Dangers of stone in water?

[Nuburdman]

I plan to make a bird bath from my birds, budgies, that’ll be deeper than ideal (about 3”) due to the use of a small filter that’ll be functioning as a small shower head.

I plan to add some sort of flat stone as a bathing platform in order to reduce the depth for the birds to only about 1”.

Has anyone had any issues with stone leaching metals or other potentially harmful chemicals into their birds water? Should I just keep the depth as is and not worry about providing a shallow bath?

 

[Tazlima]

I'd suggest using those smooth glass pebbles they sell for use in fishtanks. Back when I was raising quail, I used them in the babies' water bowls so the babies could drink by dipping their beaks in the little gaps between the rocks, but also safely walk across them without drowning. (They're very clumsy at that age).

It worked well and the glass pebbles were easy to clean with dish soap.

Here's a photo. For adult birds, you could obviously leave the water deeper than pictured here.


And here's a link to the sort of pebbles I mean.

https://www.amazon.com/FuturePlusX-Marbles-Premium-Aquarium-Pebbles/dp/B07DPMBGL2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?adgrpid=56794984260&hvadid=274839328953&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9025143&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7145105679842886171&hvtargid=kwd-297108005445&hydadcr=12188_9467457&keywords=fish+tank+marbles&qid=1704937803&sr=8-1