Fantastic Finch Waterers At Last!!

[monotwine]

Ursula I too don't do too much bleaching. I clean out water containers daily or in the very least every second day. I have multiple containers and replace with fresh ones weekly.
Feed dishes I change daily.
Once a week I do the "finch dishes" washing everything in soapy water. I then rinse and dry. These days I tend to soak everything in F10 (just to be on the safe side) as even with plastic small scratches etc make a lovely place for bacteria to thrive.

[lovemyfinch]

Ok, so here I go, and I am sure to be scolded for it.
I did in the begininning add Sparkle to my water at all times. I don`t anymore. As for changing out the water everyday.....Here goes the scolding....I don`t. After thinking about things, I figured my birds are healthy. Bacteria is hard thing to live without. And I finally decided that some bacteria is a good thing. I am one to believe that if we are overly sterilizing things, once either us or our birds are exposed to anything we are then in danger.
I do not use bleach, I figure that if my dishes come out of the dishwasher safe for human consumption, the waterers should be just fine for the birds.

And yes, my boys ate sand out of the sandbox, no cat poop but I am sure there were a few bugs

[debbie276]

Does anybody else on the forum besides me NOT bleach the water containers and NOT put anything in the daily drinking water?

I use bleach to clean only because I don't use the dishwasher. I use NOTHING in their daily drinking water for the inside OR outside aviaries.

I agree with Janine and my kids too played in the dirt and sand box

I do not use bleach, I figure that if my dishes come out of the dishwasher safe for human consumption, the waterers should be just fine for the birds.

Isn't bleach in most all dishwasher detergents?? ;)

[lovemyfinch]

You are right Debbie, I never looked at the ingredients

[bugaboo5]

Does anybody else on the forum besides me NOT bleach the water containers and NOT put anything in the daily drinking water?

I do not as well, personally. Though I just ordered Sparkle per your recommendation a few days ago. I wash everything by hand with a scrubber -- water and a brush/scrubber. I change the water daily, which can be tedious on a long day. I use tap water with my birds, so I suppose there are things in the water but I do not personally put anything into their daily drinking water.

[Ursula]

Does anybody else on the forum besides me NOT bleach the water containers and NOT put anything in the daily drinking water?

I do not as well, personally. Though I just ordered Sparkle per your recommendation a few days ago. I wash everything by hand with a scrubber -- water and a brush/scrubber. I change the water daily, which can be tedious on a long day. I use tap water with my birds, so I suppose there are things in the water but I do not personally put anything into their daily drinking water.

I use Sparkle only in the fountain and for soaking seeds. I put it in the fountain because I don't have the time to take it apart and change the water every day, I change and clean it weekly. But the birds hardly ever use it anyway. I've seen only a couple of my gouldians sitting on top of it occasionally and bathing a little...

[annague]

Monique -- I am impressed with your knowledge of chemicals! Did you just study them or do you somehow work with them? (Because I always struggle to know which ones are safe to mix )-- like is it ok I put my mironized silver in with an antibacterial agent or does that nullify what good the silver does? I just don't know and wish I had a better grasp of how chemicals (even natural ones) interact.

Now you have me wanting that F10... I'll look it up and see if it's available in the US --

[monotwine]

LOL Anna
I'm just lucky that on this particular topic my work needs and hobby interest overlapped. I got to do a lot of research and speak to a chemist that develops this sort of compound. So naturally put the two together to come up with some good safe alternatives for my birds too.
I do understand a few of these things too, but not that well.

If you ever unsure of a chemical just google its name with MSDS to get its safety specs. The amount of info on them usually can tell you alot if you then add this info to comparisons with similar products.

In most cases - chemicals should be used alone. Especially in our cases where we mix things that probably would never have been tested together.

I have no idea what is in mironized silver. What is its active ingrediet and what does it do?

In general all these disinfectants I've mentioned can be pure sterilants at higher dosage rates, so you can only imagine they kill not only the bad, but the good too. Hence I'm loathe to use them orally unless there is a special need. Like someone else mentioned I would use a probiotic post use to replace beneficial gut flora.

[annague]

Monique, Whoops! Clerical error --> it is micronized silver (forgot the "c") I believe it to be inert but it is supposed to be good for shoring up the immune system.

Thanks for the tip about the chemicals and how to look them up.

[debbie276]

it is micronized silver

What is this and what are you using it for? Only thing that came up in my searches was Thermal Grease/Paste
Just wondering ...

[annague]

Oh no it's not grease or paste -- it's from the Health Food Store -- one of the popular bird sites (ladygouldian.com or one of the others) also sells it for use with finches -- I'll send you the link if I can locate it. It is mainly immune support.

And here it is:
http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/product_ssilver.mgi

It is called: Sovereign Silver (bio-active silver hydrosol) 'Immune Support'. It is pure micronized silver and water.

[debbie276]

Now I see, it's the same as what we used to call just "Colloidal silver"

thanks

[nelloyello11]

Well, no one touched it for a week or so. Then I moved it so the bottle was behind some fake leaves and only the metal tube is visible. I placed it right next to a fresh sprig of millet so they might "discover" it... It worked! Everyone is using it now! So far so good!

[monotwine]

Thats super. Like how they needed to discover it first. You have obviously got adventurous birds... They want to explore a jungle to get something new.

[kenny]

hi
i just vanodine for my drinkers and dishes as its an overall disinfectant and doesnt harm birds,i got rid of any algae that formed in the drinking fountains with a babies bottle brush it got in to all the scratches and gaps if it cleaned babies bottles it would clean the drinkers,you must have a routine with this ,like everything else i always did the drinkers ona weekend as it was a long job and my hands dont work to well...i just exchanged all the drinkers for clean ones and washed the dirty ones and left them to dry ,then put them in a box till the change over

ken