Live Food Options..

[Irelandlily]

Hello,
I am somewhat new to the forums, aka first post but have been reading the threads like crazy But I have yet to see a comprehensive list of acceptable live foods. I've seen everyone talk about a couple different kinds, mostly mealworms, termites, ants, and crickets. But I was wondering what other buggies people have found that work. I've been looking into getting finches for quite some time now and while I currently don't have the funding for it, but it'll happen eventually and I want to give them the best diet I can. Problem is, I can't stand bugs so I'm wanting to see what will be the least repulsive for me to feed the litte birdies Any ideas you have will surely help

[Finch Fry]

Reason you see meal worms and ants at the top of the list is because of protein %. Mealworms have the highest % protein by weight of any insect. It is the cheapest, not by meal worm, by by mass % of protein given to bird and therefore ideal.

My gf hates the live meal worms so we now used fresh packed, canned (so they are obviously dead) meal worms. Cheap and incredibly effective. Raising 3 goldbreasted waxbill babies on the stuff now.

I use the Zoo med can o mini mealies. 4 bux a can roughly, you get 1500 + worms. A heck of a deal. Heres the thread where I posted a link to the Zoo med can. You can get the stuff from petsmart for 4 dollars or amazon.com for 3.10 plus shipping.
http://finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1 ... 4&start=30

[mike]

Reason you see meal worms and ants at the top of the list is because of protein %. Mealworms have the highest % protein by weight of any insect. It is the cheapest, not by meal worm, by by mass % of protein given to bird and therefore ideal.

Mealworms, although high in protein, are not the highest of easily obtainable feeder insects. Fruit fly larvae are much higher. Mealworms are excessively high in fat and their protein is mostly locked up in chitin which is usually discarded by the bird either before eating or just passed through the gut.

http://nagonline.net/Technical%20Papers ... DIFIED.pdf

[Irelandlily]

I really like the idea of the canned meal worms, I assume your birds have been eating them as willingly as the live ones? I also like the sound of the fruit fly larvae, I googled it to check out prices and stuff, and while it's a little spendier I think with them having a higher protien content might make the price worth it. Thanks for the report btw, very informative Hehe I never dreamed that by wanting to have finches I'd be doing so much research on creepy crawlies

[Finch Fry]

Mealworms, although high in protein, are not the highest of easily obtainable feeder insects. Fruit fly larvae are much higher. Mealworms are excessively high in fat and their protein is mostly locked up in chitin which is usually discarded by the bird either before eating or just passed through the gut.

http://nagonline.net/Technical%20Papers ... DIFIED.pdf

Maybe thats why the little beepers go through 100+ a day! I didnt know fruit fly larvae was easily attainable. Where do you get yours? And also.. i have no clue what chitin is! LOL.

I also read that crickets have a higher % protein than mealies but .. for obvious reasons, they are typically too big for the birds to eat. Thats why people have trouble with birds not eating the bigger meal worms. Ant eggs are good too, just not easy to get a hold of, at least I cant find a pure ant egg supplier any more ever since ORLUX was merged with those guys that make the insect patee.

[Ursula]

You can buy teeny tiny live crickets online from pin size (smaller than 1/8 ") to adult. I bought some 1/4 " crickets when my Cordons were raising their babies. Since I didn't want them to jump all over my house I put a dozen or so crickets in a cup in the freezer before feeding and left them in there for a few minutes. Supposedly it's a peaceful death since they fall asleep and die from the cold. And that way they were still fresh when I fed them. The Cordons gobbled them up! I don't keep any now since it's a. expensive, b. a pain to keep them in a container and feed with fresh food etc. and c. they grow up too fast so that you would have to buy new little ones every fewweeks or so.

Here's where I got them: http://www.southerncricket.com/supplies.html

I tried to raise live fruit flies too. What a pain! The stuff you raise them in gets moldy very fast and the supposedly "flightless" fruitflies may not be able to fly but hop like fleas all over. I fed them by shaking them onto a water bowl and the finches actually were fishing them out, but the whole process was pretty messy and didn't seem worth the trouble when mealworms are so much easier to raise and keep.

If I have babies again some day I would buy the crickets again though. My finches don't even touch dried insects, they just don't seem to recognize them as food.

[DVBourassa]

Chitin is a polysaccharide (sugar of many molecules) that is found in fungi cell walls and exoskeletons of insects and other arthropods (loberster, crabs, etc.) and a few other places. Animals cannot readily digest it.

[Finch Fry]

Chitin is a polysaccharide (sugar of many molecules) that is found in fungi cell walls and exoskeletons of insects and other arthropods (loberster, crabs, etc.) and a few other places. Animals cannot readily digest it.

HAHA, i looked it up too on wiki

[mike]

I didnt know fruit fly larvae was easily attainable. Where do you get yours?

Flightless fruit flies are easily obtainable from reptile supply shops, especially dart frog breeders.

Flying ones are even easier to obtain by leaving out rotting fruit on a counter. A canary breeder I know has the flies all over his bird room and the birds just pick the larvae off.

Don't let the flying ones mix with your flightless because they will ruin your colony (flightlessness is recessive).

[Sally]

Welcome to the forum, Irelandlily! There are many species of finch that don't need any live food at all to be very happy. If I didn't have Cordon Bleus and a few other waxbills, I might be able to get by without mealworms at all. Most Gouldian owners don't feed mealworms--in fact, many of the Australian species do just fine without live food. You can supply all the protein they need with eggfood. If you are really grossed out by bugs, go with a species that doesn't need them--they will be happy, and so will you!

[Ursula]

Flying ones are even easier to obtain by leaving out rotting fruit on a counter. A canary breeder I know has the flies all over his bird room and the birds just pick the larvae off.

That's the disadvantage of an indoor aviary. I wouldn't want to have them fly all over my house...

[Irelandlily]

Hehe, thanks for all the info and ideas everyone!! For the most part I think I would prefer not to have to feed bugs. I can and will when needed obviously but the reason I really started looking into it is because I seem to have been hooked by the little cordon bleus and from what I know, no bugs just isn't an option when it comes to thier health Soo that's why I was wondering about options So, again, thanks for the input everyone!

[Sally]

If you want to keep Cordon Bleus and not breed them, they will do just fine without live food, substituting eggfood for live, as they do need more protein than many other species. There is a breeder in Texas who breeds many species, including Cordon Bleus, and he never feeds live food, relying on eggfood and veggies to keep them healthy. I hope that someday I can get my CBs weaned from live food.

[mickp]

wonder why no-one has mentioned feeding maggots to their birds.
my birds prefer maggots over mealworms, probably due to the softer skin texture

[Ursula]

wonder why no-one has mentioned feeding maggots to their birds.

Maybe because just the idea of handling maggots makes some people's stomachs turn?