Feeding nectar eating softbills

[natamambo]

I'm wanting to spread my wings a bit and get into softbills more. Maybe one day the fruit doves, but not for a few years for aviary space reasons (gotta retire to more than 600sqm of suburbia first ). For now, silvereyes as a lead up to scarlet honeyeaters.

I have a question re portion control of supplied nectar mix. As far as I can tell, I should be providing around 5-10ml per bird per day. That's not a lot of nectar mix in a bowl, even one as little as 150ml (which I can't even see the birds landing on the edge of all that well).

I haven't ever given nectar mix to the chats, just had copious amounts of sugar in the home made cake (which is consumed very readily). On that basis, I presume I could also add small amounts of the nectar mix the same way for them but they are very active and healthy on their current diet so I haven't bought it for them as yet.

What's the easiest way to supply nectar to the silvereyes (and one day the honeyeaters)? I get adding it to cake or live food but do they need to think they are "drinking" it?

How long will the mix last made up but not frozen? (Could I, for example just put it in one of those tube feeders with a spout at the bottom and replenish every couple of days in winter and daily in summer or does it need to be replaced every few hours in summer?).

Made up at the recommended rate (wombaroo is 300g / litre of water which is 30g per 100ml) is it basically paste / damp crumble or is it more liquid than solid?

The flight I'm thinking of for the silvereyes is 2.8m x 1.2m. It is fully roofed and will be "planted" across the back third with plants in pots that can be rotated. They'll share the flight with 1 pair of longtails and 2 pairs of redbrows. In time it will be merged with the identical flight beside it (making it 2.4 x 2.8m) and more heavily planted to bring in the honeyeaters (recognising the redbrows may need to move out then).

[Tintola]

Silver-eyes and Scarlet Honey-eaters are both very easy to keep, especially the Silver-eyes. Breeding them is another matter. Silver-eyes are omnivorous and will take any soft fruits, insects and nectar mixes. They love madeira cake soaked in lorikeet wet mix or any other nectar food. They do not have to "drink" it.
Scarlet Honey-eaters can be maintained on the commercial mix, made to a more liquid consistency or a home made mix which is very economical, added to this is a variety of small flying insects, I supply the latter by keeping a compost heap of fruit peelings in the aviary to attract ferment flies and also put bush fly pupae in to hatch as they love those as well. I use a red coloured tube feeder, as used to give budgies water, not the one with the gravity ball in the end as I have heard of birds getting their peaks stuck in those if the nectar mix goes gluggy. The mix is replenished once a day, summer or winter as any more than one day in summer it can start to ferment. Some people keep the mix frozen in ice cubes and thaw what is needed the night before or in the microwave oven. I just keep enough in the fridge for about 3 or 4 days and the rest frozen until needed.
Hope this helps. If you want the home recipe for nectar let me know.

[Danny]

I use the wombaroo nectar mixed at half strength (full strength doesn't flow through the small red drinkers very well at all). Forget 5-10 ml - if flowers aren't available a pair of scarlets can drink 30-40 ml per day, silvereyes even more.
I mix up 1 litre and that does me 2 days stored in the fridge. After 2 days it gets a bit gluggy. I put it in of a morning and haven't had a need to change it during the day although in Summer it starts to ferment and swells up and out of the drinkers.

[Tintola]

A pic of the budgie feeder that Danny and I were referring to. for Mickw and Natamambo. I'm sure you have seen them before. We use the ones with red bases as an attractant to the Honey-eaters. Yellow or orange could also be used.

[Danny]

Mines better - cause' its a red one

[Tintola]

Maybe so, but mine don't leak And they too are red. The first pic was from the "Intraweb"

[SamDavis]

I really have no experience but I noticed when in California last year that many shops sold hummingbird feeders and many people had them up in their backyards.
Here's a link to the sort of thing they used - hummer feeders
Is this type of contraption suitable for Scarlet Honeyeaters?

[Danny]

Maybe so, but mine don't leak And they too are red. The first pic was from the "Intraweb"

Thats not a leak - that's a silvereye induced mess. They just refuse to take turns even with a second drinker behind them.

[Danny]

I really have no experience but I noticed when in California last year that many shops sold hummingbird feeders and many people had them up in their backyards.
Here's a link to the sort of thing they used - hummer feeders
Is this type of contraption suitable for Scarlet Honeyeaters?

I think the commercial mixes would block them up but Tintolas home recipe might work. My major concern would be what you would say to people visiting your aviaries when they saw one of those hanging up in it. They are just ghastly and look fun to clean.

[mickw]

A pic of the budgie feeder that Danny and I were referring to. for Mickw and Natamambo. I'm sure you have seen them before. We use the ones with red bases as an attractant to the Honey-eaters. Yellow or orange could also be used.

Of course!.......thanks for that.....here I was thinking of some new-fangled contraption resembling a silver bullet when in fact its quite simple