Comments | parrots101: Drinking from a Water Bottle

rumorofrain in parrots101

Drinking from a Water Bottle

May 09, 2008 12:12

I decided it would be wise to teach my two caiques to drink from a water bottle as well as a dish, since they go on multi-hour car trips with me several times a year. I've also been trying to think up behaviors that might come in handy in an emergency and teach them those things now - taking liquids from a syringe, being toweled, being held around ( Read more... )

water bottles, training

Comments 9

eterri May 9 2008, 17:15:32 UTC

Clever thinking! :D I love reading about your training adventures.

rumorofrain May 9 2008, 17:43:13 UTC

I'm glad you enjoy them! I don't have anyone else around in real life to talk to about this stuff (other than my partner), so I have to share the joy on the internet. :)

troubleagain May 9 2008, 17:32:07 UTC

Clever you, and clever birdies!

rumorofrain May 9 2008, 17:41:31 UTC

Sometimes they are scary-smart! It makes it awfully fun to live with them, though. I just have to stay on their good side so they keep using their powers for good... ;)

spazzy444 May 9 2008, 18:05:40 UTC

Wow... that was a lot of work! I am really suprised they didn't figure it out on their own. I just switched mine randomly one day and about an hour after I took the bowls out they got the idea - and we're talking tiels.

Mine also seem to prefer to drink from the bottle and play in the bowls.

rumorofrain May 9 2008, 20:29:41 UTC

Oh, it wasn't much work at all! Two minutes of training is NOTHING, in my book.

I didn't take the bowl out because birds can die of dehydration so fast - that's how the budgies I had as a kid died, so I'm pretty paranoid about it.

spazzy444 May 9 2008, 21:24:18 UTC

Ah, it sounded like you spent closer to 15, and I was Thinking "Gah! But your Caquies are so smart!"

I went to a bird show once (as in evaluate my bird, not let me sell you one) and non of the birds (from finches to Macaws) were allowed water from 9am to 5pm. I was so annoyed, but not much you can do about it. All I was told is "2 days w/o water before they will die". Still urked me.

houkie May 9 2008, 19:29:06 UTC

You know, I never thought to do this! I tried for the longest time to get my cockatiels to drink out of glass water bottles, but in the end I gave up and just gave the bottle to my sister to use for her guinea pig. They now drink out of dishes that I change several times a day to keep them clean. I'd still like to get them to drink out of a bottle, though, and now that I've started clicker training, I might have to buy another bottle and try this out!

Thanks for sharing! :)

rumorofrain May 9 2008, 20:31:56 UTC

You're very welcome! That's why I post my own training (mis)adventures - in the hopes that they'll be helpful to others. (Ok, and so I can look back on what I've done. I'm terrible at record-keeping.)

I'm also glad to know that my own birds aren't the only doofuses who couldn't figure out how to drink from a bottle by themselves. ;)