Feeding tips for Java Finches?

[igotajava]

Greetings everyone,

Apart from giving rice to my birds, what would be some healthy foods for them? Is there any special diet that supports a healthy breeding process?

[finchmix22]

igotajava
I would check with the java breeders on the forum, but I believe rice can be dangerous for finches because it expands in their stomachs and can cause intestinal blockage. Finches do well on a quality finch seed mix and some green leafy veggies, like Romaine or Green Leaf lettuce. Some finches, like parrot finches love fruit, such as; sliced oranges or cucumbers.

[lovezebs]

igotajava

When you say rice.... I hope you mean cooked brown rice. Raw rice, should not be fed to birds, as far as I know.

For a good diet, you will need to purchase a good finch seed mixture . You can also supplement with wild grasses that grow outside.

Hard boiled eggs, should be added to the diet, for protein.

Vegetables and greens, such as :
Spinach
Grated carrots
Carrot greens
Kale
Broccoli
Romain lettuce
Beet greens
Red Swiss chard
Parsley
Cucumber
Corn

Fruits that can be offered:
Orange slices
Apples
Grapes
Banana

They also need Cuttle bone, and a mineral block, and Bird grit. A good source of Calcium can be crushed shells from hard boiled eggs.

What part of the world do you live in? I live in Canada.

Good luck with your birds.

Elana

[wildbird]

My Java finches will not eat any finch mix. I think they would starve before eating finch mix. They only eat PLAIN canary seed, not the canary mix. They will eat white prozo millet, spray millet, japanese millet seed, fresh washed kale, romaine lettuce, a little cooked corn, peas. Also will eat oat groats, steel cut oats, some Roudy Bush nibbles. They need a good mineral mix. I use Higgins Snack Attack Mineral Mix, oyster shells, Kaytee mineral mix, crushed cuttlebone, fine crushed egg shells and the smaller, fine pieces of Abba's mineral mix. Occasionally, I crush Harrison's Power Treats very fine for them. Once a week I give them some Goldenfeast Australian Blend in their foraging dish. They will eat some parakeet seed, but mostly only the prozo. They don't seem to care for fruit.

[Colt]

There is nothing wrong with offering cooked wild, brown, or Paddy rice. We've discussed this before:

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php ... hilit=rice

From Roy Beckham's website:

http://www.efinch.com/species/java.htm

The Java Sparrows diet begins with a basic parakeet seed mix. You can use a standard finch mix, but these often contain a number of smaller millets that the Javas will ignore until the last large white millet is gone. You can also offer them just plain White Prosso and any other seeds in a separate dish. Javas will often seek out the oats in a Parakeet mix and will sift through the seed until they find it all. In a gravity feeder, this means they will drain the entire supply and scatter the seed looking for the oats. It is best to offer them and they will eagerly take egg food (Roy's egg food mix), gamebird crumbles and green food. I have never seen them eat live food, but suppose they could be enticed to if you really insist (but why feed livefood if you don't have to). Calcium can be provided in the form of crushed egg shell, crushed oyster shells or cuttlebone, but they are not normally enthusiastic about the cuttlebone. Despite their name, they really don't eat a lot of Rice. I have offered them Paddy Rice like I do all my Mannikins and Munia, but they are not as enthusiastic about this seed as some of the other Lonchura. They do like the Paddy Rice in a sprouted form.

My Javas receive a mixture of Finch, Canary and Parakeet seed blended together as well as my fresh eggfood.

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=31580

[cindy]

I breed and have a very large colony of different mutations of java.

Javas require a simple parakeet seed consisting of white proso, yellow proso and oat groats... they love oat groat.

Mine all get the seed mix, roudybush Nibble size pellets, dried egg food. Seed to pellets is a 50/50 mix.

The need soft food and not necessarily rice... try chopped kale, peas, grated carrots, shaved or chopped broccoli, sprouted and chitted seed, corn, sprouted mung beans.

They do require lots of soft food and egg food either dried or hard boiled grated when raising young.

[cindy]

these are some of my soft food/chop mixes they love, the base on both mung bean mixes is couscous