Maggots vs. Termites

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mattymeischke
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Posts: 862
Joined: 25 Jul 2011, 20:25
Location: Southern Tablelands of NSW

Hi BluJay,
I think I'm the one who mentioned livefood and tricolor PFs. They don't need liveys to breed IMO, though some people would say that they do, or that they do much better with live food. Mine take maggots but not termites; I know this because they share an aviary with bloods, Hecks' and skylarks, so they have access to (some of) termites, mealies, maggots, moths and crickets. Out of those options, I have seen them take the maggots often and the termites occasionally. I think they 'need' lots of green seeding grass or similar, and 'like' livefood. The bluefaced PFs that I had took termites with gusto. It's hard to know whether this is a species thing, or down to the individual animal's preferences and previous experience.
If you search the forum for 'flybox' I'm sure you will find lots of topics describing flybox setups. As with all birdy things, there are lots of conflicting opinions about the best way to do it; I found it took a bit of fiddling to get it right, but it is a great way of breeding lots of quality liveys cheaply. Most people prefer vegetarian housefly maggots, raised on bran and milk powder mix. Flies raised on meat can carry botulism and other nasties. I think it was London Zoo who lost a lot of irreplaceable softbills to botulism some years ago in this way.

Happy maggot farming,
Matt.
:cloppy:
Avid amateur aviculturalist; I keep mostly australian and foreign finches.
The art is long, the life so short; the critical moment is fleeting and experience can be misleading, crisis is difficult....... (Hippocrates)
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Redwing
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Posts: 598
Joined: 27 Jun 2010, 21:02
Location: SOR Perth, WA
Location: Perth, WA

Hi Tiaris
The zapper kills some and only stuns others so when you tip them onto the floor there's plenty of movement to trigger off interest. Now that the birds know what they are the lack of movement doesn't seem to matter. They're not interested in the larger moths at this stage but only the copious small skinny ones about 5mm long. I'm getting the equivalent of about half a peanut paste lid each night. At this stage I just have it on my deck and found 2 very happy motor bike frogs catching the ones around the zapper last night. By this morning the New Holland and Singing honey eaters have discovered it also so seems like success all round.
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BluJay

Thanks mattymeischke for taking time to advise me. I wondered about rotten meat. The fly you talked about sounds better alternative. I also BFPF, they need live food also? Or just like it? I will look for info on fly box. Again thanks much. Regards.
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