fly size crickets, high protein dry dog food, monkey chow?

[cindy]

Has anyone tried feeding the fly size or very small crickets to any of your finches yet? I am thinking about trying some especially with the owls they eat anything. My Goldbreast, Helena and orange cheek won't touch meal worms but love dried egg food with green from ABBA and Quiko.

Someone also told me to try finely ground dry dog food, one high in protein. I feed my dogs EVO/Innova canned and dry. The EVO dry is high in protein, I believe somewhere like 32-24 %, The Innova is like 24-26%...has anyone every done this?

Also, when I made my own hand feeding formula it contained soaked softened monkey chow, someone also recommended that when finches are nesting, laying eggs and feeding young...has anyone used this. It was widely used years ago (not in the stone age...haha) when weaning young hookbills. You would soak a few biscuits until soft in hot water, the chicks loved it, it was given in the formula and before and after introducing seed.

[JohnBoy]

Cindy, Have you tried the Roudybush pelleted food? My birds love it. And they won't eat the other pelleted foods except when I put it in the eggfood.

[cindy]

Hi..yes and I love the stuff. All my parrotlets were raised on it. My lovebird will not take it, the breeder had started him on the Zupreem Fruits Blends parakeet. That is all he will eat except for Lafeber Tropical Nutri Berries and Avi bars, he goes nuts over those.

Roudybush got very hard to find here, a lot of the littler pet stores closed down, some carried it and ordered it in for me. I noticed PetSmart now has it but in small quanities. I used to have to order it.

I still have some that I tried to get my lovebird to eat, I may grind it and add it to the egg food or in a treat cup. I am also using Lafeber finch pellets in the egg food and sprinkled on top of their seed. The owls like them. I also have the Zupreme finch mixed into their seed, they do eat those.

I forgot about the Roudybush I had, good idea, thank you John. I am going to get the food processor out!

[JohnBoy]

I love this store. I get just about everything from Tony and Diane.

http://www.redbirdproducts.com/

[Ursula]

Yes, I fed pinhead tiny crickets (additional to mealworms and fruit flies) when my CBs had babies. They loved them!

A good tip that I read on the internet (and I did that too): If you don't want the crickets jumping all over your house put just as many as you want to feed in a small container with a lid and place it in the freezer. (Supposedly it's a humane way to kill them because they just fall asleep while freezing. ) They are dead within minutes, and then very fresh when you feed them to the birds. My finches ate (and fed) them immediately.

I kept the crickets in a tall plastic container and replaced the plastic lid with a piece of old t-shirt, affixed to the container with a rubber band. Inside I had egg cartons for them to hide in. They need some source of moisture (cricket food from the pet store) and something to eat like dog food or a piece of potato or any other veggie or fruit. The food spoils easily though so dried dog food and cricket food is better IMO...

[CandoAviary]

I and my finches love rowdy bush. It is a product that has been around a long time and is still preferred by my finches over new pelleted diets I have tried in my aviaries.

There is also a produt out there called bag o' bugs that has cricket parts in it along with ant eggs, flies, meal worms, etc. I mix this with my egg food for my insect eating birds.

[cindy]

Thanks Ursala, we used to raise crickets for our reptiles (which thankfully the kids outgrew). It was ok until the dog got onto the porch and knocked the container over...just about 1000 crickets everywhere. Lovely!

PetSmart is like 5 minutes from me, I can get the tiny flie size once a week and give them in addtion to the mealworms. I am going to try live in a deep bowl and dead as you described. I really don't want to get into raising them again.

There is a company in Alva, Florida called L & H Bait that ships, their prices are reasonable. We ordered from them all time when we did the whole lizard/gecko thing. I don't know if they do mealworms.

[cindy]

I and my finches love rowdy bush. It is a product that has been around a long time and is still preferred by my finches over new pelleted diets I have tried in my aviaries.

There is also a produt out there called bag o' bugs that has cricket parts in it along with ant eggs, flies, meal worms, etc. I mix this with my egg food for my insect eating birds.

I saw the Bag o Bugs and was wondering if they would like it. Boy my shopping list is growing!!!! Thanks Candace.

[JohnBoy]

I use GAMMARUS PATEE It is a product from Italy. It is grounded insect meal. I also put this in the egg food a few times a week.

[Ursula]

I used to feed some insect mix but my finches didn't even touch it. Then I got some dried bug mix, but they don't liked that either. (My button quail gobble that up though so the money wasn't wasted. )They seem to be spoiled by the mealworms, and as long as they have those they don't eat dead bug pieces (except the freshly killed crickets).

[terrylt7]

[quote="CandoAviary"]I and my finches love rowdy bush. It is a product that has been around a long time and is still preferred by my finches over new pelleted diets I have tried in my aviaries.

Do you crush the rowdy bush or just give the smallest rowdy bush? I am not sure I am doing this quote thing right.

Terry

[cindy]

It comes in a Nibbles size, very small. I found that it was less waste than the rods. Small parrotlets handle the nibbles size with no problem, it is small like seed. I have yet to try it on the finches.

[CandoAviary]

Yes I buy the nibbles size. I also buy a larger size for my grasskeets and I use to crush thiers..... but what a pain. I now buy nibbles and crumbles

[cindy]

I used the crumbles on my Parrotlets, it was to big and there was waste, I was very happy when they came out with the Nibbles. My feed store can order it in for me.

Candace and John, do you offer it mixed in the seed or in a separate dish? I've been adding a little to the egg food.

[cindy]

Yes, I fed pinhead tiny crickets (additional to mealworms and fruit flies) when my CBs had babies. They loved them!

A good tip that I read on the internet (and I did that too): If you don't want the crickets jumping all over your house put just as many as you want to feed in a small container with a lid and place it in the freezer. (Supposedly it's a humane way to kill them because they just fall asleep while freezing. ) They are dead within minutes, and then very fresh when you feed them to the birds. My finches ate (and fed) them immediately.

I kept the crickets in a tall plastic container and replaced the plastic lid with a piece of old t-shirt, affixed to the container with a rubber band. Inside I had egg cartons for them to hide in. They need some source of moisture (cricket food from the pet store) and something to eat like dog food or a piece of potato or any other veggie or fruit. The food spoils easily though so dried dog food and cricket food is better IMO...

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Ursala, I was talking to my husband (bug guy with a degree) about getting fly size crickets for the finches. I told him that you freeze them. He said if you want to feed them alive, put them into a container of them in you fridge for about an hour or two. This slows them down enough to be easy prey and not able to move around enough to jump out of a bowl. They will eventually warm up enough to jump out, leave the cage and show up where you least expect them!!!!