Filtered water

[mmeager]

Our tap water is pretty good here, I am also an aquarium nut! So I get to analyse our water chemistry often. But I wanted to use filtered water as drinking water for our IRN. This thread is about two things, first a question, and second a caution.

First the question.
Does anyone know or recommend a good water filter/jug that is guaranteed safe for birds? We live in Australia, so some overseas brands may not be available to us, but if you know of a good brand I can find out if we can purchase here, if not buy online from overseas.

Second, the caution to all!
Which is the purpose of my question.
I went to our supermarket to buy a filtered water jug for our bird, I didn't want to go to the expense or trouble of purchasing a unit for our mains, so I figured a filtered jug would be fine. The unit I bought was a "Brita" Model: Navelia. From the side of the package it looked really good, filtered everything I wanted it to, seemed perfect for my needs. Got it home, washed it, went thru the instructions to get it all ready, all was good, until I read through the fine print at the very last page of the booklet that came with it. Which really concerned me. I could be wrong here, maybe overcautious, so please correct me if so. But, under a headline called "Ultimate hygiene" it stated.

"For hygiene reasons, the MAXTRA cartridge contents are subject to special treatment with silver. A very small amount of silver may be transferred to the water. This transference would be within the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines."

I understand that heavy metals are detrimental for our birds, needless to say I have refused to use it for our IRN.
It might be common knowledge that silver can be used in water filtration appliances, but its something I certainly didn't know.

[liz]

I lived in Archdale NC. The water company even put out a warning about the water. I started buying jugs of water for my pets. I have my own well here and the water tastes fresh so I do not have them on bottled water anymore.

[ParrotsForLife]

I think I have the same brand as you and my birds have been drinking it years I definitely never noticed it

[Wolf]

My water supply is from a spring that has been tapped, but when I moved here the reservoir for it was an old concrete one that had begun to break down putting a very large load of calcium in the water. It was before I had my birds, but was severe enough that it was causing both my cats and dogs to develop stones until I bought and installed a charcoal filter in the water line. This is the only filter that I have ever used and I even quit using it once I had the tank replaced with a plastic one. I have not noticed any problems since that time, but I am really not a big fan of plastics. It was just the best option that I had.

[Pajarita]

I use the gallon jugs one buys in the supermarket - not that this gives me a complete feeling of confidence, mind you, because the water industry is completely unregulated (at least in USA) and this means that they can claim the water is "spring" and be filling the jugs with tap water!

[seagoatdeb]

Silver isnt a toxic mineral to parrots. I had a cordon blue finch once that had a bad beak condition where his beak would grow in such a way that he would be unable to eat and i had to constantly take him to the vet to get his beak trimmed. This was very traumatic for the poor little guy and it happend about once a month. There was nothing the vet could do for the condition other than trim. I had been using colodial silver which is a very old rememdy from before antibiotics were discovered to sterlize surfaces and to kill infections in sores on myself and children and internally for colds and flus. I asked the vet if i could try it on the Cordon Blue and he told me it was non toxic to birds and to go right ahead. I added it to the water and the Cordons beak quit overgrowing. There were no harmfull affects on my cage full of male finches. It is toxic to fish though. Anyway filters that use silver to kill the bacteria are much better for your parrot than the bacteria would be and it is in such small trace amounts that any would be in your water. I am leery about buying jugs of water in plastic containers because of the effects of the plastic bottles leaching into the water, so I always choose filtering my own.

[liz]

We bought an expensive water dispenser like you see in offices. I bought the 5 gallon jugs of spring water and ran it through that machine for all my pets and also the spray for the birds. I am not a clean freak (far from it) but I like to put everything in the shower and scrub it. We had a walk in shower and every cage no matter how large got washed with hot water and dish soap. I then towel dried as much as I could to get the water off.
My critter friends have always come first with me. I used tap water for my coffee.

[seagoatdeb]

Mine come first too. I get up and they are so excited to see me when I get up they insist on it....lol Sunny is always concerned if I leave the room so I am constantly making little whistles so he knows I am okay. I have looked at getting those big jugs of water, but BC water is pretty good,its among the best in the world, so just filtering it is good I think.

[liz]

If I get busy and not be around Rainbow for a while he will use the contact call he does with humans. "Hellloooo". I answer her and she is okay. Myrtle has picked up on that and yells hello.

[seagoatdeb]

When Gaugan wants attention she yells out peekaboo, or Hey Gaugiebird. for some reason sunny has decided to not copy those words from her. Instead he has copied her sweet talk when she is on my knee so i have the two of them saying pretty bird, I love you, your such a good bird etc in a sweet little mushy voice...lol...Sunny has a special cute whistle he ony uses for me, so I think he may have given me a name thats a whistle. Its a whistle I can copy, and I am a bad whistler, so I whistle to him and we whistle back and forth if I am in another room.