Dipping Pellets

Boki

Member
Aug 7, 2018
150
4
HI
Parrots
Marcy - double yellow Amazon
Mac - blue front Amazon
Loki - rosefront conure
I made the bold move to get away from a unhealthy seed mix for evening meal and now she is eating pellets. This has been about 3 weeks. But I am noticing that over time, she is dipping into the water bowl more and more after each pellet.

Does anyone else's conure do that? She didn't start out that way but now seems to dip into water with each bite.

I would have thought that for all of the supposed research into making these pellets that constant softening would not be needed.
 

fuad

New member
Dec 31, 2018
40
4
My sunny does that too. I don't think it's anything to worry about

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
 

Jen5200

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Mar 27, 2017
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Washington State
Parrots
Baby - Sun Conure;
Tango - GCC;
Bindi - Sun Conure;
Stanley - Pineapple GCC;
Screamer “Scree� - Cockatiel;
Tee - Pineapple GCC; Jimmy - Cockatiel
Completely normal. Everyone here dips their pellets :)
 

YSGC

New member
Jan 6, 2019
205
0
USA
Parrots
Pico, gender unknown, is a hand-fed Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure, born 2015.
Pico doesn't dip.

Again I guess, odd bird out.
 

LaManuka

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Queensland, Australia
Parrots
Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
Fang the cockatiel dunks his pellets and he taught Val the budgie to do it as well so their water is pellet soup by lunchtime!
 

Ellie777Australia

New member
Apr 12, 2019
1,280
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Queensland, Australia
Parrots
SI Eclectus Female, Ellie; RS/SI Eclectus Male, Bertie (both adopted as rescue/re-home)
Ellie's water bowl is filled with every type of food consumed and needs to be changed at least three times a day.



Bertie doesn't dip...he's upper class...he doesn't even dunk his biscuits in his tea!;)
 

LaManuka

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Queensland, Australia
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Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
Fang the cockatiel dunks his pellets and he taught Val the budgie to do it as well so their water is pellet soup by lunchtime!



Not at all surprised to see that HRH doesn't dip! :21::eek::D

You are quite correct, HRH Crown Princess Lilly Pilly does not deign to dunk. She’d rather have her servant (i.e. me) hold her bowl of nectar mix for her while she partakes and then she thoroughly enjoys flinging the excess all over me!
 

Skittys_Daddy

Well-known member
Jan 6, 2014
2,172
63
Lewiston, Maine
Parrots
Neotropical Pigeon - "Skittles" (born 3/29/10)
Cockatiel - "Peaches" (1995-2015) R.I.P.
Budgie - "Sammy"
(1989-2000) R.I.P.
Budgie - "Sandy"
(1987-1989) R.I.P.
Skittles doesn't dunk his, BUT, he does go for water directly after (or during) his eating.

As for your point about the research, while one would think that'd be addressed by now, you also have to consider that pellets are of a different texture than seeds and also if you happen to look at the back of the bags, it lists the 'moisture' content. Like with Harrisons, I've got bags that say the moisture content is 10% which is the max. They probably are not able to make them more moist without degrading the quality of the pellets or exposing them to contamination elements (molding etc).
 

CallumConure

New member
Apr 10, 2019
132
7
Central Minnesota, USA
Parrots
Callum- GCC Hatchday: October 15th, 2016
(nonparrot friends include rats, a dog, and a few reptiles :))
Callum's my weird fid and not only dips his food, but he dips it while hanging upside down. I give him a perch to sit on and everything, but he still clings to the side of his cage, head down, and then dips his food.
 

LaManuka

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Queensland, Australia
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Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
Callum's my weird fid and not only dips his food, but he dips it while hanging upside down. I give him a perch to sit on and everything, but he still clings to the side of his cage, head down, and then dips his food.

Now that’s what I call style :)
 

Ellie777Australia

New member
Apr 12, 2019
1,280
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Queensland, Australia
Parrots
SI Eclectus Female, Ellie; RS/SI Eclectus Male, Bertie (both adopted as rescue/re-home)
Callum's my weird fid and not only dips his food, but he dips it while hanging upside down. I give him a perch to sit on and everything, but he still clings to the side of his cage, head down, and then dips his food.

Now that’s what I call style :)



Darn it...Is Callum available to teach Ellie some style? How about HRH to each her some class? Do we have a 12 step program for 'uncouth' parrot behaviour...or 'how to make your parrot a true HRH like the most un-humble Lilly Pilly that I can take Ellie through???:D
 

RemiBird

New member
Feb 26, 2019
271
3
Remi dips all sorts of things into water to soften it up. Petey, I haven't seen her do that yet.
One time, I parked in front of my work building and there were a few crows on the parking lot. I happened to have some pretzels with me, so I threw some for the crows. One picked up some, went to the nearest rain puddle and started dunking the pretzel in it, lol. It was awesome.
 

fiddlejen

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Mar 28, 2019
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New England
Parrots
Sunny the Sun Conure (sept '18, gotcha 3/'19). Mr Jefferson Budgie & Mrs Calliope Budgie (albino) (nov'18 & jan'19). Summer 2021 Baby Budgies: Riker (Green); Patchouli, Keye, & Tiny (blue greywings).
My Sunny actually likes to dip her SEEDs when eating. Not into either of her water dishes, but into the tower-style backup-water-dispenser with the tiny little area for lapping up water.

She occasionally Deposits her veggies into her large water dish, apparently for decoration, and her pellets she likes dry. She seems to view her Harrison's pellets (actually, the budgies' pellets, which they refused) as something like Doritos - a between-meal crunchy snack.
 

CallumConure

New member
Apr 10, 2019
132
7
Central Minnesota, USA
Parrots
Callum- GCC Hatchday: October 15th, 2016
(nonparrot friends include rats, a dog, and a few reptiles :))
Callum's my weird fid and not only dips his food, but he dips it while hanging upside down. I give him a perch to sit on and everything, but he still clings to the side of his cage, head down, and then dips his food.

Now that’s what I call style :)

Darn it...Is Callum available to teach Ellie some style? How about HRH to each her some class? Do we have a 12 step program for 'uncouth' parrot behaviour...or 'how to make your parrot a true HRH like the most un-humble Lilly Pilly that I can take Ellie through???:D

I'll have to get a picture of Callum doing it. It's kind of funny to watch, honestly.

Callum could teach her! I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Especially if I'm eating. Then he'll stare at me as he dips and eats his food. Water bowl gets very dirty very quickly.
 

Laurasea

Well-known member
Aug 2, 2018
12,593
10,702
USA
Parrots
Full house
Ta-dah loves to make soup with pellets. Makes humane slave clean water bowl every few hours so nasty bacteria grows. I moved the bowl far far away to another Galaxy to try and cut this down, no luck she just commutes with pellets now. Lol didn't decrease the behavior at all, but at least we are both equally irked now !!
 

JWF1602

Member
Jul 7, 2019
39
35
Fountain Hills, Arizona
Parrots
Cinnamon GCC - Camila
Cinnamon GCC - Izzie
Pineapple GCC - Ania
Two out of my three green cheeks are what we like to call “dirty dippers.” In matter of fact, Izzy dunks everything she eats.


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fiddlejen

Well-known member
Mar 28, 2019
1,232
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New England
Parrots
Sunny the Sun Conure (sept '18, gotcha 3/'19). Mr Jefferson Budgie & Mrs Calliope Budgie (albino) (nov'18 & jan'19). Summer 2021 Baby Budgies: Riker (Green); Patchouli, Keye, & Tiny (blue greywings).
Ta-dah loves to make soup with pellets. Makes humane slave clean water bowl every few hours so nasty bacteria grows. I moved the bowl far far away to another Galaxy to try and cut this down, no luck she just commutes with pellets now. Lol didn't decrease the behavior at all, but at least we are both equally irked now !!

Since my Sunny goes to so much trouble to dip all her food into the Tiny drinking-slot of her back-up water-tower, I tried adding Yet Another small water dish to her cage, right beside her food dish.

The result is a new soup-filled water dish. But she STILL insists on reaching, at an impossible angle, to continue to dunk everything into the little millimeters-wide water canal of her back-up water-tower.
 

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