Aussie Finch Forum

Good news

But do be careful/ avoid feeding mealworms to chicks. Their digestive systems cannot handle m.w. skins and this can cause deaths

Did you try cockchafer larvae . . top livefood for p.r's

Bgould wrote:At this stage unsure how many chicks there are. Eorix it appears that the pair have alread selected another nesting site in other side of aviary shelter. Iaos my better half just commented how pretty the parents are but still cant beleive I would spend $300 on a pair of birds. Well thats what I told her they cost anyway

Concgratulations! Just to help out, I'll give you $300 for the single chick just so you can prove to your wife you're making money out of them.

Sorry Aurther I should of mentioned that I also pick out the white soft skinned mealies and add them with the crickets dusted in Calcium D3 powder twice a day. Thanks for the offer Sam

I have read over and over about warnings with regard feeding Mealworm or too many Mealworms and other left field ways of feeding them.
All I can say I have been very lucky or maybe my Mealworms are something special.
These days during the breeding season I feed out posssibly 1/2 KG each day and there are some left for the dawn feed because I am still in bed.
All the years I have been feeding them I doubt if I have had one problem,and my birds do not get rationed at all.
These days all I feed are Mealworms and Bush Fly Maggots and with reasonable success.Both Seedeaters and Softbills
The only variation is today I feed out smaller worms,but if compaction was a problem then smaller worms would/should cause
more compaction as they are feed whole.
I agree that the bigger grubs etc(non hairy ones) are great in high temp. periods as they assist greatly in stopping chick dehydration.
Just my opinion

Lived in Shanghai for 7 years and there were Peking Robins everywhere. I think they were about $25 a pair. If I only I was allowed to bring a few home with me.

But to be honest they are not only rare. They are great looking birds and I can understand why one would put up $3000 for a pair.

By the way, how easy is it to sell them once you have been successful and bred a few?

AB

Don't want to start WW111 . . But

Bgould or any one else with PR's could prove me right or wrong by feeding their next batch with ad lib mealworms as well as other forms of livefood ad lib . . and see what the results are

Or to be really scientific . . just mealworms

Mealworms were also a death sentence for baby RC Cardinals, which many people found out the hard way, in those high and faroff days when such birds were here in some number

Strangely the tiny babies of fairy wrens can cope with ad lib mealworms

I started breeding Magpie Robins after my bad experiences with mealies and PR's, so I never fed them mealworms when they had young in the nest, but reading between the lines, given E orix's success with these somewhat larger birds, their digestive systems may well be able to cope

Does the dog bite? . . Let someone else pat it to see

so I never fed them mealworms when they had young in the nest

Would it be problematic to stop feeding mealworms entirely? Are there not a variety of replacement live foods that could be incorporated?

Im wondering whether mealworms are really even necessary?

another day another chick . here are some more photos from Bgould . What a legend !!!!

and one more of Dad

Softbill birds have a totally different digestive system than Seed Eaters
The outer skin of Crickets,Hoppers,Mealworms etc actually work as pipe cleaners for their digestive system.
As I mentioned earlier big grubs ie Cockchaffer grubs,Waxworm etc are good as they are full of moisture and this helps the bird
from suffering moisture loss when forming their faecal sack.
Small softbills such as Chats will feed M/W's direct to the beak of just fledged chicks.
I will try and find it but somewhere here I have picture of a Red Capped Robin chick so full of M/W's that they are sticking out his bill.
With smaller seedeaters such as Cordons and Stars you will see the annoying habit of them going through the livefood tray eating only
the heads of the Mealworms and flicking the body away.Other birds then move on them and clean out the insides.
The main thing to remember is try and feed as many types of bugs that you can and NEVER scrimp on quantity.