Aussie Finch Forum

just found some natural wild rice in woolies while shopping.its in a tiny pack and it claims to be naturally picked, from canada.its looks nothing like the rices we all know.has anyone ever fed that to their java's? it looks like thin black thorns.i havent ever seen rice in its wild form before.i broke some up and put it in their dish,it looks like theyve eaten some.

That sounds OK but just a word of warning seeds imported into Aus must be sterilized ether chemically with the risk of residuals or heat treated to which valuable proteins are lost if you wish to spoil your birds give them a small amount of hulled sunflower (sparingly).

Canadian wild rice belongs to the genus Zizania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_rice) and is not closely related to commercial cice (Oriza sativa). Wild rice is grown in Australia and so shouldn't carry any disease risk. Java sparrows as their scientific name (Padda oryzivora) implies eat commercial rice here in Asia. Although they will never encounter Zizania in the wild I'm sure they would appreciate eating it. That said they don't like dried mature (paddy) rice - they prefer it green from the milky stage to soft and ripe. I give my birds rice here in the Philippines but never dried paddy as they prefer plain white millet over that. It's mid wet-season at the moment and my Javas are getting frisky and the rice is starting to head so I got some rice to steal tomorrow.