waterbottle training...

i generally do not like the idea of water bottles.

but in this case, its a better solution.

munch is difficult in many ways and has consistently been pooping in her water every single day, im not always awake to change it for her 50 times a day (i sleep during the day due to working midnights). i figured a water bottle would be a safer choice than having her sick from pooping in her water.

her water dish isnt under any perches. she literally goes over to it and poops in it. or, she slides it in her cage (its a glass pyrex dish) and then poops in it. i dont know if its intentional or not, but nothing i do is stopping her from doing it. ive moved the dish, ive barracaded it in so she cant move it... nope, she likes to poop in it.

so enough is enough, shes got a water bottle.


but im wondering if my training method will work.

i let her get used to it in her cage for a few days with free access to her normal dish. but then today, i started leaving it only for the morning and taking it out for the day, leaving her the water bottle. i show her the waterbottle and take her out and give her a few drops from it so she associates it with water. then before bed i give back the water dish.

but when i gave her the water dish, she ran to it and downed like 10 beakfuls of water as if she hadnt drank in a week!

what do you all say? anything i should be doing? suggestions for this method, or do you have other ideas?

Actually, my first thought is that maybe a water bottle isn't the best option but rather one of those old fashioned water dishes that you sometimes still see sold for parakeets, where the water is held in a bottle, but instead of a tube with a bead in the end like a bottle, it has a narrow dish, so she could drink in the normal fashion she is used to, but the surface area is so tiny she would have a hard time pooping in it. I can't figure out how to get the right link to paste here from the iPad, but google 'water dispenser for parakeets' and I think you should see what I am talking about.

Now, if you don't want to use one of those, I suggest using target training to teach her to touch the end of the water bottle with her beak in order to get a treat, that may help her catch on. Also, until she is drinking normally from the water bottle, please do not feed her pellets, as pellets are much drier than even seeds and she could get dangerously dehydrated. I suggest an extra wet chop with a lot of cucumbers, grapes, and other watery foods to protect her from the complications of having her food dry her out at the same time she is not getting her normal amount of water.

My only comment is to ask what sort of waterbottle is it, ie is it springloaded or just has a gravity ball in there? I got a new waterbottle for my bunnies and it is springloaded and they could not get the water out of it. They are used to waterbottles, they just couldn't press in the spring or something (same thing happened, they emptied the other bottle and came rushing over to guzzle from it when I refilled it, all the while I was thinking they had another full bottle in there). That's my only suggestion, just make sure it's a mechanism your bird can work. If it's just the loose ball kind, I'd make a game of it, get him to touch it with his beak and reward. Sooner or later he'll have to get the idea that when he touches it his beak gets wet.

@silversage, ive used the tube feeders, i despise them even more. the lovebirds shove allll their food in those and they clog them. otherwise, i would have gone with those.

she wont touch cucumber, but she does like being handfed. i can supplement that way if needed. she likes broccoli, carrots, corn, stuff like that

@strudel, its not springloaded, its just a gravity ball. she doesnt do treats, she dont give a hoot about them lol she has no interest in target training, we've tried in the past. its just a basic water bottle, a small sized one.

DT, back when I first started traveling with work, I had twenty some odd birds & put all my birds on water bottles (gravity ball type) & had 3 complete setups for my birdsitter, so she just swapped out fresh bottles twice a day or whenever else she & her granddaughters would come by.....I got the glass bottle types, thinking the polyethylene types would take too much of a beating in the dishwasher, after a bleach soaking.....I don't remember any of my guys having a problem getting used to the bottles and they were the larger bottles so never had to worry about a bird getting thirsty in the meantime.....

munch is refusing the bottle point blank so far lol hopefully soon she takes to it. shes very stubborn with what she wants and doesnt want. i know shes smart enough to figure it out. but its more i think shes not interested because she doesnt WANT to.

DallyTsuka said:

munch is refusing the bottle point blank so far lol hopefully soon she takes to it. shes very stubborn with what she wants and doesnt want. i know shes smart enough to figure it out. but its more i think shes not interested because she doesnt WANT to.

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Does she like apple, cranberry, orange or any other juice.....put some in a fresh bottle & hold her up to beak it...even if the drop runs down/off her beak, she'll end up tasting it & know it's there.....

You can usually work around obstinate females.....

DallyTsuka said:

because she doesnt WANT to.

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Also, I suppose if "her" dish shows up at the end of the day, she can just hold out for that. I don't know about birds, with dogs and cats you could hold out and they might give in.

Is there NOTHING she thinks is super yummy? Could you stick a sliver of cashew in the end of it? Something?

Instead of the tube feeders, how about the dome feeders? I put my budgies' water in those, it stopped them jumping in their water and pooing in it. Because it's a bigger access it might be harder to clog?

Other than that, my final suggestion is a dineachook chook waterer.

No, my final suggestion is to give him his own way and save yourself a lot of grief. You know he'll win in the end

no no, im not going to live my life outsmarted by her all the time! let me have a second victory here! lol

im trying to think of a drink she may like, but shes hard. she doesnt care for nuts or much things like that as a treat. doesnt like many normal types of treats. and if fingers are offering the treat, the fingers are more interesting.

shes hard to motivate when it comes to food. she doesnt even want millet to eat, she wants it to shred into nest material. which wont happen because we've made so much progress with her chronic egglaying and ive already coped with both a prolapse and egg binding with her. so under no circumstances will i offer a treat of something shredable lol.

i might be able to pull off carrot juice. she does like it and if we get the carrot orange juice my husband and i normally get (and often share with the birds) it wont go to waste (we wont touch straight up carrot juice. yuck)

dome feeders, it'll become a nest. if its enclosed and she can even SEE it, regardless if she can fit inside or not, she becomes hormonal.

trust me, shes the most complicated creature ive ever met.


maybe i can wedge a carrot onto the tip of the bottle LOL she usually loves carrots. blackberries too but dont got any and theyre soooo messy. i dont want the new walls looking like someone's been murdered in her cage...

Boy, you do have a unique household; picky, hormonal 'tiels; 280 day kitty cats.....

Mostly it's our little Munch that makes everything unique lol she's very complicated

DallyTsuka said:

blackberries too but dont got any and theyre soooo messy.

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How about a dab of blackberry jam on the ball? She licks it, water comes out. Rinse and repeat?

Get a pink spout for the bottle - Girls like pink! nyuk nyuk nyuk!

Don't forget, birds really don't drink a whole lot of water, especially smaller ones. I had the same problem, My cockatiel pooped in his water consistently. What I did was at night, i took out the bowl, put fresh water in the bottle, and squeezed it gently so a drop hung out the end a bit early morning (or when you get home probably) leave it like that, squeezing it here and there for a drop of water to be visibly hanging out the end. Around noon id put the water bowl in for an hour, then remove for 3 hours, then in for 1 hr etc (keeping the water bottle in with that little drop hanging the whole time) Trust me, your bird will know what it is, they can see/smell that water. lovebirds especially are very quick, if you turn for just a second you might miss that little sip. Birds really dont drink like other animals. A beakfull every few hours. I just did that for like 2 weeks and i was like.. I'm sure he knows its there. So i took out the bowl completely and monitered him closely for the next 2 days, and problem solved.. I guess it depends on the bird, but they're smart.

i have saskatoon berry jam, is that safe for birds? LOL

i have been leaving a drop at the end. i shall pay closer attention to see how long the drop stays there thanks everyone for the advice so far! im getting some ideas

My other though would be to hide the "bottle" part as much as possible, and make the spout into a toy by puting shredding toys on/around it, etc, so she may "discover" the water there by accident. In the mean time, you might also consider adding a second water dish. My Pionus used to poop in their dish all the time, like it was there for that very purpose. I added a dish on the floor (not under perches) and noticed them still pooping in the original spot, but drinking from the second dish. Eventually I removed the first dish, and they continued pooping in that spot, minus the dish. And the water stayed clean

SilverSage said:

My other though would be to hide the "bottle" part as much as possible, and make the spout into a toy by puting shredding toys on/around it, etc, so she may "discover" the water there by accident. In the mean time, you might also consider adding a second water dish. My Pionus used to poop in their dish all the time, like it was there for that very purpose. I added a dish on the floor (not under perches) and noticed them still pooping in the original spot, but drinking from the second dish. Eventually I removed the first dish, and they continued pooping in that spot, minus the dish. And the water stayed clean

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i have to say absolutely no to the shredder toy option unfortunately. she's a chronic egg layer and shredders trigger her hormones instantly. we've finally got her laying to a minimum this year, so i dont want any more risks with it. as ive mentioned already before ive coped with both prolapse and then egg binding with her. so its imperative she avoids hormones at all costs lol otherwise, it would have been a perfect idea!


you know, im thinking maybe moving the water dish may be an idea, if i can manage to get into her cage to do it

Oh dear! Sorry if you posted that already, the idea just popped into my head so I came and typed it without taking the time to read all the other posts. Any other kind of non-nesty toys might work, mine just prefer to shred so that is my default choice, but none of mine deal with the nesty issues.

SilverSage said:

Oh dear! Sorry if you posted that already, the idea just popped into my head so I came and typed it without taking the time to read all the other posts. Any other kind of non-nesty toys might work, mine just prefer to shred so that is my default choice, but none of mine deal with the nesty issues.

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she likes stainless steel noisy bells and things she can beat up... any ideas of how that could be incorporated into a substitute?

I would take her favorite toy and straight up wire it to the bottle, as close to the end of the tube as possible. Maybe she might even get mad at the tube for being in the way, bite it, and get water Just and idea. You can sire things to the bottle or to the cage bars right by it which might be easier.

hmmm her favourite toy is a 3" stainless steel pipe bell.

the smallest size of these

PT298a Stainless Steel Bell Small, Medium & Large - STAINLESS STEEL

favourite thing to do with it is bash it against the cage bars as hard as she can.