Hey all I have seen some great and wonderful set ups with all different Ideas and etc.

 

The main thing that has caught my eye is the water feeders - I have noticed that some members use

the water bottles ( like for rabbits and etc)

 

So my questions is How do your birds adapt to using them rather then the normal water dishes??

 

It looks more Hygienic then the dishes?

 

Thanks

On the whole they are good. Hygienic YES. BUT not without problems. Some budgies go to the drinkers with seed on their beaks....sometimes seed ends up just inside the tube and stuffs up the ball valve. While a lot of budgies automatically know what to do to drink from these not all budgies get it and it pays to have both kinds if trialling the bottle drinkers. Also need both kinds in cases of the drinker stuffing up with seed. I use both kinds in my aviary

Edited September 1, 200816 yr by KAZ

in the past i have always had dishes, but when I got Smokey, I decided to go with one of the dropper type ones because i thought it would be a lot nicer for him to always have clean water, adn for me to be confident that if i was out and about a bit with uni and work etc, and not home to check his water dish as often as usual, his water would still be clean. As he was only young when I introduced it to him, he got the hang of it pretty quick. Initially i had dishes in there as well, and during handling time would just pop his beak next to the tube so he'd peck at it - he soon learnt that that is what makes the water come out... now the dropper is his best friend, and sometimes I wonder if I should go back to dishes to reduce his "infatuation" with his dropper!! We haven't had any problems with it clogging up at all, but that's probably becuse ther is only the one budgie using it!

Edited September 1, 200816 yr by CaspersRose

I had one and it got blocked alot but then maybe harley is a messy eater, I would get home and find it blocked or leaking and after a few days I decided to stick witht he water dishes.

okay Neat. I genuinely believe that for your breeding cabinets you will be best off with either the small droppers (100mls approx sold for guinea pig/mice/rat, etc) or 200 ml drinkers. It all depends how often you want to change their water.

 

Stay away from open dishes as they really get messy quickly.

 

For any main aviaries go for the 1L water dropper.

 

I adopted the 200ml drinker simply because they are sold cheaply through our club.

I use dishes and tubes because Sky doesnt know how to use the tubes

I use inverted medicine bottles, which I bought from the pharmacy. I glued some aluminium hooks on them with araldite or make a hook with wire. I drill a small hole in the plastic lid & a water droplet hangs from it. I used to use them for my Canaries before. You have to watch that they are learning to use them at first, but I have found that Budgies are brighter than Canaries in that respect & just about all learn soon how it works, of course the fact that a Budgie can go a lot longer than a Canary without water helps them. I had had trouble with Green algae growing on the inside of the bottle, which wasn’t a problem really as to water quality, but didn’t look too good & made it difficult to see when the water was getting low. I couldn’t find any bottle brushes small enough to clean them. But just the other day a thought came to me, what if I put a bit of sand in the bottle & a small amount of water & shook it. The other day I just put a small amount of earth from the ground to give it a try & it worked perfectly, so now my bottles are nice & clean.

thanks everyone ....for your replies it is something to thing about I might use both

I use inverted medicine bottles, which I bought from the pharmacy. I glued some aluminium hooks on them with araldite or make a hook with wire. I drill a small hole in the plastic lid & a water droplet hangs from it. I used to use them for my Canaries before. You have to watch that they are learning to use them at first, but I have found that Budgies are brighter than Canaries in that respect & just about all learn soon how it works, of course the fact that a Budgie can go a lot longer than a Canary without water helps them. I had had trouble with Green algae growing on the inside of the bottle, which wasn't a problem really as to water quality, but didn't look too good & made it difficult to see when the water was getting low. I couldn't find any bottle brushes small enough to clean them. But just the other day a thought came to me, what if I put a bit of sand in the bottle & a small amount of water & shook it. The other day I just put a small amount of earth from the ground to give it a try & it worked perfectly, so now my bottles are nice & clean.

I clean my bottle tubes with cotton swabs

In my aviaries I have both, bottles on wall and bowls on floor but sitting on stand because my birds love to bath in the bowls which is a pain because I am constantly changing the water because it gets so dirty. BUT they love it so it is fine with me.

Can I ask another question regarding water feeders,

 

Has anyone had any luck with the type that have an inverted bottle, but then the water pools out into a small bowl (as apposed to having a ball bearing in a tube)?

 

The ones they have in the local store have really narrow "bowls" so I assume this would be better than a plain dish for keeping the seed out.

 

I've had a few floods from the ball bearing type when something gets stuck in with the ball bearing, but i don't want to use just a plain dish as I recall they turn into "husk soup" within a very short period.

I have those Hills, I've found them to be quite good but as with the bowls they can get gunked up with husks if you don't keep an eye on them. I normally take a bucket out with me when I do my checks on the birds and tip the little bit of water out of the bowl and le it refill again. If you had them set up in place in the cage/aviary where there wern't many husks flying around they'd be fine, I've been using them in my breeding cages so they get a bit messier in them as they are smaller.

Can I ask another question regarding water feeders,

 

Has anyone had any luck with the type that have an inverted bottle, but then the water pools out into a small bowl (as apposed to having a ball bearing in a tube)?

 

The ones they have in the local store have really narrow "bowls" so I assume this would be better than a plain dish for keeping the seed out.

 

I've had a few floods from the ball bearing type when something gets stuck in with the ball bearing, but i don't want to use just a plain dish as I recall they turn into "husk soup" within a very short period.

 

Never tried the type you're talking about.

 

BUT I fixed the issue of dripping drinkers by attaching a plastic dish to the side of the aviary to catch all drips- works a treat!

 

I used to use 600ml soft drink bottles with a hole in the cap and a wire hook to mount them on the wire.

They are so much better than a water dish.

Also they're very cheap too and you don't have the ball bearing stopper problem.

If the hole in the lid of the bottle cap is small enough the water doesn't leak out of the bottle.

Edited April 11, 200916 yr by Daz
Removed short cut. IMO

Love to see a photo of it?

Sorry about taking so long to post a picture but better late than never....

 

They learn very quickly how to use them, mine came over to investigate as soon as I hung it up and soon learned to drink from it.

 

You need to make sure the hole in the cap is small enough so the water won't come out constantly but big enough so that when they touch their beak to it some water will come out. I make the holes in mine usually by hammering a nail into the lid.

 

You need to make sure the wire hook is around the right part of the bottle otherwise it will spin onto it's side.

 

Thanks for posting your water bottles

i dont know about you guys, but seeing im home alot, i always use dish's, never realy had the need for bottles,

I think those bottles look great! Innovative, cheap and effective!! Well done Linda_S