by Maria » Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:55 pm
My parrot dunks his fruit blend pellet food sometimes simply to soften up the food only, so that he can eat it better. Only because at times he wants it a little softer. Other times, he eats this fruit blend pellet food without dunking it in the water at all, so he eats it hard. When he dunks it, he keeps the pellet in his mouth, softening it up with the water, so that he can then chew it, eat it, ingest it. His other maintenance pellets, the brown ones, he does not dunk into the water at all, because they seem a bit softer, and easier to break with his beak.
I don't see a problem with him dunking his pellets at all. I'm also very concsious about changing the water to fresh water daily, and sometimes twice a day, with washing the bowl thoroughly. General rule, if you wouldn't drink the water, don't make your parrot drink it. Keep it clean. Food particles in water is also just another thing aiding standing water to grow bacteria, when standing water by itself, grows bacteria anyway, thus why you have to change the water everyday anyway.
My parrot shop owner, an avian specialist, told me to avoid poop getting in the feeding or water bowls, tie a toy in the corner of the cage, above the bowls, blocking the bird from hanging out over them, giving them another perch to hang out on elsewhere in the cage, with a toy hung by this perch, making the bird a new hang out. Worked like a charm. No more poop in bowls. Problem solved. My parrot loved to hang on the cage bars, in the corners of the cages, which was right above & close to where the bowls are. I hung wooden block type toys in those corners, securing them with sisal rope tied around them even further, so they couldn't be moved by him, tying the knots on the outside of the cage. I put him a new little door perch (perch on inside of his door, with little toy(s) there), where he now loves to hang out. At first, he was climbing around those toys hung in the corners of the cage, trying to get use to this new idea, trying to get into the corners, realizing he couldn't anymore. Then he didn't even try anymore, and is content and happy with his added perch, on the door. He has other perches too, on different sides and in the back of the cage, which he's always gone to from time to time as well. The back corner is where the water bowl is, but he never hung out hanging in that corner on the bars, like he did the front two corners. The front two corners are where the other two food bowls are close to. Those front two corners are where he'd hang out, hanging on the bars alot; those are the two bowls, therefore, which were getting the poo, but never the water bowl in the back. This relates to him wanting to be on/around the front side of the cage alot, because it's the side which is closest to me - which is also why he's very happy and content with his door perch, and loves his new hang out there now. Once I put up the door perch, he started sleeping on it too, instead of the one in the back of the cage, because it's closest to me. The door perch is put at the same level as his sleeping perch in the back of the cage. Birds will go to the highest perch to sleep.
Outsmart them, be one step ahead of them, think about how your cage is set up, give them a new hang out, and it will solve the problem.
Water bottles still have to be cleaned & the water changed in them daily, as they also harbor bacteria.
Maria