Bath container

[Siobhan]

I keep a little plastic dish in Trixie's cage for her to take a bath in if she likes, but she mostly just drinks out of it. I have noticed her actual water dish is dirty every couple of days (I change the water daily even if it's not) and a couple of days ago, there was poop in it. It's in a position where she couldn't poop in it accidentally, so I wonder if she's been bathing in it? I see her get all the way into her food dish, which is the same size and shape, and sit IN her food dish munching away, and I've seen evidence on her newspaper that she's taken a bath. I suppose since she doesn't use her bath dish to bathe, she can drink out of it until I can get home and give her fresh water, but it must be a bit of a tight fit to take a bath in her water dish. What does everyone use for a bath tub for their canaries? Maybe she just doesn't like the one I gave her. My starling lives in the same room and if you've ever seen a starling take a bath, you know they splatter water like crazy. Their cages are only a couple of feet apart, so Trixie gets a few splatters from that during Ringo's six-times-a-day baths, too. LOL Ringo LOVES baths. And Trix can see her bathing in the dish on top of her cage, so if she didn't know how to take a bath before, from living in a pet store so long, she certainly has an enthusiastic example to follow now.

Or would she like being misted? Some of my parrots prefer misting and some prefer a dish of water, and one likes both. I mist her until she's dripping and then she goes and takes a bath in the dish. Jade is nothing if not thorough.

[kristofer]

I did not get exact what species of bird you are talking about lol but if it's a small finch/parrot use the tube drinkers for hygienic reasons and give her a larger bowl to bath in I use the hang on plastic baths

[Atbird]

My canaries take a bath in their water dish. And their bathing dish, I'm not sure how they make the decision, but they switch it up. Probably because I put the water dish in before the bath dish and they use it first. Also, canaries prefer COLD water for bathing. I just put the dish, let them bathe then change the water...or you could use a water bottle for clean water, unfortunately they sometimes still drink out of the dirty dish, so it's best to change it.

[lovezebs]

Siobhan

My guys have a Tupperware dish about 5in by 9in for their baths. I call it a communal bath, because groups of them bathe together. Then they go and bathe in their water dishes.
Go figure.

~Elana~

[Siobhan]

Trixie is a canary. Ringo is a starling. And Jade, who likes to get misted and take a bath in a dish, is a Quaker parrot. Jade lives in a different room from Ringo and Trixie, with my other Quaker, two tiels a budgie and a pigeon.

Trixie's water dish is a two-compartment dish with a perch attached to the front and a place to perch on the edge, which she usually uses since she's too short to reach the water from the attached perch. She could be bathing in one part and that would leave the other part clean, which is how I found it a couple of days ago. The bath dish is the bottom half of a plastic sandwich box that's maybe an inch deep at most, and I only fill it about halfway with cold water. I figured a deeper dish would scare her.

[ranchnanny]

Try this....

I made these from plastic bottles works great and keeps water inside bottle.

[kristofer]

ranchnanny Good idea there, i use the hang on ones because they are pretty cheap to buy an since we europeans tend to keep birds in small (40cm) cages we find them quite easy to use and keep.

[MiaCarter]

ranchnanny -- I had this in my head and was going to try to describe it, so I'm glad you posted a photo!

There's a cheap bird food sold at Walmart that comes in large squared off jugs like this and I get that seed just for the jugs! I use them for bird baths like above and it's the perfect size for storing millet.

[Atbird]

ranchnanny. That is awesome. Does the tape start to fall off when wet?

@MiaCarter I too use those containers to store birdseed in. They are also used for pickles...the one in the refrigerator aisle, not the ones on the shelf...and my parents get mixed fruit cocktail.

[Sally]

Wamart used to sell these jugs in the kitchen tools aisle, they had a small and a large size--the small would work for this purpose. Don't know if they still carry them or not.

[ranchnanny]

NO the tape doesn't come off. Duck tape would work also.

[MiaCarter]

Siobhan - I just noticed you mentioned you had a starling! What kind?
I'd rehabbed a trio of common starlings a while back. Only one survived to adulthood. Such a lovely and super smart bird! I've been dying for one of the fancy varieties, like an Amethyst or Golden breasted.

[Siobhan]

Ringo is a typical wild starling, just like you see in your yard. She was rescued as a naked baby by someone else, who raised her until she was fully feathered and tried to release her but she was imprinted on humans by then and she kept landing on any human she saw. The rescuer then took her to a friend of mine who rehabs raptors and my friend called me. Raptors eat starlings, and it wasn't safe for her there. Because starlings aren't considered native, it's legal to have one without a special license. So now she lives in our second bedroom. She has a huge cage, but I open the door in the morning and she's free to fly around the room all day long. She stares at my lizard and talks to Trixie and to herself and uses me for a trampoline when I'm in the room. She's very smart, too. She can hear the parrots through the wall between their rooms and she's learned to copy their sounds. She can sit in the window and watch wild birds outside, but she doesn't think of herself as one of them. She was on my shoulder one day when I was on the enclosed front porch and the wild birds on the feeder saw us and flew off in alarm and she didn't even twitch. She can say several things and we play a game she invented with one of her toys. She also likes to eat my lizard's worms when I'm filling up his dish, and if a moth gets in on a summer evening, his life expectancy is very short. LOL But she mostly lives on dry cat food. That's what they suggest on a starling forum I'm on, and I buy her the most expensive kind that's made with chicken instead of filler.

[Siobhan]

I just got the privilege of watching Trixie take a bath in her water dish. I had just cleaned her cage and refilled her water, and she's so little that she can hop into the dish and get a good all over bath, which she did ... three times. LOL I know birds won't bathe if they don't feel secure in their surroundings, so I'm very happy that she was willing to have a bath with me in the room. I opened her door and left it open for a while, but she doesn't have any interest in coming out for a few laps around the room yet, and I don't want to leave it open without being in there. Ringo used to live in that cage and she might go in to play with Trixie's toys and see if her food is appetizing, and I don't want her to terrorize poor little Trixie, so I want to be there to prevent that.