Blowfly maggots?

[Rob]

Hi. Can someone tell me what's the problem with feeding blowfly maggots to finches. When i was a kid my pop used to give me the wogs he bred for fishing. They were bred from hanging out a big fish head, letting the wogs grow a little on that and then flushing them out with bran or pollard. Obviously they were a mix of whatever fly landed on it. Never had a problem.

[Greg41]

Hi Rob, I used to breed blowfly maggotts for fishing in my younger days,had to breed them up the backyard because of the smell
and then try and hide a jar of them in the fridge.
Now I breed a heap of bushfly maggotts in a controlled manner, no smell, always there for feeding out and very little cost.
Don't know how good or bad blowfly maggottts are for finches,I just don't think you can go past the bushfly system.

Cheers
Greg.

[Craig52]

Hi. Can someone tell me what's the problem with feeding blowfly maggots to finches. When i was a kid my pop used to give me the wogs he bred for fishing. They were bred from hanging out a big fish head, letting the wogs grow a little on that and then flushing them out with bran or pollard. Obviously they were a mix of whatever fly landed on it. Never had a problem.

Rob,we have come a long way in aviculture since we all bred blowfly maggots. For a start it was a stinking rotten way to produce them and you had to have a good stomach to tolerate the rotting meat and smell. Disease was always a worry as well as the possibility of maggots eating their way through the crop of young finches,i had this happen a few times. Blowfly maggots are too large for smaller finches to handle.
Bush fly maggots are small being not much bigger than a termite,bred in bran and milk powder and imo the next best thing after termites then mealworms. Craig

[E Orix]

I can't think of one good reason to go back to feeding Blow Fly Maggots.
Blow Flies are reared on rotten meat products and need to be cleaned properly otherwise
the toxins will kill a percentage of chicks
On the other hand when breeding Bush/ House Flies if done properly no smell and no toxins
I swung over to bush flies may be 20+ years and haven't regretted it at all.
When I was young Blow Fly Maggots were the main if not only (to some) live food available.
My mother was dead against me breeding them, for a couple of years I bred them in secret on top of our
tile roof behind the chimney. Years later she asked me where did I breed them because she new I was doing it
and it was still bugging her then
Advice, stick to Bush Flies.

[Rob]

How do you specifically target bush flies then. Do the blow flies not lay eggs in the bran/milk powder mix. Do blow flies only target flesh etc?

[Craig52]

How do you specifically target bush flies then. Do the blow flies not lay eggs in the bran/milk powder mix. Do blow flies only target flesh etc?

In a captive fly cage Rob, i'm sure someone near you could start you off with some pupae/maggots and some information. Craig

[Greg41]

Hi again, happy to show and help set them up if you want.

Cheers Greg

[Rob]

Hi again, happy to show and help set them up if you want.

Cheers Greg

Hi Greg,
I would definitely appreciate some help setting up. I'll pm my phone number to you. Any time is good.
Thanks

[benrayjay]

just a quick note to add, at one of the AFS meetings a breeder swore that house flies were the way to go, slightly bigger maggots and higher production so if you can trap some it may be worth a try, if anyone can suggest a good trap I might try them as well.....

[toothlessjaws]

I breed house flies rather than the usual bush flies.

You can order a nice disease free culture of pupae to start you off from most aquarium stores, especially those that stock reptiles.