Aussie Finch Forum

Does any one know where i can get some calf rearing powder? I made a fly box a week ago and am going to try and breed maggots for my rccb

Grant if you filled in your location on your User Control Panel then the information would be more specific. You can usually get stuff like calf formula at at Farmer's Coops and Agricultural Supply stores

I dont think you need to go to the trouble of finding calf rearing milk powder, a good reputable brand of milk powder would probably do the same job.
Maybe baby milk powder would fit the bill if you are looking for something a little more specialized.

http://www.hawkesburyfinchclub.com/maggots.html

Could you please fill in your location details, it will make it easier for other members to help.

As Greg said any rural supplier should have it.Coops like Murray Goulbourn.It is normally sold in 20 kg bags @ about $60 a bag.It maybe to much unless you have quite a few birds.The milk powder from the super market maybe worth a try.

i have been using baby formula at the moment but wanted something cheap. I might just keep using that at the moment until i have more birds that need live food. What would the shelf life be?

Storage life all depends on conditions. Baby formula is perged with nitrogen and hermetically sealed and while I wouldn't use it for babies after 12 months evenif I'd kept it in a -70oC freezer, I'd feed it to maggots for the next 20 years. In reality no one keeps it in cryo-storage and once the pack is open it starts attracting moisture which further accelerates degredation. If you are going to keep an open 25kg bag of calf rearing powder it in shed here in the wet season it will be a caked mouldy lump after 3 months so I'd need to use a large amount of it to make it worth while. If I did the same in Penrith I think I'd be safe but it's only a guess.

just use coles or woolies brand full cream milk powder . will do the trick , as thats all i use.....just make sure its full cream.....

coles and woolies no name full cream milk powder. Used these for years with good success.

You don't even need full cream powdered milk. Even skim will do.
I am fortunate to have a son who has access to as much powdered milk product as I can use.
The one I prefer is common Whey Powder it is the dried by product of cheese.
You can get calf rearing powder from most rural produce stores but it is really and added expense.
Also don't use to much. One half cup to 15 cups of Bran is fine and don't make the mix too wet.
Grab a hand full and if you need to squeeze it to get the fluid out it is about right.
The real secret is 1000's of flies, the more the better as they will eat every thing and not allow the milk powder to go off.

while I was looking for places to buy calf rearing powdered milk I came across an article that said a Government suggested to farmers that a good quality supermarket brand was quite sufficient to raise calves.
Not sure if that is good or bad