Who here uses water bottles? What are the Pros/Cons?

I don't, but I've thought about it seeing I'm changing water every 5 minutes...lol



Hey Glider.....we need some pics of your fid mr!

I don't. I did with my Parrotlet and almost lost him. The ball got stuck and I had no idea he wasn't getting water. Thank goodness it was only for a period of abou 24 hours; otherwise, he would have been dead.

Pros- if you keep then very clean, then your bird will have clean water all day that they can't poop or dip food in.

Cons- they can malfunction leaving your bird without water, and then the possible growth of bacteria if you don't keep them very clean. I've found that water bottles are very hard to clean well (based on my experiences with hamsters and mice). Its difficult to get all the way inside of them to scrub.

Yes, Camille, that's another good point. People think they don't have to change the water. Hold one up to the sunlight after 24 hours and the water looks like a science experiment.

Anybody remember reading something written by a vet titled "top ten reasons for parrot deaths" or words to that effect? I remember that malfunctioning water bottles was up near the top of the list.

I use a water bottle for one of my parrots. My caique, Scooter. Shel loves her water bottle, will not accept a water dish. She loves to drink from it while she eats and loves to take showers under it.

I've tried to adapt our other caique, Squeakers, to a water bottle, but have not been successful. She keeps pushing her food up the nozzle and blocking it. She still has a water dish.

My other parrots could not or would not adapt to a water bottle. I never tried with the parrotlets as they do not always adapt well to changes in diet or delivery of food and water.

The upside to water bottles is that I do not have to worry about the parrot soup and bacteria that forms, especially if I have to be gone from home for a long period of time during the day. The only parrots I have that make parrot soup are my caiques. So right now, we continuously change the water for Squeakers (at least 5 or 6 times a day). We are going to try the water buddy to see if that works better for Squeakers rather than the traditional water bottle with ball in the nipple. I'm going to order one to try and see how it goes. If that does not work, then, I'll just continue the vigilance on her water and change it mucho frequently.

I have waterbottles in all my cages- in addition to water bowls. Its impossible to keep the waterdishes clean around here- I think my birds compete for 'worlds best soup maker'. I invested in the Lixit water bottles- they look like the old fashioned milk bottles. They are glass bottles and SS stoppers with a vaccum seal. All my birds love them and drink out of them regularly- and as of yet have not shoved food up the spout *crosses fingers*. They get cleaned daily and I put them through the dishwasher once a week. Lixit makes a spout brush for easy cleaning of the spout- and cleanup is really easy. I have not had a problem yet at all. My amazon is really prone to infections, espicially yeast and bacteria, so I try to keep the crap in his environment to a minimum... so far so good with the waterbottles. If you have mutliple birds the waterbottles can be an investment- 20-25 bucks a bottle it cost me times 4 birds. But it was worth it, IMHO. I have noticed my birds only use their bowls for dunking food, and drink from the bottles the rest of the time.

I have been thinking about switching to a Lixit bottle because lately Jasmine has been dunking pellets and nuts in her water and I come home from work to cloudy pellet-y water and the sight of it makes me gag. This can not be good. IMHO I think as long as you get a quality bottle (like Lixit), check it OFTEN for defects, and keep it clean clean clean...there should be no problem. I'm having problems locating the large "milk bottle" Lixit water bottles locally so will have to order online.

<i>I use a water bottle for one of my parrots. My caique, Scooter. Shel loves her water bottle, will not accept a water dish. She loves to drink from it while she eats and loves to take showers under it.</i>

Please keep a water dish just for emergencies. I have read about parrots dying from blocked water bottles so many times. If his bottle ever got stuck, he might go to the dish.