Aussie Finch Forum

In the post Aurora Keeping/Breeding info, Tiaris and Craig52 both talk about the differences in some finch species between termite and maggot breeding success. Has anybody had the experience of species such as Melbas or maybe Cordons that have come from a line of multiple generations of maggot reared young breed better, or maybe produce more per clutch if they are given termites again? Is the benefit of termites as a rearing source hard wired into waxbills?

It will be interesting to see the responses you get to this question.
Never had the opportunity to use termites on a regular basis myself.

Mickp wrote:It will be interesting to see the responses you get to this question.
Never had the opportunity to use termites on a regular basis myself.

I don't think i will get involved with this one,too controversial. I got hounded for it in a very old topic years back. Cheers Craig

Come on Craig, why would it be controversial? You would only be giving your opinion. PM your theory if you don't won't to share it publicly. I am curious about the results.

My 2 cents is it is what ever they are raised on
If you breed some on maggots keep the young and they should breed better on them than their parents which may have been converted

I believe Blu-Rey from what I have read that subsequent generations will do better on maggots, but if you were to revert back to termites for your offspring or sold offspring to someone who used termites would you get better results.

My opinion is you will generally get better results when you feed White Ants.
But I don't and feed out large amounts of M Worms and Bush Fly Maggots.
If I fed W/Ants I would say that the numbers fledging would be better 3's+ instead of 2's etc
The main reason I don't feed W/Ants is I sell into the Melbourne market and few breeders feed W/Ants there.
My birds being bred on Maggots and M/Worms will continue to breed for their new owners.
It is far harder to get successful nests out of W/Ant raised chicks when you only feed M/W and Maggots.
When I lived in Melbourne I bred Auroras easily without W/Ants but struggled trying to breed Melbas
even getting excited when a single chick would fledge.

With many estrildid species, the difference in breeding results would be negligible. Certain ones though, which have clearly evolved to rely heavily on termites just simply do better on termites and trying to breed them consistently on anything else is tilting the odds against likely success. Most Pytilias, Bluecaps & Twinspots are heavily hard-wired to prefer & only do really well on termites. Most others are fine on maggots IMO.

Maybe with some persistence, over time these species might be more accepting of maggots.

It's pretty important to check what birds are reared on before buying them. I figure any species reared on termites is going to be dificult to convert unless maybe buying young and indoctrinating them early. I would beinterested also in hearing of people who have successfully done so.

Because termites are hard to source down here (and I'm not really happy about raiding nature to get them), I try to be careful about sourcing birds not reared on termites.

Just one from left field, I use a moth catcher from Bunnings ($105) , kept up mealies to one pair of cordons in one flight,
Leave the catcher base in the other flight, the pair of cordons in the the moth fed flight are down now & I can hear a clutch being fed , this pair I've only had for a about 6weeks & started building nest as soon as I introduced the moth trap.
Orange breasts also ly in wait for me to put the trap in & they've gone down as well.
Cheap free live food that apparently works....
Cheers Deano