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Livefoods. The key to successful breeding.

It should be the aim of everyone who keeps exotic or European birds to breed them. The importance of self-sustaining captive populations has never been more important and may well be the key to the survival in aviculture of many species. However it is one thing to persuade some pairs – particularly of softbilled species - to build, lay, incubate and eventually hatch a healthy brood of youngsters but much more difficult to ensure those same nestlings fledge and reach independence.

Without a varied and regular supply of Livefood, the chances of successfully rearing many species are absolutely zero. Not only softbills need Livefood when breeding. Practically all the most popular and widely kept foreign seedeaters - Waxbills, Buntings, Weavers, Whydahs, Mannikins, etc - switch from a predominantly granivorous diet to one dominated by small livefood when they have youngsters to rear.

Lack of Livefood – or if it is fed in insufficient quantity - invariably results in the adult birds either deserting their brood or, more often ejecting them from the nest.

Feeding: How Much ?

It is easy to underestimate the amount of Livefood that will be consumed by a nestful of four or five growing chicks. A wild Great Tit has been recorded bringing food to its nest on no fewer than 900 occasions in the course of a day. There are few hard and fast rules as to how much, and which, of the various Livefoods available you should feed to your birds – except to emphasise that when they are rearing young you must be generous.

What to Feed - and how ?

Any of the Mealworm varieties available can be offered to the birds in a simple plastic or ceramic dish after first separating the worms from their feed. Locate the dish in a favoured feeding area if the birds have one, failing that anywhere dry will do - the birds will find them! Mealworms in common with most insects are protein rich but lack bone strengthening calcium. A light dusting with Calci Phos, a product sold for reptiles but excellent for birds will correct this imbalance.

Regular Mealworms are an obvious staple. Most insectivorous birds would literally die for this gourmet grub.

Mini Mealworms are a marvellous rearing food for many species and a staple for smaller softbills. Giant and Super Giant Mealworms provide a gourmet nutritious treat for larger species suchas Starlings, Mynahs, Jays, Magpies or Cissas and even Toucans, Aracaris or Motmots.

Waxworms like Mealworms can be offered in a simple plastic or ceramic dish and should be dusted with Calci Phos. Many bird keepers regard waxworms with their soft skins as indispensable. Almost any softbill – and many seedeaters too - will eventually accept these succulent delicacies from the hand. They are an important rearing food for many species, and, where rare species are concerned, something of a must.

Crickets are excellent value for money - and a very good all - round rearing food. However they disperse very quickly indeed in a large aviary. There are three ways to overcome the problem but in either case remember to dust lightly with Calci Phos before offering to your birds.

• Put the Crickets in an escape - proof container in a domestic refrigerator for a few minutes to temporarily immobilise them.
• Put them into the aviary in a vessel of sufficient depth that the Crickets can’t escape. Small softbills will learn to take crickets from the Round Cricket Cage on page X for instance. Whatever container you choose should be installed in the aviary when the birds commence incubation and "baited" with a Cricket or two to aid familiarisation.
• Freeze the Crickets and de-frost a few each day at room temperature before offering them to the birds.

Locusts are excellent for many birds during the breeding season, particularly insectivorous species. Large Locusts are suitable for Corvids and birds such as Jay-Thrushes which are feeding young and provide a valuable supplement to other rearing foods.

Fruitflies are an essential year-round diet for Hummingbirds, Sunbirds and Honeycreepers. Anyone having, from time to time, faced the need to treat various fungal problems involving these birds will appreciate the advantages of using cultured Fruitflies rather than those generated in a dish of spore carrying rotten fruit. Just place the culture in to your feeding area and watch the show! After a while remove the culture, replace the lid and put it somewhere warm to allow the flies to regenerate.