Water Bottles - Read This Before You Get One!

[Kevin]

A Water Bottle For Your Bird

Article: FreedomFlight

Are you considering buying a water bottle for your bird, but don't know what to look for? When buying a bottle for a parrot, you must consider the following:
- durability
- safety
- ease of use
- size

The size of the bottle is very important- consider the size of the bird, size of the beak, in comparison to the size of the bottle and spout. You don't want to spend twenty or more dollars on a bottle that you later find out to be suited for a canary, when your bird is an amazon! You also want to consider what the bottle is made of. The cheaper alternatives are made of plastic in varying ranges of thickness. While plastic bottles may be OK for smaller birds, birds with larger beaks are more apt to do serious damage to the bottle. Look into the heavy duty glass bottles (that normally resemble old milk bottles) for birds larger then a budgie.

You also want to make sure that the spout is made of a bird safe material. Some of the cheaper bottles are plastic spouts, and something you do not want to risk is your bird being able to bite right through the spout and flooding its cage. Look for bottles that are outfitted with stainless steel spouts.

Is the bottle easy to use? Some bottles appear to be ok, but then the ball sticks or is hard to manipulate within the spout, restrcting water flow. Other bottles may be easy for the bird to use, but hard for the human to change out on a daily basis. Even though the water bottle holds more then your average water dish, you want to make sure to change out the water on a daily basis, so considering ease of use from the humans point of view is beneficial.

There are many brands of bottles to choose from, everything from Oasis brand water bottles, to Lixit. Lixit are the most popular brand, and for good reason. Their water bottles come outfitted with stainless steel trappings, and the bottles are heavy glass that will stand up to a lot of 'beaking'. My birds each have a glass Lixit bottle and I am very pleased with them- they are easy to clean, stand up well to large beaks, and do not leak. Lixit also offers an interesting alternative to purchasing their bottle kits- they sell the bottle heads/spouts that fit in any standard size glass bottle (such as a snapple bottle), so that you can make your own waterbottles for a cheaper price.

Even if your bird has a water bottle as its source of water, also considering giving your bird the traditional bowl as well. Since many birds are natural 'soup makers', giving them an outlet to dunk their food will prevent attempted 'dunkings' in the spout of the bottle. There are also some species that 'backwash' for sanitary reasons, like amazons, so having an open source of water like a bowl is important. I personally use both water bowls and dishes. I've found that my birds enjoy drinking out of the bottles, and will dunk their food in the bowls but then go to the bottle to actually drink from. Please remember to carry out the same sanitary precautions with a water bottle as you would a bowl.

[hollyhawkz]

Wawa has a water dish as well but I always find food or toys in there. LOL He needs a bottle for fresh water source.

We went through many crappy type ones... Wawa would get them off the cage, or the ball would stick! A big 911 or I just didn't like them being plastic. He broke one plastic one by working it out of the two springs I had on it and dropping it to the floor. Or they would drip/leak.

I found the best bottle in the critter section. It is called a "super pet" but I can't remember the make..sorry. Pic attached - by the way, that is a little floating ducky in there ... too cute



Here are the perks:

* The spout is stainless steel with stainless steel trappings. It has a nice full size caliber and it does not stick!
* It has a hanger to set the bottle and it has a spring to clip on the cage
* Even better there is an indent in the glass bottle that the spring fits tightly into, holding the bottle against the cage!
* And the bottle is flat on the side where it snuggly fits onto the cage
* It is thick solid glass, near impossible to break you would have to throw it (I dropped ours on a hardwood floor & nothing)
* It is not small
* It is really easy to slide in and out of the spring!
* It was $10.00

It is the best bottle I have used over the past year!!!!!