What type of water do you feed your parrots?

[Ninjette]

What type of water do you feed your parrots?
Thanks!

 

[Christinenc2000]

I use bottled spring water. I have a water softener on my house so I know its not good for my bird.

 

[Ninjette]

If not bottled, is tap water ok? or boiled water?

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

I have a Britta filter on my kitchen faucet, I just use that to filter Zilla's water.

 

[labell]

I have a Berkey water filter. Filters last a super long time (years!) and it is by far the best tasting water I have ever had! I give it to my dogs and parrots. There is an awesome review on youtube of it where the guy puts all sorts of nasty water through it and it filters it to super clean great tasting water. It won't remove salt as from ocean water but everything else, yep pretty much! While it was expensive in the beginning it has more than paid for itself, one of the splurges (including my Vitamix) that I have absolutely no regrets over and would do reviews and commercials for those two products anytime for free!

I suggest you also go to their website and poke around as they have many different sizes depending on your needs I have the "Big Berkey".

 

[Christinenc2000]

I have a Britta filter on my kitchen faucet, I just use that to filter Zilla's water.

I actually have one of those in the kitchen. I was not sure if it was safe or not. Thanks

 

[weco]

As long as your tap water is potable, whether you like the taste of it or not, it is safe for your feathered friends to drink, but if you are planning a vacation or trip where you will be taking your flock, be sure to carry a bottle of whatever water your bird is used to drinking or they may refuse to drink something that tastes different than what they are used to...and...if you use bottled water at home, don't expect the same brand you use in Georgia to taste the same if bought in NYC or Chicago or Texas.....the only thing that's the same is the brand.....

Oh, and your bottled spring water...do you have a certification that it is spring water or do you collect/bottle it yourself? If not, don't make any bets on it being spring water.....

 

[labell]

As long as your tap water is potable, whether you like the taste of it or not, it is safe for your feathered friends to drink, but if you are planning a vacation or trip where you will be taking your flock, be sure to carry a bottle of whatever water your bird is used to drinking or they may refuse to drink something that tastes different than what they are used to...and...if you use bottled water at home, don't expect the same brand you use in Georgia to taste the same if bought in NYC or Chicago or Texas.....the only thing that's the same is the brand.....

Oh, and your bottled spring water...do you have a certification that it is spring water or do you collect/bottle it yourself? If not, don't make any bets on it being spring water.....

Not being argumentative but I must disagree, here is a very small list of some of the many things that can be present in your tap water imo not even small amounts of these are okay no matter what the gov tries to tell you!
Giardia
Bromate
Chlorite
Chlorine
Arsenic
Asbestos
Lead
Cadmium
Copper
Cyanide
Fluoride (really BAD no matter what your dentist tells you!)
Lead
Mercury
Nitrate
And too many more to list....
I don't want this crap in my body I certainly don't want it in the much smaller bodies of my pets.

 

[weco]

Labell, also not trying to be argumentative, but if you are saying that you believe in the quality of bottled water, you might want to read the information offered at this link: NRDC: Bottled Water and it is not written by a government agengy, the OP asked esentially about bottled water or tap water and my post was that if it is potable, it was safe to drink by your birds....."potable" is generally defined as water safe to drink and that was all I said, now whether or not you have an aversion to drinking government/city/townsihp supplied water, maybe you should more clearly elusidate exactly what you propose/suggest rather than simply jump into a thread challengeing proffered information ! ! !

If you re-read my reply, the only specific suggestion I made was to use bottled water from the locale you normally provide your bird's water from as it has been proven "by non-government analysis" that the vast majority of bottled water is merely bottled from little more than oversized versions of Christinen's & Amanda's plug-on filters because there is a taste difference from one part of the country to another, especially where water is sources from hard water, soft water and/or saltwater originating aquifers.....

If I had the time to do a little extra researching, I would be happy to provide you with further links to support my contention against your post, but I have been invited to dinner, which brings me to ask whether you carry your own bottle of acceptable water or other drinking liquid to a dinner invitation? Just wondering ! ! !

 

[getwozzy]

Even though we get our water via our own water well, we use bottled spring water.

Our well water is nasty AND it's majorly treated with a softener so the only things we use that water for is laundry, dishes, bathing, etc. I don't even let Chili take a shower with me because I don't want her coated with salt and whatever other chemicals the water is treated with. Blech!

 

[henpecked]

IMO the average home owner has 2 basic choices. Tap , "City" water or store bought filtered water. Bottled spring water would be a good choice but i'm not sure it is what they say (and exspensive). If using bottled water from the store, most filtered by RO (reverse osmosis). The issue with RO water is EVERYTHING has been removed. In fact they have to add minerals to make it taste good. This water is OK for birds but doesn't supply many trace minerals found in "normal" water and long term they could suffer deficiencies. An issue i had with my aviary birds and their water system. Yes the "city " water has chlorine, fluorine, etc. in it to make it safe from bacteria. This can be over come by letting it "set". 24 hrs is enough time to let the chemicals evaporate out. This is my method of watering the birds,dogs,etc. A 1 gallon container with a large open surface area would be great for this purpose. I use wide mouth "pickle" jars or in the case of the aviary, a 5 gallon bucket. I fill one every day and use the one from the previous day.In the case of well water i collect it before the water softener and add a small amount of Clorox. Again i let this "set" for 24 hrs before using it to let the chlorine evaporate. PS i would recommend the ratio of Clorox to water but this depends on the bacteria count in your well, something a local lab could help you with.

 

[Birdman666]

Mine get Tap water.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Bottled water for mine. My tap water is GROSS. :32:

 

[labell]

Labell, also not trying to be argumentative, but if you are saying that you believe in the quality of bottled water, you might want to read the information offered at this link: NRDC: Bottled Water and it is not written by a government agengy, the OP asked esentially about bottled water or tap water and my post was that if it is potable, it was safe to drink by your birds....."potable" is generally defined as water safe to drink and that was all I said, now whether or not you have an aversion to drinking government/city/townsihp supplied water, maybe you should more clearly elusidate exactly what you propose/suggest rather than simply jump into a thread challengeing proffered information ! ! !

If you re-read my reply, the only specific suggestion I made was to use bottled water from the locale you normally provide your bird's water from as it has been proven "by non-government analysis" that the vast majority of bottled water is merely bottled from little more than oversized versions of Christinen's & Amanda's plug-on filters because there is a taste difference from one part of the country to another, especially where water is sources from hard water, soft water and/or saltwater originating aquifers.....

If I had the time to do a little extra researching, I would be happy to provide you with further links to support my contention against your post, but I have been invited to dinner, which brings me to ask whether you carry your own bottle of acceptable water or other drinking liquid to a dinner invitation? Just wondering ! ! !

Un-wad your panties please, do you work for the public water department or something? I actually meant it when I said I wasn't trying to step on your toes, only point out things that I have researched and looked into. I never said anything about bottle water as I don't trust that any more than tap water. Which is why I filter my own after doing extensive research and looking at various reviews of different water filtration systems.

As for your snarkey question of whether I bring my own water to dinner invitations I'll ignore that and assume maybe you are grouchy from not eating dinner yet! Sheesh... I was just pointing out that tap water is not always the safe water most people think it is. If you read both our posts I never made this personal against you... can't say you showed me the same respect. Though I will be a big girl and apologize if you took what I wrote the wrong way.

By the way the OP did not give the options of only tap and bottled but asked what water in general.....

 

[RavensGryf]

Mine get Tap water.

Mine used to drink tap for decades... Robin is still alive lol.

Now we have a sink attachment - Pur water filter. I'd imagine when the filter cartridge ran out (red light) and didn't yet buy a new one, we were ALL drinking tap pretty much for a week or so haha.

If you want to give your birds, dogs, family the best you can get, then of course it's optimal for any living being, no one can argue with that . Even good for plants! But to put the OP's original question simply, yes it's fine. Look what wild parrots have to drink... blechh!!

 

[Ninjette]

I wonder if boiled water is ok if I don't have a filter for now. My dogs and I'm drinking boiled water, and the birds drink tap. Their previous owners fed them tap water, but I do wanna switch them to boiled water or better alternatives

 

[labell]

I wonder if boiled water is ok if I don't have a filter for now. My dogs and I'm drinking boiled water, and the birds drink tap. Their previous owners fed them tap water, but I do wanna switch them to boiled water or better alternatives

I wouldn't use boiled water even one of those smaller portable Britta water filters would be a better option and not too expensive.

 

[weco]

If you're boiling your water to purify it that's one thing, but if you're boiling to remove heavy metals, you might want to look at filtering your boiled as just boiling doesn't remove heavy metals.....look at distilling processes.....

 

[Ninjette]

Thanks, I will look into getting a filter

 

[ZephyrFly]

Mine get Tap water.

Mine used to drink tap for decades... Robin is still alive lol.

Now we have a sink attachment - Pur water filter. I'd imagine when the filter cartridge ran out (red light) and didn't yet buy a new one, we were ALL drinking tap pretty much for a week or so haha.

If you want to give your birds, dogs, family the best you can get, then of course it's optimal for any living being, no one can argue with that . Even good for plants! But to put the OP's original question simply, yes it's fine. Look what wild parrots have to drink... blechh!!

I must admit I fall here. They drink much less pure water in the wild in general, I don't know anyone here who's had problems with their parrot, or any other pets, drinking tap water.
I don't think there's much difference between UK government handled water and US.