FINCHforum

Do you have a good watering system!??


I've been useing these Water Silo's. I had 5 of them for multiple water stations. But I find they either slowly leak/drip - or, not sure how, it just completly dumps out!

So I can fill them all, and a few hours later, there's a mess on the bottom of the cage and no water.


I've tried this water bottle, but they didn't figure out how to use it....

And this one... And these ones....


I'm frustrated, and tired of spending money for it to leak.

I use chicken waterers for all my aviaries. They may be too big for your cages but Laraine sells "water trough's" and "Glass Aviary Waterers" (the red one) that are the same thing but smaller. Here's the link so you can see what I mean, maybe if not from Laraine you can find something similar that will work for your situation.
http://ladygouldian.com/Aviary-Waterers-and-Drinkers

The water silos....they aren't angled when in the cage bars, are they? I can't imagine why they would drip or leak.

I've always had good luck with waterers; especially the Lixit brand, but mine are smaller than the ones your post showed.

How many birds do you have in the cage (and what kind). If they are hookbills, I could see where they play with them & drain them, but finches wouldn't do that.

I use one from PETCO - its glass.. not sure how everyone feels about glass because if it falls it might shatter? NOT that it has every fallen or anything but I would think you can wash it better than the ones that are plastic...
anyway its less that $2. I like it use one inverted to put plants in.. the things to attach to the cage is REALLY hard to turn and it drives my birds mental when I do move it cause its hard.
it has NEVER dripped on me id be able to tell since 2 soc's cant be drinking that much for it to be SO VISIBLE.

Thanks for letting me know which ones you have used, I can stay clear of those now.

I use these from Bird Supply of New Hampshire:

https://www.birdsupplynh.com/catalog/pr ... 21e815d1a6

I use the 7 oz. size, with the blue tube (is supposed to help with algae control, don't know if it really does). I love these waterers. The only time I have had them leak is when I have dropped them on the floor. If they get even a tiny crack in the tube, it affects the vacuum and lets all the water out (but that would be the case with any plastic tube waterer. They come in all sizes from 2 oz. to 14 oz.

The only other problem I have is that the lip is large enough that on my mesh cages, I have to cut out a hole for the lip to fit through. On wire cages, that is not a problem.

I use the water silos too. I love them, but you just have to be sure they are level, or they will drip dry. I also put a open water dish in every cage in case the silos leak.

I started searching the forum and reading about different type of waterers aswell. Not happy to see poop and seeds in stainless steel water cups so i want my birds to try and learn these bottles too. What would you suggest for an aviary cage with 3/8 bar spacing?

Found these on amazon after reading forum posts.

http://www.amazon.com/Kordon-Novalek-BO ... ter+bottle

http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Supplies-Bot ... ter+bottle

http://www.amazon.com/LIXIT-Proof-Glass ... ter+bottle

http://www.amazon.com/Lixit-Wide-Mouth- ... ter+bottle

http://www.amazon.com/Lixit-Quick-Fill- ... ter+bottle

http://www.amazon.com/Lixit-Glass-Bird- ... ter+bottle

http://www.amazon.com/Lixit-BB-5-Bird-B ... ter+bottle

http://www.amazon.com/Lixit-Glass-Water ... ter+bottle

http://www.bigalspets.ca/birds/bird-wat ... fl-oz.html

I use the Lixit Wide Mouth

My water silos use to drip which drove me crazy because I couldn't figure out why. Well I found that like others have said they need to be level. Now they are all fine.

I have found that the larger water silos were very hard to keep perfectly level. Mine would do the same thing. They would look for all the world like they were level to my eyes, but I would come back and find them empty. Using the ones of the exact same design, but smaller, is much easier. For some reason, they don't drip

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BF0 ... UTF8&psc=1

4 days no dripping...

metinemre wrote: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BF0 ... UTF8&psc=1

4 days no dripping...

After 4 days, I'm assuming all your birds learned to use this type waterer. I once almost lost a Gouldian because I was using this style waterer, and he had not figured out how to get a drink. Also, the waterers that I use are often hung on the cage crooked when I am in a hurry, and I've never had them drip because they were not level.

I have this mini bottle right next to the stainless steel water cup. Also a bath at the bottom of the cage. Will continue to have all 3 water sources just in case. So far i`ve only seen one gs using the bootle type but i`m hardly home before they sleep during the week Working almost 10 till 5 then at home for an hour or two and back to close locations. My business is inside a shopping mall 10am-9pm

I use water silos on all my cages.
Not quite the same as yours. Mine is the cheap stuff.
My observation of the leak/drip is that the hole that is cut in the plastic is cut too high (for water). So when I put the water in, the water fills the trough up completely and sometimes overflows.

What I did was to rotate the clear plastic tube and file a "small" U into the plastic to meter the amount of air that gets into the tube. How much to file is by trial-and-error. I file until the water fills part way up the trough.

I file the tube
put water in
turn it right side up
then use an eye dropper to slowly remove water from the trough (simulating a bird drinking) to see at what level the trough fills up to.

Then I repeat the process until I have the water at the level that I want. About 2/3 way up the trough.

I have tried the Lixit. They paid no attention to it... mind you I had other water sources in the cage.

Maybe if that were the only source, it would force them to try?

How long can they go without water? I don't want to hurt/deprive them, but I seriously need to figure out a better system. My current silos are a total crap-shoot to weather they retain the full tube of water...