Watering bottles?

Rae2 · Post by **Rae2** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 12:41 am

I have two watering bottles/tubes.

I have never seen any of my finches using them. I also have a shallow dish which I change water at least twice a day in my cage.
They all use this one for their daily bathes and for drinking.

How do you teach your finches about this other water source?
Mine show no interest in the water tubes at all.

Is this common?

williep · Post by **williep** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:59 am

Rae2, finches are creatures of habit and they'll stick to what they are familiar with in most cases. I also found that they 98% of the time will choose the path of least resistance, in this case it would be the open watering dish.

It is much easier for them to obtain the water in the open dish so why bother to struggle with the bottles/tubes?

My suggestion is to remove the open water dish for increasingly longer periods (DO NOT remove it completely in one go), if the birds are thirsty they will look for alternative water supplies. Start with 30min to 1 hour depending on how warm the day is.

It might also help to place one next to the feeding station (something they are used to) and this way it's easier for them to find.

fairestfinches · Post by **fairestfinches** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:28 pm

We use Water Buddy Drinkers with some of our cages, and we train them to use it by catching them and showing them where and how to use the drinker. We then sit and observe unitl we see if they use it on their own. If they don't drink we show them again, and give them a water bowl for a a shprt period so they don't get dehydrated, but noramlly showing them once is enough.

Sean

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:50 pm

I had good luck with a tube-type drinker, it didn't have a ball or anything to peck at. It held the water in a tube outside the cage then had a narrow cup that the water sat in for them to drink out of. They learned how to use it no problems, but the were zebra finches and very out going, shier birds may take longer. You can always try putting the drinker right next to their water dish and they may peck at it out of curiosity while drinking and realise it's got water too. I also got something like it for my seed and it helped a lot with separating hulls from seeds, the seeds sat in the tube outside the cage and trickled into the dish at the bottom and then as the finches ate the seed more trickled out. Not more blowing off the hulls

This is what my drinker looks like, only it's got a plastic tube:
http://www.petco.com/product/6098/Avian ... terer.aspx

EmilyHurd · Post by **EmilyHurd** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:00 am

I did the same thing as these other guys did... just removed the baths or water dishes for a couple hours, caught them, put each of their beaks into it and made sure they knew water came out, and then observed to make sure they used it. Then you can completely take out other water sources and just stick a bath in once per day for a short period so that you don't get the water that gets poopy and gross.

Rae2 · Post by **Rae2** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:36 pm

Thank you all for the replies and I will be trying the methods you have shared.