Aussie Finch Forum

Hi

I think my Cordon Bleu and Orange Breast Waxbills could benefit from a more generous supply of insects, rather than just the ones that happen to fly or crawl into the aviary. What are your favourite methods for either attracting insects or breeding them within an aviary? e.g. I have never tried using a fruit fly trap... Is it worthwhile? What's an effective design?

I also have a timed feeder that I could use for manually supplying insects, but what to feed? I don't want to use Mealworms as they seem to do more harm than good health-wise.

Thanks

You could breed maggots there better than the mealworms.Do a search for ways to breed them.

Mealworms will be far better than no livefood at all. Smaller ones & freshly moulted soft ones are not so bad nutritionally & easier to eat than large hard skinned ones.
For Drosophila (Vinegar fly) cultures I put fruit scraps into a lidded bucket with a wire window either side & a perch shoved through from one side to the other & hang it from the aviary ceiling in the shade. I do this for small softbills but Orangebreasts & Cordons will eat them too.
I also released the contents of a moth trap into an aviary with newly fledged Variegated Wren young this morning & saw the cock Cordon in the cage next door catch a moth which made it through the wire partition. Moth trap was bought from Bunnings for about $90 & works very well.

I culture vinegar eels - turbatrix aceti, a tiny aquatic non parasitic harmless nematode and have often thought adding some to drinking water would be an easy way to boost protein for gouldians or other birds not readily eating insects. I haven't tried it yet since my birds already seem happy but I probably will for next breeding diets. They are exceptionally easy to culture.
Winston

I have a couple of empty fruit juice bottles with holes punched into the top section hanging from the roof of the avairy. They have soft fruit that is/has gone off in them to attract the vinegar flies. Finches catch them, some better than others at it.
LML

You really need a consistent supply of either maggots and/or termites to breed cordons and OBs successfully. If building a flybox or collecting termites seems too much at this stage then you can buy all sorts of insects online - try frogs.org.au

Thanks Sam, I like the look of those small house fly maggots! (Well, in a manner of speaking... )

Here's an idea...but is it safe? Our compost breeds a huge number and variety of insects and worms - it's swarming with life. Is it safe to supply a small amount of fresh compost for the birds to pick the insects out of, or are there too many unknown bugs and fungal spores that could come with it? I expect they would adore this, but I'm trying to guage the risk. Has anyone tried it?

Compost heaps in aviaries were a hallmark of many aviaries years ago. Some of our finches were probably saved with them BUT
today we have cleaner, safer sources of livefood. You are right when you suggest possible problems from contamination. Finch mortality used to be much higher and I think this was one contributor.
Also, the trend is nowcomposting with bins that produce compost for the garden and are far more accessible than climbing into the aviary with a small bucket of peapods!
I personally wouldn't even put a small bit in really unless you are digging it into the ground for your plants.
Another old time way of attracting insects was to place some old carpet or hessian on the ground and keep it moist. When you move it every few days, the finches love the insect life exposed.

It never occured to me to install a compost heap inside the actual aviary. I think that would be a bit unmanageable from a hygeine point of view.

We have an external compost bin, the mature contents of which get transfered to a compost tumbler to be 'finished'. It's that finished product that I was considering offering, either in a shallow tray or sprinkled around the plants. I imagine that would be much better than in-aviary composting from scratch, but perhaps still risky?

We have a couple of big black compost bins for the garden. I have been know to sneak up on these bins with a nylon net in hand, rip the bin lid off and whizz the net around a couple of times to catch the tiny flies, the obs in the aviary are most appreciative.

What my neighbours think about this practice is their problem.