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A Few Things to Consider

Lady Jane

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Frequently, products for parrots become popular among parrot owners due to convenience, despite the fact that their use can put the birds at risk. Two of these are water bottles and harnesses. I have never been a fan of either.


Water bottles can harbor dangerous bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, if not cleaned properly. They should be disinfected with a bleach solution weekly to remain safe and the nozzle cleaned with a pipe cleaner regularly. A second danger exists when the nozzle malfunctions, such as when a piece of food becomes lodged inside. I personally have known of birds who died when the bottle ran dry and this wasn't noticed in time.


Granted, a dirty open bowl of water can be hazardous too. However, it takes less work to provide clean water in a bowl than it does to properly maintain a water bottle. And, one last argument tips the scales for me. How sad is it to limit a parrot's natural right to fresh water to tiny drips coming from a man-made contraption?


Regarding harnesses, I think that most people use them to increase quality of life for their birds - to expand their social experience and get them out into the fresh air and sunshine. This is certainly a worthy goal.


However, I know few people who actually train the bird to wear a harness, a process which can be difficult. Instead, they use force to get the harness onto the bird. The stress this causes damage to the relationship and can cause issues with aggression. The danger, however, comes when the parrot gets loose and ge








Love,
Pam
 

saroj12

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totally agree. After 12 years i took away J&C's water bottle and now they happily bathe in their water bowl!
 

Zara

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Interesting read.

I use the external bottles, but not with the tube. It´s like a small dish to drink from(you will know the one I mean). I used to use bowls and it gets messy so quick. Jaime and Sydney are terrible for wetting paper in there and contaminating it. I wash them daily and disinfect them every 2 days.
My younger two have a SS water bowl, but they don´t bathe in it. They like to bathe in the Ikea picnic plates in the morning with their mum and dad :)

Sydney wears a harness. We surprisingly sped through the process, he was fine getting it on. I´m working on stopping him chewing it, but I always have a carrier to put him in should I notice he is about to break away.
I tried 2 times with Adelie to wear the harness, and it was a whole new ball game. I have given up on that idea.
I have also heard of birds that were actually in the harness on their owners shoulder that have GE.
I never take Sydney out alone, my man always comes with us, and we go to a place where there´s not too many trees so we can see a good distance.
 

hrafn

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I definitely agree that people need to listen to their birds and work with them when it comes to harnesses. Not every bird will willingly wear one, and forcing them into something scary and uncomfortable is only detrimental to their emotional well-being.

I lucked out with Taco in that he happily accepted his harness with minimal effort on my part, but I learnt quickly that Aurélie will have nothing to do with harnesses, and that trying to harness train her was only frightening her more. Now she goes on her outings in a nice little soft-sided carrier, and she loves it.
 

Ripshod

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I use silo style drinkers for my birds. But at the end of every day they get removed along with anything that has had food or water in it and everything gets steam steralised. Water gets changed 3 or 4 times a day and no food stands for more than a couple of hours. Egg just 1 hour. Basically every bird gets treated like a newborn baby.
If I'm not home a neighbour pops in and sorts it for me, and she treats her tiel exactly the same.
 

Lady Jane

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How do you steam steralize? I had to do that 54 years ago to glass baby bottles for my twins when they were born. What a chore that was! Then I had to sterilize the formula.
 

Ripshod

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How do you steam steralize? I had to do that 54 years ago to glass baby bottles for my twins when they were born. What a chore that was! Then I had to sterilize the formula.
I use an old medical autoclave I got from a dentist's stripout. Because it's under pressure the steam can hit 130C. I did use a baby bottle steraliser at first but I didn't trust it and as you said it was quite a task.

*edit* Forgot to mention I never go over 105C when plastics are in there, but sometimes I still have to reshape some pieces.
 
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Kodigirl210

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Unfortunately not every bird can be taught to use a bowl. I tried several times to get Sif to drink from a bowl but inevitably it fails. I believe it’s due to the blindness. Since it began with one eye, she seemed to shy away from putting her head down into water due to not being able to judge the depth of the water. The only thing she would drink water from is a water bottle.



Because it so cold right now, I change the water bottle 1-2x a week. As it gets warmer, I will clean it more frequently.



And yes, for a while I kept trying to introduce her to a bowl, but as the blindness increased, her frustration level did as well exponentially. Sif does eat from a bowl as the food can’t “drown” her but I notice even in the bowl with the pellets-she often pushes her beak down until it hits the bottom before picking a pellet up.



Our GCC had a different issue. Water in a bowl is strictly for cleaning for her. I am not sure why it is that way, but again after several times of trying to get her to drink from a bowl, we switched to a bottle for her as well. Maybe it’s because her big sister drinks from a bottle, I honestly don’t know and completely willing to admit that.



Neither bird seems to suffer from using a bottle and there would be no other way to get them to drink, if we took the bottles away. I know that we have to be especially vigilant as it gets warmer but the fact is if rather have them drink from a bottle than not at all.



As for the harnesses, we got ones that were strictly for outings. They are made to drop over a bird’s head and then just velcro behind the wings. It’s fast and not nearly as convoluted as an aviator. At first neither bird was bothered by them. I think we just didn’t have opportunity to use them enough and now they seem a little resistant to it. We will work on it again once it gets warmer but it definitely nothing we will ever force. If they end up wanting nothing to do with the harnesses then that’s the way it will roll. :)
 

Zara

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They are made to drop over a bird’s head and then just velcro behind the wings.
Do they make super small ones? Sounds much less fiddly! :)
 

Zara

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@Kodigirl210 That looks great. Sydney is about 50g but looks the same sort of size.
Love the pic of Sif btw!❤
 
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Lady Jane

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When I was a nurse working in the OR the autoclave was the sterilizer. We carried big trays of instruments and eventually my hands gave out.
 
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