egg food.

African species tend to eat more live food... zebras and societies do not need live food to rear young and do just fine on egg food.

In depth information regarding mealworms and their life cycle, how to raise them, nutritional informations......

http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm

http://www.efinch.com/mealworms/mealworm.htm

if you want to feed live but do not want them wiggling out of the dish, pop them what you are serving into the freezer for about 5 minutes and serve. I stops them from moving!!!!

Fraza wrote: Okay thanks everyone so basically they don’t need live food and they eat mealworms and dried bugs just not live but thought it would be good watching them hunt for food

If they eat any form of live food or even dried live food then fair do's but it's not essential if they don't take it because as mentioned they don't really need it

lovezebs wrote: https://youtu.be/R1vDxRh5ZCg

https://youtu.be/HiyOcPGzI6s

https://youtu.be/dGePXT9IzVU

Yea yea, there's always one that has to have the last word and try and be the smart one

They may well eat live food but don't essentially need it being granivorous birds

cindy wrote: you can also gut load them on pellets, what the mealworms eat the birds eat so you want good nutrient rich foods... gut load them/feed them a few hours before you feed your birds. When you get a new shipment or batch of mealworms put them in clean substrate (bran flakes) so they can clean themselves off with clean substrate.

The dried mealworms should be ground, live ones they eat only the insides and discard the exoskeleton... dried mealworms they eat the exoskeleton, it is sharp, rough and can cut/nick internal organs, throat opening the bird up to bacteria... grind to a powder and mix in egg food.

African species tend to eat more live food... zebras and societies do not need live food to rear young and do just fine on egg food.

The very main reason why I never feed meal worms to be waxbills Cindy, I much prefer and feel safer in using cleaned small live maggot along with me fruit fly culture

Stuart whiting cindy lovezebs

Thanks Stuart

Thanks Cindy for all your information I know everything about mealworms now baha

And I might do what u said elena just buy a tiny tub and see how they react I have a feeling who will be interested eg finchie my zeb that tries to chase wild birds away from the aviary by flying into bars and screeching haha she always has a go at something new I put in

Fraza

Be lucky