• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

Pooping in their water?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Izzy_Bird

Jogging around the block
Avenue Veteran
Mayor of the Avenue
Joined
10/19/09
Messages
619
Location
Rochester, New York
Real Name
Lisa
Boogie (severe macaw) has started pooping in his water on purpose! At first I thought he had just picked a new favorite place to perch, so I moved his water bowl. I see him purposely go to it and back up and POOP!

Why would he do this??? If he starts trying to flush his bowl I'll die LOL.
 

Renae

Joyriding the Neighborhood
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Joined
11/10/09
Messages
22,128
Location
Australia
:rofl::rofl: flush his bowl.

My Cockatiels used to be the same, I changed their dishes and put them in different places and they haven't done it again. Is it near a perch? if so, might want to place it away from any perch/perches, it gives him an easier and quicker way to get to it.

That's all I can think of doing, someone else will probably have a better idea/better ideas.
 

Emmilyy

Biking along the boulevard
Avenue Veteran
Joined
10/17/09
Messages
5,603
Location
Canada
Real Name
Emily
Man, Higgins does the SAME thing. I have to clean out his bowl SO many times a day! I've moved it, there is NOTHING above it.. He just sits in it and poops in it. Not in the food, just the water.

When you find a solution, let me know, please!
 

Izzy_Bird

Jogging around the block
Avenue Veteran
Mayor of the Avenue
Joined
10/19/09
Messages
619
Location
Rochester, New York
Real Name
Lisa
The weird thing is, I switched his food and water bowls and he didn't poop in his food but went over to where his water bowl now is to go. Then I tried moving the water onto one of the other feeder doors, and he pooped over there too!
 

Emmilyy

Biking along the boulevard
Avenue Veteran
Joined
10/17/09
Messages
5,603
Location
Canada
Real Name
Emily
yep and yep! Going through the EXACT same thing with Sir Higgins! UGH!
 

dorn27

Sprinting down the street
Joined
3/3/10
Messages
440
Location
Wisconsin
Real Name
Kristi
There is a very easy solution to this. :) It's a water bottle. Birds are so smart it's easy to do! If a hamster can learn, surely a parrot can. We all know parrots are smarter than hamsters!

Both my girls are water bottle trained. I started them with cheap green plastic ones from the petstore, hung them near the water bowl and showed them how they worked. Within days they had it down. Now I use glass Snapple bottles and the lixit 'beverage bottle' kit. They're much better quality and if I break a bottle, I just get a new one.

You still should change them daily (I do it every couple days, as I'm a horrible Mommy). You should also check them to make sure they are functioning daily, especially if they were food dunkers. I switch them about as often as I run the dishwasher. I have one spare for each girl, and since I only run the washer every few days (with only 2 people), I only get a clean bottle every few days. Not a good excuse, but its the excuse I've got.

Sunny was a horrible SOUP maker, and often landed poops from above in her water too. She would dump and dump and dump pellets in there. She still makes soup (we call it beak butter for some weird reason), she just loads her beak up with pellets, goes to the water bottle and makes the soup in her bottom beak. She also does this with cherios (though the hole!) and other foods that are dry. She sometimes clogs her bottle, pushing her food and tongue to the tube sometimes leaves pellets in there.

The only thing I can assume is that they like the sound it makes? Or they're using wild insticts to poo in the river which will wash down stream and not reveal where they live?
 

Emmilyy

Biking along the boulevard
Avenue Veteran
Joined
10/17/09
Messages
5,603
Location
Canada
Real Name
Emily
I honestly don't like the idea of water bottles - i beleive that if you offer them, you should offer a water bowl, too. Even if they're dunkers - why take away the dunking privilege if it is something they enjoy to do?
 

Renae

Joyriding the Neighborhood
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Joined
11/10/09
Messages
22,128
Location
Australia
Yeah.. I too don't like water bottles, I wouldn't and haven't even considered them.
 

atvchick95

Biking along the boulevard
Joined
10/16/09
Messages
7,443
Location
Birdie Lane, Indiana
Real Name
Kelli
I don't know if it'll work with Boogie - since he is a bigger bird

but to get my budgies to stop I moved the water dish up towards the roof of the cage and only left space for them to get a drink - they couldn't get their entire body up there to poop in it - that helped a lot

another thing similar to a water bottle (which I tried and my birds REFUSED to use plus they can get clogged and you wouldn't know it) but anyway they work okay, the ones I had were for small birds and leaked( I think i just had some bad ones not many other ppl complained about them leaking)

but they look like these

they make several different shapes/sizes of them



the only other thing I can think of and Some birds Don't like them at all is Covered dishes they can't poop in them (but can poop on them )
 

Emmilyy

Biking along the boulevard
Avenue Veteran
Joined
10/17/09
Messages
5,603
Location
Canada
Real Name
Emily
Man alot of the suggestions here might work for Boogy but i have a hard time picturing them working for Higgins because he has trouble moving around.
 

atvchick95

Biking along the boulevard
Joined
10/16/09
Messages
7,443
Location
Birdie Lane, Indiana
Real Name
Kelli
Man alot of the suggestions here might work for Boogy but i have a hard time picturing them working for Higgins because he has trouble moving around.

the dishes with lids should work for him I used them with my budgies So they'd stop getting in their dish and throwing the food out to play/sleep in the food dish and when I used covered dishes none had poop in them :D

but then we upgraded cages and I moved on to S.S. and now they don't seem to poop in them too much mainly food gets dropped in them but every now and then theres still some poop

my tiels poop in theirs all the time though But Their dishes I can't move up because they hang off the side/door of their cage by their beak and just poop every where - so it doesn't help moving theirs lol
 

JLcribber

@cockatoojohn
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Shutterbugs' Best
Avenue Concierge
Joined
10/16/09
Messages
22,620
Location
Alberta, Canada
Real Name
John
I'm betting it's got something to do with the way he grips the edge of the bowl when he stands on it to take a poo. Try changing the bowl to one with a different design with a thicker/thinner edge/lip on it. Then give him some kind of perch that simulates the edge of that bowl so he can get a similar grip. Worth a try. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top