Brilliant Water Bottle Idea Successful!

[Reggie]

As many bird owners do, I subscribed to Drs. Foster and Smith's magazine. It comes in the mail about once a month, and this last time I read it I saw bird water bottles for sale - like the kind for small animals. I decided that would be a fantastic idea since the budgies are constantly dirtying their water, and I can't always sit by the cage to change it the moment it gets dirty. So today when I went to buy them more willow chews and Cooper's seed mix, I also picked up a cheap-o little small animal water bottle for like $4. I thought "Hey, if this works then I'll invest in a great, non-drip one. I just want to make sure they'll go for the idea first."
So I came home and I set it up. I set it up like it normally would be above the water dish they used to use - to avoid dripping on the newspaper. Then I sat back and waited and sure enough my brave little babies were curious and they drank out of it successfully, but each time it would fall over and spook them. So I figured out a - temporary - fix to my problem!
Here are some pictures I have of the rig. The white things are clothless hair-ties my mom let me borrow and they're gonna be replaced by something more sturdy soon. I'll watch closely for tears, beak marks, and chew marks, but I think it's good!

The budgies are already regularly drinking from it, and I think that's awesome! I'm probably going to leave the bowl underneath it to catch a drip until I can order one from Drs. Foster and Smith, but I'm so glad I found a way to provide clean drinking water to them!

 

[MommyBird]

You had your thinking cap on!

 

[WallyLoopey]

Really smart little guys

 

[Monica]

I would have put the water bottle on the outside of the cage, personally! But that's a great temporary setup for now!


Alternatively, you might try putting the water bottle higher... i.e. put it on the outside of the cage and have the spout rest on the horizontal bar right behind it... then use the clip to hold the bottle in place at a higher horizontal bar?

 

[saroj12]

The water bottle should be on the outside. That way if it does fall when they chew on the hairband it won't fall on them and crush them.

 

[JLcribber]

Yeah you've got it installed wrong.

And you must be meticulous about cleaning the spout and inside the tube of that thing because they are notorious for harbouring bacteria.

 

[saroj12]

Yeah you've got it installed wrong.

And you must be meticulous about cleaning the spout and inside the tube of that thing because they are notorious for harbouring bacteria.

how do you clean the nozzle?

 

[MommyBird]

how do you clean the nozzle?

I don't use water bottles, but my hummingbird feeders have that little nozzle and I use one of the dentek interdental cleaning brushes for wide spaces
DenTek Easy Brush Wide | DenTek Oral Care Products

 

[JLcribber]

how do you clean the nozzle?

I stopped using them long ago because you just can't seem to get them clean. Boiling them is one way.

If there's ever a bacterial infection going around your Flock and you can't figure out where its coming from and you use those types of water bottles. That's the first place I'd check.

 

[Reggie]

I would have put the water bottle on the outside of the cage, personally! But that's a great temporary setup for now!


Alternatively, you might try putting the water bottle higher... i.e. put it on the outside of the cage and have the spout rest on the horizontal bar right behind it... then use the clip to hold the bottle in place at a higher horizontal bar?

I'll try that! Fortunately I have one dowel perch left in the cage that I was going to replace when I went to the pet store this last time lol


Oh my goodness I feel so stupid. I've never owned small animals so I didn't actually know how to install it.
@JLcribber I'll try boiling them! I'm not going to have these particular bottles for very long anyhow. But thank you so much for the advice!