Do your birds "dunk" their food in water??

Mare Miller

Banned
Banned
May 14, 2011
1,260
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2
3
sierra foothills of central California
Parrots
13yr. old male umbrella cockatoo,
we call him Amigo!

7yr. old Goffin cockatoo, she IS Sassy!!
The only time I've ever seen this behavior, from a bird, was when I was young and watching my mom's ducks eat. They would dip their mouths into water while eating.

Well, my goffin, Sassy does this. Is that normal?
 

Mozzie

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Mar 20, 2012
562
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4
0
Utah
Parrots
African grey (peppers)
Blue crown conure (Mozzie)
Sun conure (sunny)
Jenday conure (Bo)
Blue fronted amazon (Casey)
Our Conures and Amazon dunk their food. It's funny to watch. I have to change their water Lots because of it though.
 

cdog

New member
Feb 20, 2012
1,489
0
Newbury Park, CA
Parrots
Sully-2 year old cinnamon and Bella-3 year old normal
breeding pair of gcc, Scooter & BeeBee-Sully and Bella's normal son's, Rosey- Bella and Sully's cinnamon daughter, Ella & Sunny-American budgies
All five of mine do it! Sully will take banana chips and drop them in the water for a few seconds then bob for them. He also takes one bite out of his dried papaya and drop it in the water, its so weird he does it with every pieces he just takes one chunk out and drops it in.
Rosey is the worst, I moved her water to the other side of the cage from her pellets but she still carries it across her cage to make birdy soup.
 
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Mare Miller

Mare Miller

Banned
Banned
May 14, 2011
1,260
Media
2
3
sierra foothills of central California
Parrots
13yr. old male umbrella cockatoo,
we call him Amigo!

7yr. old Goffin cockatoo, she IS Sassy!!
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #4
It's so funny to me! I've never seen Amigo do this, I'm glad to here this is a pretty normal behavior, thanks!
 

KatherineI

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Mar 27, 2012
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Seattle, WA
Parrots
Loki (GCC) Sugar (Goffins)
Yep, Loki is a persistent dunker!

Sugar, rarely dunks. What she does do, is chew in a toy while chewing on her pellet. No idea why she does this, but she has to chew while chewing!! :20:
 
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Mare Miller

Mare Miller

Banned
Banned
May 14, 2011
1,260
Media
2
3
sierra foothills of central California
Parrots
13yr. old male umbrella cockatoo,
we call him Amigo!

7yr. old Goffin cockatoo, she IS Sassy!!
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #6
Yep, Loki is a persistent dunker!

Sugar, rarely dunks. What she does do, is chew in a toy while chewing on her pellet. No idea why she does this, but she has to chew while chewing!! :20:


That is sooo funny! Definitely characters!
 
Last edited:

MikeyTN

New member
Feb 1, 2011
13,296
17
Antioch, TN
Parrots
"Willie"&"Lola"B&G Macaw,
"Dixie"LSC2, and "Nico" Scarlet Macaw.
I see more of the smaller toos dunk their food more so then larger toos. Dixie does it too, everyday!!! Java don't do it at all, thank goodness.....
 

mcw009

New member
Apr 21, 2011
149
0
VA
Parrots
Icarus the Moustached Parakeet, Smudge, Pudge (RIP), and Floki the Budgies
My budgies don't but my parakeet sure does. Even when the food bowl was on the opposite corner as the water.
But he only does this with pellets. Fresh foods and seeds are ready to eat.
 

greycloud

New member
Mar 21, 2010
1,034
1
Baltimore, MD
Parrots
Sammy-Umbrella Too-rescued,
Dexter-CAG-rehomed handicapped,
Sterling-CAG-rehomed retired breeder.
Sunshine-12 yo CAG-adopted
Mine are not food dunkers very often, but boy can they make a beautiful wood soup! :)
 

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Molcan2

New member
Jul 19, 2011
783
1
Lake Co., Florida
Parrots
Princess Rome- Moluccan Cockatoo (18yrs old), Rosie - Galah/Rose Breasted Cockatoo (2yr old)
Rome always dunks her food in her water dish when shes eating. One time there was a fortune cookie behind the sink, she grabed it and put it in her dish wrapper and all.
 

lene1949

New member
Sep 26, 2011
1,701
1
Brisbane, Australia
Parrots
Cory: Short billed Corella -
Echo: Galah -
Max: Alexandrine -
Skye: Yellow Sided conure -
Luka: Green Cheek Conure -
RIP Shrek: Quaker
Pellets here always get 'dunked/soaked' in water... The first time I experienced it, was with my quaker, Shrek... I could never understand, why his water got dirty so quickly...

After so much more experience with parrots, I realise they do, what my parents did... Dunk the hard bits... :p
 

solobaby

New member
Jul 14, 2011
223
0
Parrots
Solo(indian ringneck)-Marley(green cheek conure)- Dobby (cockatiel)
my conure is a champion dunker
 

friedsoup

New member
May 5, 2012
503
1
North Carolina
Parrots
Senegal Male Bogart
Bogart dunks his pellets but not often but his Chinesse fortune cookies always gets a dunk which does wonders for the fortune. hehehe.
 

suncon97

New member
Jul 31, 2011
506
0
Parrots
Pearl-African Grey-Hatched Apr. 28,2011
Pearl always dunks her food but she seems to be getting away from the habit lately.
 

thebirdnerd

New member
Dec 28, 2010
140
0
Parrots
Whitefaced Pied Male Tiel- official greeter at the Rainbow Bridge, forever in our hearts,
Turquoise Mutation IRN,
Congo African Grey- please come home to us,
Blue mutation IRN
My CAG and IRN dunk their pellets all the time...They dunk as fast as I can change the water
 
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Mare Miller

Mare Miller

Banned
Banned
May 14, 2011
1,260
Media
2
3
sierra foothills of central California
Parrots
13yr. old male umbrella cockatoo,
we call him Amigo!

7yr. old Goffin cockatoo, she IS Sassy!!
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #20
My husband was eating chips and salsa, Sassy comes and grabs a chip, runs/hops/flies up to her cage and drops it in her water dish! Comes back for one more and then proceeds to fish them out to eat! Awfully cute! Yeah, the water needs changing often around here, too!
 

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