Rinsing/soaking food?

[snake_girl85]

I've had Rio the GCC home for about a week now, and he is settling in quite well He loves his new cage, taunts the cats, and loves the radio! (We have 3 or 4 alarms set so he gets radio time throughout the day when we are at work). I haven't had time to get any decent pictures, but once I do I will get them posted.

I am switching him over to pellets with some success. I got a great deal on zupreem fruit blend, and he seems to finally like them, although he will only eat the red and green round pellets, and leaves the yellow banana shaped pellets behind. Too funny!!

Ever since I brought him home, he has started rinsing or soaking his pellets in his water, even though he has to go across the cage to do so. He has a water crock like this - PETCO Twist & Lock Crock at PETCO since he loves to bathe every 3 or 4 days. I never saw him put food in his water at the shelter... It's pretty cute, but the water gets nasty QUICKLY, even if I change it twice a day. He bathed in the dirty water the other day, and had a funky smell for a while. I tried putting a smaller water bowl next to the food, but he then put food in both of them.

I could try him on a water bottle I suppose, but he loves his baths and I never know when he wants one, so I'd hate to take away his "swimming pool." I've tried getting him interested in shallow water dishes outside of the cage, but he ignores them. I tried misting him with water yesterday, and he didn't freak out, but I still don't think he liked it. Any advice? This is my first bird, and he is also in the process of molting, so any helpful tips for dealing with that would be appreciated

 

[Nakiska]

Awww...he sounds soo cute!

I know our Franklin soaks things that he finds to hard, I thought...wow! Smart bird And he likes to bathe in his water dish too.

He especially dips and dunks banana chips and some nuts when he has them, and his water get's nasty really quick too. I'm in and out a lot through the day, and home during the summers (school bus driver) so it's no big deal for me to change it every few hours if needed.

I've heard of people trying to switch over to waterbottles, but their birds continued to stuff their pellets or what ever into the waterbottle.

You might want to keep the dish and add a waterbottle that he MIGHT save for only drinking.

Good luck

Toni

 

[Steph]

Birds can drink from rodent water bottles right? One of my birds does the same thing with his water and I considered getting him one of those rodent water bottles with the balls that they lick. Are those safe? I thought I read somewhere that they were okay.

 

[Printer bird]

You can try the waterbottle but I know my parrotlet discovered it was great fun to press on the ball and release all the water at once. My vet said the water food soup was OK as long as it was changed regularly so don't worry about it too much. Since you've only had your bird for a week, don't worry too much about the baths. You will eventually get him to bathe outside the cage or in a water dish. It just takes some trying to figure out what works best. My GCC loves to bathe in the kitchen sink. He motors around in there chatting to the water. He will occasionally bathe in his water dish but not super often.

Enjoy getting to know your GCC!

 

[Scotty T]

I've owned many birds and I haven't met a bird yet that doesn't soak it's food in it's water.

 

[HRH Di]

Can you put another water bowl in his cage? Maybe if he has options, he'll use one for dipping and one for bathing.

I personally don't like the water bottles because I think that they're difficult to keep clean.

 

[Adz]

Loco drives me nuts with is water, he is obsessed with dropping things in it. He'll spend hours climbing to the bottom of his cage, carrying up the kitty litter pellets (recycled paper) from the bottom and dropping them in the water. Go figure...