Aussie Finch Forum

I have been breeding maggots in bran and milk powder to feed to my finches for years. Recently I have noticed the top of the bran in the fly container in the fly cage going mouldy (green specs mainly) - especially when fly numbers are down and the container is not full of maggots after 3 days.

When I turn out the container into a cat litter sized tray with 4 cups of fresh bran, 1/4 cup of milk powder and 500 mls of water to make a dry mix, this too is sometimes going mouldy. When I stir it I can see a green mist, which I'm sure is not very good to inhale for myself, and I wonder if this could impact the birds when they eat the maggots. Touch wood I haven't had any losses with the birds, but I am concerned!

Does anyone else have this problem or can offer a solution or any insight.

Thanks in anticipation, Karen

Hi Karen, there are a few reasons why that could happen. The main one being to wet with not enough flies laying eggs to hatch into maggots to eat the medium.
The temperature needs to be kept at 26 to 30 degs otherwise the medium stays wet to long and is too cold for maggots to grow.
I think you should up the flie population and watch the temp as our nights are now becoming a lot cooler but still erratic.

Thanks Craig, I run my thermostat at 22-26 so I'll up the temperature to 26-30 as advised. I've had quite a few flies hatch so I'll keep them in larger numbers. I keep the mix reasonably dry so that shouldn't be the problem.

Thanks for your advice, cheers Karen

Just another question please Craig, should the box that I grow out the maggots in also be kept at 26-30?

Gday karen keep your temperature around 30 dg make sure that you put some maggots back in every day to keep your fly population up and then you won't have a problem i use bran. dog kibble and chick starter mixed up in a bucket and placed in the fridge to put out each day in containers, cheers mick

Karen i used to keep the growing tray on top of the fly cage but as soon as the maggots get to a certain size they produce their own heat so i just placed it on the bench but if it is a decent amount of maggots produced place a dowel under each end of the tray for air circulation. In saying that, in Winter that should not be necessary.

Cheers, thanks again Craig