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Found mold on our GCC's sleep cage water bowl - please take care!

FlockofFive

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We found mold on our parrot's water bowl in her sleeping cage! Please learn from our mistake. Summer is a dangerous time for our fids - with increased humidity, the danger for acquiring fungal infections also increase! We decided to post this video to raise awareness.

 

Lady Jane

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Thanks for making the video to help others understand that water in a plastic tube for a bird needs to be cleaned thoroughly every day. I use a SS dish for water and thoroughly clean and change the water throughout the day.
 

Hankmacaw

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My vet insisted very early on (20 years ago) that I use nothing but SS and glass for feeding and watering my birds. Of course, they still have to be scrubbed daily, but there is much less chance of bacteria and fungus growing on them. He told me that many of the birds that he sees that die die from waterborne diseases and neglectful owners.
 

FlockofFive

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Thank you so much everyone! Our vet also let us know that we should keep our unused bowls in a ziplock bag while we are gone to reduce chance of mold build up, which is what we happened to us. This bowl wasn't used while we were traveling (our pet sitter used SS bowls) and when we came back, it had mold on it even though it was thoroughly cleaned before we left :(
 

Nadia Bingo

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Very nice video!

With trying to keep their cages cleans, toys safe and providing attention - it is very easy to miss something like a small amount of mold. I know I've done it before myself (unsafe toy that I forgot to inspect during a routine cage cleaning thank goodness nothing bad happened!).

While I prefer ss bowls I have to use plastic ones for my grey since she has an older cage and that is all that fits in the slots.

Since she obviously needs water 100% of the time (especially since I'm in Arizona!) I bought extra replacement bowls so I can rotate them. That way I can run the bowls through the dishwasher or give them a nice soak when needed.

Bingo originally had ceramic bowls which were dangerous since they had cracks in the glaze that could harbor bacteria. At least the plastic is smooth and I can wash them better.
 

FlockofFive

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Very nice video!

With trying to keep their cages cleans, toys safe and providing attention - it is very easy to miss something like a small amount of mold. I know I've done it before myself (unsafe toy that I forgot to inspect during a routine cage cleaning thank goodness nothing bad happened!).

While I prefer ss bowls I have to use plastic ones for my grey since she has an older cage and that is all that fits in the slots.

Since she obviously needs water 100% of the time (especially since I'm in Arizona!) I bought extra replacement bowls so I can rotate them. That way I can run the bowls through the dishwasher or give them a nice soak when needed.

Bingo originally had ceramic bowls which were dangerous since they had cracks in the glaze that could harbor bacteria. At least the plastic is smooth and I can wash them better.
Thank you for your super informative post! It is nice to know about the ceramic bowls, we will keep that in mind. We also have many SS bowls that we rotate, but our water spouts are plastic. The nice thing about the spouts is it is all one continuous system so there are no spaces that we can miss. Now we put for them the water spouts and the SS bowls, I don't think plastic ones are a issue as long as they are being cleaned every day! The issue with us was that we had left it in our kitchen while we traveled :(
 

Peachfaced

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I have the really thick plastic ones from Lixit (the locking style) and stainless steel. Both birds have 3 water dishes each and I rotate them out through the day. They do have ceramic dishes as well, but they're for bedtime snacks. (...and Sherbie's eggs)
 

Nadia Bingo

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So this post inspired me to do some research about bird bowls.

Did you know that pet bowls are the FOURTH germiest place in your house (per 2011 study)? That really grossed me out.

I gathered up what I could find and made a post about it on my blog.

Most recommendations seem to point to using bleach to disinfect them. Personally I hate bleach...
 

FlockofFive

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So this post inspired me to do some research about bird bowls.

Did you know that pet bowls are the FOURTH germiest place in your house (per 2011 study)? That really grossed me out.

I gathered up what I could find and made a post about it on my blog.

Most recommendations seem to point to using bleach to disinfect them. Personally I hate bleach...
My Goodness. Thank you for this post! Very helpful indeed
So this post inspired me to do some research about bird bowls.

Did you know that pet bowls are the FOURTH germiest place in your house (per 2011 study)? That really grossed me out.

I gathered up what I could find and made a post about it on my blog.

Most recommendations seem to point to using bleach to disinfect them. Personally I hate bleach...
 

Vera

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i use plastic foodbowls and a plastic drinker.
I try to put them in the dishwasher daily/every other day. before i change the food and the water i always clean them with ACV and hot water.
is this good enough?
 

FlockofFive

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i use plastic foodbowls and a plastic drinker.
I try to put them in the dishwasher daily/every other day. before i change the food and the water i always clean them with ACV and hot water.
is this good enough?
Hi! So It is on our youtube description but I realized it doesn't appear here - we clean our water bowls with dishwasher and steam everyday and never had mold growth. What happened was while we were on vacation this bowl was not used, it was cleaned right before the vacation and when we came back it had mold in it - so I think as long as you clean your water bowls daily it shouldn't grow mold. However, if you have multiple water bowls like we do and you haven't used one in awhile, it is good to check it for mold just in case even it has been cleaned right before being put into storage. Hope this helps!
 

Tiel Feathers

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Do you live where it's really humid?
 

FlockofFive

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Do you live where it's really humid?
Normally it's not humid. This year has been very humid and we have had record floods and non-stop rain. There are days where empty the dehumidifier once a day and days where it's emptied 3x. This mold growth occurred when we were on vacation and the petsitter could only empty the dehumidifier once per day. The water container was not used while we were gone. We were just surprised to find mold because we thoroughly cleaned it right before we left.
 
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