How to teach a parrot to use a water bottle?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

How did you get your bird to drink from his or her bottle? Scooter's has been in the cage for several weeks now and I've given a few demos, but he doesn't seem to be using it. How can I encourage him to do so, short of removing his water dish entirely and hoping desperation works?

[Michael]

...short of removing his water dish entirely and hoping desperation works?

Actually that is pretty much the way.

Figure out how many times a day your parrot drinks and when. For instance I know that Kili drinks water after eating pellets in the morning. So then your best bet is to not provide water a particular morning at all. After meal, hang water bottle and put your parrot on perch accessing it. Click the bead with your finger to allow a bit of water to hang off the tip of the bottle. Hold your parrot so that it's beak touches the water. Once it figures out this is a source of drink, you should catch an observation of it drinking it.

Depending on how much water your parrot needs, try to go increasingly longer durations between offering water in a dish briefly in case it didn't get enough from bottle. So do it on a weekend or day your home all day. Leave water bottle all the time but offer water in dish every hour. If it's not drinking it then offer in increasingly longer spans (as backup to bottle). Also be sure to fill water bottle to the very top so a bubble can form in the top if water has been consumed to cue you that the bird has been drinking. For a few days phase out the offerings of water dish, especially if the bird is spotted drinking from bottle on its own or it never seems to want to drink from water dish.

Basically be careful, but don't expect the parrot to transition to bottle until the water dish is taken out. Offer water in dish and see how thirsty parrot is through its anxiousness to drink. If it never seems to want it, then it is probably drinking from bottle instead.