Aussie Finch Forum

Just a bit of advice required. I normally feed my live food (mini mealies) daily and the painteds and stars just gobble them up as soon as they are put in. Today I acquired some some fly pupae (de-activated) from the local pet shop and thought I might give them a try. They are from Pisces and are labelled Musca Domestica. They look like small grains of dark brown rice. The lass at the shop showed me the product description which said that they had been frozen, hence the "de activated "tag. Mine are thawed. Anyhow to cut a long story short went and fed some out but the painteds and stars just looked at me and more or less said "what the hell is this?" They continued munching on the mealies I had placed in earlier and would have nothing to do with the fly pupae. They have been in the food dish for a couple of hours now and have not been touched by the birds, but the ants think they are ok. Admittedly my birds have never seen this type of food before. Should I mix them with the mini mealies to try and get them started or persevere in feeding them seperate? One further question, what would be the shelf life in the fridge considering they have been frozen and now are thawed and if they go "off" could they cause a health problem. They have no odour whatsoever.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Ken.

Hi Ken,
I was using these last season (although mine were activated, but I'll get to that in a sec).
My birds started on them pretty much immediately, but if they're not eating them mix in a few mealworms, or split a couple open with the back of a spoon so they can see what's inside.
As I said, mine were 'activated', but I froze them when I got home. I fed them out straight frozen without issue. Mine lasted about 2 months without incident, but I'm not sure about thawed (or if you can re-freeze them).

Thanks Jay,

Will give that a try.

Ken