The Mystery of the Missing Water

[DCbeachboy]

Is there any reason I should be concerned about my pair of Gouldians suddenly consuming between two and three times as much water as they had in the past?

Both birds seem vibrant, healthy and very active, displaying no signs of illness whatsoever. But both yesterday and today I noticed this abrupt change in water intake.

Every morning I provide them with fresh, filtered water in two 8-inch tube-style waterers, each holding 2.5 ounces. Typically each tube is between 1/4 and 1/3 empty when I change it each morning, indicating they are consuming 3/5 to 4/5 of an ounce of water per bird over the course of the previous day (minus whatever small amount evaporates).

But yesterday morning one of the tubes was still almost full -- and the other was completely empty! This had never happened before, in the almost 9 months I've had the birds. I know for certain I had filled both tubes the previous day, as I always double-check afterward.

Today, only 3/4 through their day, I just noticed that the same tube that was drained dry yesterday is already 3/4 empty again today -- and the other tube is barely 1/4 empty. This isn't counting the additional water they have drunk from their bath today.

I haven't noticed either bird drinking more frequently than normal, and I know the tube isn't leaking -- that was first thing I checked. And their droppings are no more watery than usual, appearing the same as always -- so I can't understand where the missing water is going. I'm hoping this is nothing to be concerned about -- maybe just a seasonal change with the transition to summer, even though the room temperature has remained rather consistent the past 2 months or so -- about 80 degrees F. Any ideas?

[cindy]

I had this happen but it was a slow leak which ran down the cage bars and settled under the cage leaving a small puddle under the cage. Puzzled me at first until I pulled the tray out and saw the puddle.

[annague]

They're not playing with the water in one tube, are they?

Every once in a while when I had tube style drinkers I'd get a bird that decided to try 'bathing' in the channel (even though they had bath water ) and raking the water out that way...

[DCbeachboy]

Birds can be quite mischievous in that way! Funny story, Anna. But no, I haven't noticed either of my birds doing that....and due to the placement of the tubes, it would be difficult for them to do so. I've positioned both tubes at the top corners of the cage front, with no adjoining perches -- so they hang onto the bars whenever they want to drink (unless they are drinking from the bath). I don't know that they could balance themselves in such a way that they could rake out the water anyway, and since I've been working from home both yesterday and today (with my desk just 3 feet away from their cage), I would definitely have noticed if that were the case.

As for leaks....I've carefully checked again, and the cage bars, cage bottom and floor underneath are all completely dry - no sign of water leaks at all. The water truly seems to be consumed by the birds themselves -- I can't imagine where else it could be going.

UPDATE: Mystery resolved! Cindy wins the Sleuth of the Day award. And boy, do I feel silly. I just removed the water tube to see if there are any visible cracks anywhere, and only after I'd removed it did I see that there IS a small leak that hadn't been visible before. Even though there are no cracks in the glass tube or the plastic trough, somehow water was very slowly draining out, collecting under the trough, and draining into tiny cracks encircling the vertical cage bars on each side of the trough where they join a larger hollow horizontal support beam. No water was visible at all until I'd removed the trough. Supposedly there is now a pool of water inside that beam, so I can expect some cage rusting I presume.

[lovemyfinch]

Glad you solved the mystery

[cindy]

Happy to have helped you solve the case of.....DA DA DA ...."THE MISSING WATER"!

[DCbeachboy]

Well actually, 1 of 2 mysteries is solved: where the water is going. I now know the birds aren't consuming it; instead, it's apparently been collecting inside a hollow support beam of my cage. The other mystery remains: how is it leaking out of the waterer to begin with, when there are no visible cracks in either the glass tube or the plastic trough/end cap? I've closely inspected both, and I can't see how the water is leaking and collecting underneath the trough. This is 1 of 4 such tubes I'm using -- 2 of which I've used for almost 9 months without a problem, although this one I purchased just 3 weeks ago -- but it's also been working fine until yesterday. Has anyone else had problems with this type of waterer?

[cindy]

I have had those and had issues with them, the bottoms come off if not resting on a perch and the metal twists made be worry the birds would get caught in it. Perhaps the bottom is loose just enough to leak water out slowly.

Try these

3OzTubeMd.jpg (34.4 KiB) Viewed 1097 times

I use the 7 oz size..works best if you push it through the bars and rest the bottom of the tube on a perch.

[poohbear]

I have two cages indoors with those blue water dispensers.One cage has a pair of gouldians in...the other a gouldian hen and a society.

The latter drink twice as much as the gouldians?? Nothing to do with leaks etc...they just consume twice as much...dunno why.

[lovemyfinch]

I also had those glass ones, and ended up tossing them all and buying the plastic ones like Cindy. My reasoning was just that I found the glass too fragile.

Poohbear, my societies also drink twice as much water as any other species. Then again, they also like to dip their heads into the water.

[cindy]

I also provide a cup of water in every cage....some of them dive right in as soon as I put it in...it is like clean bath water to them!!!

I use the 7oz water tubes (ordered from ABBA seed) and I also have the 3 oz. I use a little ACV added to the water, that way they have a back up. I make sure thet they stay full especially when young are weaning so the parents can show them where to go to drink...and bathe!

[BigBear0007]

I had both tubes before and what I found was that the way it was made wrong!
Sometimes the plastic bottom would stretch and there would be a minute gap between the glass and plastic and it would slowly leak.
Sometimes pushing the glass tube in further would help or twisting the tube to one side would do the trick.
All in all I stopped using them.

Jerry

[Aga]

I also had problems with those slim, glass/plastic water tubes. When glass part was pushed too deep into the plastic one, water didn't drain to the small "pool" and my birds had to force their beaks inside to drink. When I tried to lift and loosen the glass part a little bit, iteither was too loose and too much water drained or it fell off completely flooding the cage ) I switched to plastic one from PetsMart, it's bigger and works great. And just because it's bigger, my birds wanted to bath in it