BeatriceC
New member
- Feb 9, 2016
- 1,351
- 91
- Parrots
- Goofy (YNA), Oscar (Goffin 'too). Foster bird Betty (RLA). RIP Cookie, 1991-2016 ('tiel), Leo (Sengal), Charlotte (scarlet macaw). Grand-birds: Liam (budgie), Donovan (lovebird), RIP Angelo (budgie)
I live in SoCal, where the temps are soaring, and our home, like many, many homes in the area, doesn't have air conditioning. We have a routine for keeping the house cool, but with the addition of Charlotte, our new special needs macaw, we're encountering a problem we've never really had before, and that is fruit flies.
Our other birds gobble up fresh fruits and veggies as soon as they're given to them. Charlotte has come to us with a not-great diet and is a picky eater. I offer her fruits and they just sit there until she might take a nibble here and there hours later. I've started offering her some dried fruits even though I know they're not as good, for both the fruit fly issue, plus to offer her more variety in hopes she'll figure out that some of it is tasty. But back to the issue in this thread. She's also not eating enough of her chop. I'm giving her about four tablespoons worth for breakfast and she eats maybe 1.5 tablespoons worth, and then leaves it to graze on later. Because she's having some issues eating enough good stuff, I hesitate to take it out of her cage/off her play perch, but it's attracting the darned fruit flies. They mob her food the second I put it out. I go through the house with a "white glove" looking for food bits and put my food trash in a plastic bag in the fridge until it's time to go out on trash day, and do everything I can to make sure there's no other source of food for them, but I just can't get them under control. Outside of just living with them until the weather cools down, is there anything else I can do to get rid of them? I obviously don't want to use any sort of bug spray, as I have four birds.
Our other birds gobble up fresh fruits and veggies as soon as they're given to them. Charlotte has come to us with a not-great diet and is a picky eater. I offer her fruits and they just sit there until she might take a nibble here and there hours later. I've started offering her some dried fruits even though I know they're not as good, for both the fruit fly issue, plus to offer her more variety in hopes she'll figure out that some of it is tasty. But back to the issue in this thread. She's also not eating enough of her chop. I'm giving her about four tablespoons worth for breakfast and she eats maybe 1.5 tablespoons worth, and then leaves it to graze on later. Because she's having some issues eating enough good stuff, I hesitate to take it out of her cage/off her play perch, but it's attracting the darned fruit flies. They mob her food the second I put it out. I go through the house with a "white glove" looking for food bits and put my food trash in a plastic bag in the fridge until it's time to go out on trash day, and do everything I can to make sure there's no other source of food for them, but I just can't get them under control. Outside of just living with them until the weather cools down, is there anything else I can do to get rid of them? I obviously don't want to use any sort of bug spray, as I have four birds.
