Dunking food?

[hooligan]

We've always had to keep and eye on Scrubby's water for food floaties. We change it and the container regularly, but she's a messy eater. Lately though, we've been noticing that more and more food is getting in there. Her food and water are a good distance apart, so it's been a mystery how its been happening up until just now.

We noticed that Scrubby will take her pellets out of the dish, walk them to her water, dunk them, and then eat them. Is this normal? Should we be concerned?

[marie83]

It's a parrot thing, they seem to like making soup lol.

Both my conures have done the same no matter how far away I put their water. Only way round it is by using a water bottle but I don't trust a parrot not to drain the bottle.

[hooligan]

Oh okay, good. This sounds ridiculous, but I was worried that she was trying to soften up her food for some reason and that the pellets were too hard

[terri]

I always thought they were softerning too?

[liz]

I don't like water bottles. It takes them too long to get a good drink.

Rambo is a dunker. The first day I had him he picked up a cracker and dunked.

I just check it when I walk by to see if it needs changed.

[hooligan]

I always thought they were softerning too?

Maybe they are! It seems like they're still crunchy when she eats them, but I'm not 100% sure. I have no idea how she even discovered this because we don't have any other birds, and like I said, she really does have to carry the pellets a good ways to get them to her water dish.

We have a water bottle but never set it up. The opening to the bottley part is really narrow, so (if we did use it) I'm not sure how we would go about cleaning it thoroughly.

I guess, the only solution is to check her water bowl every time I'm at the cage!

[marie83]

They may be softening the food I guess but I know mine will dunk anything even if it is already soft so I figured they were just being messy or making their own fun in the way a toddler would (mud pie anyone??)- experimenting and exploring their world.

[cmaygar]

My 2 GCCs love to make "parrot soup" in their water bowls so I have fresh water always available for them in water bottles. In addition to dunking food, they also love to bathe in their water bowls quite a bit so I change their water a few times a day to try to keep the water fresh. My amazon also is a dunker and this is normal parrot behavior.

[hooligan]

Haha! Scrubby used to take baths in her water dish too. That was ridiculous to clean up after all the time.

She responds really well to praise though, and we got her to the point where she only wants to take baths in a special dish or in the sink. Sometimes she'll let us know it's bath time by reaching for the dish or standing in it before its filled with water

[cmaygar]

Haha! Scrubby used to take baths in her water dish too. That was ridiculous to clean up after all the time.

She responds really well to praise though, and we got her to the point where she only wants to take baths in a special dish or in the sink. Sometimes she'll let us know it's bath time by reaching for the dish or standing in it before its filled with water

I love the GCCs. They are such friendly and amusing little birds. Mine will thoroughly drench themselves in the water bowl usually at least once a day (that I see). The bowls are in a fairly high position in the cage and locked in from the back so they can't tip the bowls. It doesn't make a mess so I let them do this.