New Jersey Finch Quest - Java Rice Sparrow

Here are some points to consider before breeding

Now you have sexed your Java's another important part of breeding is, the age of your Java's. It's most important that the hen is twelve months old or older. If the hen is to young she will be inexperienced and will probably not incubate her eggs, also the number of eggs she will produce will also be smaller and are often clear eggs. The dangers of using a young hen is egg binding, this is were the hen can not pass her egg which will cause a lot of stress to her, it is a very serious condition and can kill her, another thing about using a young hen is the chicks will also be weak. If you do want to breed Java's successfully wait until the hen is old enough. The cock Java is a bit different, you can start breeding off him from around ten months of age.
It is best to stop breeding your Java's when they are about four years old.

If you can, keep the two sexes apart until you want to breed from them, this way when they are put together with a nest box the cock almost starts instantly to begin making the nest, eggs should start to appear after 10 to 14 day, if they don't lay with in 20 day of pairing then split them up again and try pairing them in eight weeks time.

Java's will not breed for you unless they are in good breeding condition, if a bird is showing any signs of moult wait until the Java has finished moulting.

Bringing Java's into breeding condition is done by feeding the birds on a good diet before pairing. Conditioning foods are soak seeds or greens, egg food, millet sprays, mealworms.

Cages and Nest Boxes

One of the biggest advantages of cage breeding is you have full control over the pairings, this way you can keep accurate records of the Java's off spring. Also when you are conditioning the Java's for breeding
you can also control the food.

Cage Size:
A good size cage measures 28" long X 16½" high X 16" deep. This is ideal to start a pair of Java's breeding.

The Nest Box:

The nest boxes for Java's are a good-sized wooden box with one entrance hole and a small perch. The reason for such a big nest box is because of the size of the parent birds plus if they have several youngsters they will easily fit in, plus there is plenty of air space. Also young Java's when fledging will go back to the nest box at night to roost along with the parents, so you can imagine how full the box will be with all nine birds inside

As you can see from the photo I use a box with a flip lid, these types of boxes make nest inspection and maintenance very easy. When preparing a nest box to go on to a cage, put a good layer of meadow grass in the bottom of the box, at the end where the flip lid opens, I make a nest shape in the grass using my fist, with a bowl shape now in the grass I add some coconut fiber to it, this encourages the Java's nest at the end of the box I need them to, if you put some more nesting materials in the cage with the breeding pair, they will finish the nest off the way they like it. When the breeding is over, I clean all the nest boxes out with disinfectant and rinse out with plenty of fresh water; they are then left to dry out for next time. See how to build one of my Nest Boxes Plus see the measurements of the box

What Kind Of Nesting Materials Should You Use?

Medow Grass: Is good in their nest boxes.
Coconut Fiber: Is very good for nest building material because it is very fine for the birds to shape with Tissue Paper: This is another good material to use, just cut it into thin strips. Shredded News paper: Can also be used, make sure any ink on the paper is not easily rubbed off.

Java's will use any bits off the floor to build with, like feathers, stalks off millet sprays etc. Just watch they don't start using their fresh greens to build with, because this will go moldy in the nest and the spoors off the mould will do no good to the birds, also it makes the nest smell

Conditioning Java for Breeding

Java like any bird needs to be in good condition before you expect them to breed. You will not get anywhere if your
Java's are out of condition.

How can you tell if your java's are in good breeding condition? The cock java will be singing his heart out, the cock and hen will be jumping from branch to branch with excitement also their beaks will be much brighter then usual, their eye ring will also be bigger and brighter; and their plumage will be in first class condition.

Why do they need to be in good condition?

When two java's start to breed it's asking a lot from both birds especially the hen to produce eggs and feed chick for two rounds of eggs, don't forget when you pair two birds up in breeding cages the whole process for one round takes approximately 77 days From start to finish see table below, so after two rounds the hen is extremely worn out and needs a good rest

These figures are for the cycle of one egg. See more on eggs below.
0 to 14 days for eggs	18 days of incubation	31 days to fledge	14 days to separation

How to condition Java's?

Seed's
There is no need to change their seed diet at all, just keep using what you have been giving them all year round.
The only alteration I make to their seed is to offer cod liver oil soaked seed once a week.

Egg Food
Start offering egg food on a daily basis, two or three teaspoons. Egg food is loaded with proteins and vitamins. I like to make my own egg food! With added oils and bread crumbs, I also add crushed shells for calcium intake.

Soak Seed
Soak seed or sprouted seed, both the same thing, offer this as well on a daily basis,
one-tablespoon full pair Java this is one of the best nutritional foods you can feed to birds.

Greens
Daily greens, each breeding cage has a fresh spinage leaf a day.

Calcium
Calcium is needed every day of the year but more so when Java's are starting to breed, they need this to make good strong eggs and for feeding to chicks. I use cuttle fish bones in all my cages; also I use oyster shell grit in small pots along with mineral Grit, if you use egg food this will have crushed chicken eggshells in it as well.

Millet Sprays
Millet sprays are given twice a week

Mealworms
Mealworms are offered to my Java's but not all of them will eat them. Mealworms are not an essential part of conditioning Java's,
but they are loaded with portent.

All the above will help to bring a Java into breeding condition, It is good to feed this diet all through the breeding period, so the youngsters get the benefits as well. Each breeder you talk to will have his or her own way of conditioning birds, some people breed javas on just seeds alone. This is the way I feed my Java's and receive excellent breeding results off them. The same conditioning food also helps Java's through a moult

Eggs and Chicks

Photo on the right of the two eggs is showing one java egg against the smaller zebra finch egg to give you a better idea of size

As you can see Java's eggs are white all over and about 20mm long and 12mm wide. Javas lay one egg a day usally in the morrning, so if you are going to inspect the nest leave it until the evening time so you will not disturb the hen. Javas will not start to incubate their eggs until the third egg arrives, each egg takes 18 days to hatch, so on the eighteenth day you can have three eggs hatch together.

I have got an 18 day hatch chart you can view or print one off
it will give you a hatch date depending on what day the egg was laid 18 Day Hatch Chart

If you have kept the two sexes apart for a few months before you pair them up for breeding then you should start getting some eggs anywhere between 6 to 14 days time. When the eggs start arriving jot down the day they where laid on your nest box recourd card. Javas lay anywhere between 1 to 10 eggs pair round, but the average is about 6 eggs. Now you know why I use big nest boxes

Now you have eggs, unfortunately this does not guarantee you chicks, there are a few things that can go wrong, there may not be enough moisture in the nest box and the eggs just dry-up. To help over come this you should have a bird bath attached to the cage at all times, this way when the java's bath they will take back moisture to the nest. Another problem is where the nesting pair sit to tight on the eggs and kill the embryos inside, what happens is they starve the egg of air or the eggs over heats. If you get one or two infertile eggs in a nest of fertile eggs leave them in because this can help the chicks from getting squashed by their parents if they are sitting tight. Java's are very good at laying infertile eggs; I have had many rounds of eggs where every egg is infertile, even on the second round of eggs. I don't know why this is; I have paired them with proven cock birds but can still get clear eggs.

Candling

Taking a closer look at eggs: should you or should you not pick eggs up? I try very hard not to pick eggs up, also a lot depends on the breeding pair, some java's will evacuate the nest box when you tap on the side, then you have no problem, others will not move when you tap and open the flip lid on the nest box. I have no reason to touch the eggs unless on is cracked. I always look at the eggs to see if they are fertile or not (candling) if the round of eggs are all infertile I will remove all the eggs, so the hen will start on a second round of eggs. No point her sitting on empty eggs for eighteen days.

How to Candle your eggs to see if they are fertile or not. You don't need any fancy candling lights at all, as you can see from the photo I use just an ordinary torch. I candel my eggs when they are around ten days old, you can tell straight away if they are fertile or not at this age. There is no need to touch or lift the eggs out of the nest to candle them, I just lower the light into the nest box and hold it just off the egg you want to look at. See the photos below

If you click on the photos you will get a close up of the eggs

Photo Left: will show you what an infertile egg looks like, this egg has transparent look about it, no shading at all. The spot on the egg when you look at the close up is just muck on the egg

Photo Right:
This photo is showing a fertile egg, look at the red veins and the over all look of red about the egg, also you will see the eggs next to this one are looking red as well

This is the small touch I use to candle eggs with. The photo is nearly the same size
as the torch. I am sure you will get one from any hard wear store. I got this light free when I brought a padlock, and its still going strong

Chicks

Finely the chick stage, on the 18 day of incubation your chicks should start hatching, when the chicks hatch they are still living off their own egg food, it will take a few hours before the parent bird will start to feed her young. I have had a number of e-mail's asking what do I do! My Java's have babies. Java's are excellent parents and they will do everything for you, so long as you give them food and water.

Here is the precious Java chick:
This photo is showing a Java chick only hours old, you can still see the yellow egg food still being used by the chick to live off. If you look towards the throat, where the big red vain is. This is the crop area that will be filled with crop milk when the hen starts to feed the chick. On to the chick's eye's, you can tell as early as this if your chick is going to have red eyes or not. This chick will have black eyes because of the dark blue colour, if it was going to have red eyes, then the colour would be a dark pink colour. Shortly after taking this photo the chick was feed by its mother, one happy bird keeper!

Photo of: a white java chick

Here is a Java chick at 7 days old:
The chicks will grow at a rapid rate, also there's a lot going on in the first few weeks of life. The beak develops into a typical java shape in no time. On this photo you can see the crop stuffed with food, the body shape has changed also the wings are bigger and showing signs of the feather tubes forming.
Photo of: a white java chick

Here is a Java chick at 14 days:
What a difference in just 14 day, wings and feathers developing, the start of a tail, eye's just starting to open, also the hearing holes have opened. This java is now having crushed seeds and some whole seed feed to it, see the colour of the crop has changed from the white milk.
Photo of: a white java chick

Here is a Java chick at 21 days: As you can see, everything has now developed; the chick is just growing now. It is able to fly at this stage; I don't normally disturb the youngsters in the nest box at this age, because they are very easily frightened out of the nest box prematurely. Another ten days and the youngsters will start to come out of the nest box for a few hours a day. Photo of: a light silver java chick

Here is a Java chick at 31 days
The fledging day is finely here, the young Java's start to come out of the nest for the first time on this day (approx). They will come out for a few hours a day at first and as the days go on the time spent out of the nest increases as well, but every night all the youngsters will return to the nest box to roost. The young Java will stay this colour for some time now and improve it's flying skills, the first thing you will notice will be the beak changing colour from this dark brown to a coral pink, when the beak has fully changed colour the youngster will start to moult out their baby feathers and start replacing them with adult coloured feathers, during this time the youngster will look ugly and ill, but don't worry everything will be O.K When the last chick comes out of the nest box, give them 14 more day with the parents before you separate them, just observe your chick for a day or so to make sure they are cracking their own seeds and feeding themselves

The chick is about 38 days old here and is still calling for food off the parent Java's; they make a hell of a racket when they call. You will also see the young around the feeding bowl starting to pick at seed for themselves, copying what their parents are doing.

Here is the chick changing, see the beak colour is changing also the eye rings are getting their colour as well.

Its taken 150 days (5 months) to get this far from the hatch date. This is what I call the ugly stage, if you walked in to a pet shop and seen a bird like this for sale, would you buy it? You can just see the last of the brown baby feathers sill on it's chest, the head has not got far to go before its completely black, the cheek patches are still a bit dirty, but it's now looking nearly like a java should. At around 4 mouths of age, the young cock Java's are trying to sing.

From hatch date to finish it has taken between 6 to 7 months to get its full adult plumage.
It could now live up to 9 years of age

JAVA MUTATIONS

A SPECIAL THANKS TO ROB SALEM FOR PICTURES & INFORMATION

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