mealies

11 Apr 2009, 19:38

just wondering how people feed there finches mealworms????
How many for a pair of birds and how often ????
Do they all like to eat them or am I wasting my time putting them in the cages ????
Do they go in live and intact or do I remove the heads EEEEEEK ????

I have Painteds on the nest , Orange Breasts I think on the nest , stars and zebs ..
Cheers

11 Apr 2009, 20:27

with the birds you listed Deb, live food is a must for the painteds, orange breasts and stars, especially when breeding. My birds will eat 200 to 300 each day during breeding season and maybe 50 a day for the rest of the year (that's all the birds in the aviary).
the amount of live food you provide will depend on how many birds you have in the aviary. if they aren't used to live food start of by making a smaller amount available and increase this as they start to eat it quicker

12 Apr 2009, 18:59

ok thanx for that I better be giving them some every day then........now wheres the tweezers ...horrible wiggly buggers they are

12 Apr 2009, 19:54

you better get used to them

12 Apr 2009, 21:25

i feed my birds about 1 teaspoon per bird per day. but i feed other forms of live food, the old mealie contains a high amount of fat and can cause some obesity in your birds from over indulging.the closer to the adult form of an insect the less fat they contain. along with the mealies a good quality softfood will help as well as a supliment . you will get used to handling them no probs i get to handle maggots and crickets. if that don't put you offf. there are some types of feeders you can make so you dont realy have to handle them to much , hope some of this helps....pete theres a feeder somewhere in here mick will know where it is ...

12 Apr 2009, 22:56

the most recent ABK (Australian Birdkeeper) magazine has an article on an automatic feeder. a very interesting read

13 Apr 2009, 01:07

hey mick i havnt got the latestest edition of abk. is that a auto fish feeder being used. in the latest aviary life theres an article by marcus pollard on one too using an auto fish feeder and the same thing in just finches a few editions ago....pete

13 Apr 2009, 19:39

same thing Pete. auto fish feeder being used for finches. am tempted to try it myself

13 Apr 2009, 19:53

sweet ....thanx for that ....used an old teaspoon to scoop them up today , wasnt too nasty .
Checked the feed bowls and none of the finches touched them , will check in the morning least they could do is eat them if I have to touch them lol.
Not too worry my tropical fish had a good old do at them so its not all in vain.

13 Apr 2009, 20:03

Might take them a while to get use to them Deb.