Bird Water Feeders...

I was wondering about types of watering methods you use for your birds. Being I just have the one budgie right now all I use is a little coop cup. But I was considering getting one of the plastic tube waterers I see in the Pet stores.

If you have this type of watering system I would be interested in knowing how often you change out the water....every day....every few days? Do you add any treatment to the water?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

By "tube waterer" are you talking about these?

If so, I considered the same thing. I decided against it for a few reasons...

• Most birds like to wet their food and/or wash their beak out every once in a while when eating and this dispenser makes that hard for them
• I'd be afraid that I'd get lazy because the water in the container LOOKS full and clean, so I wouldn't change it as often. Water in a glass container still goes stale and I'd be more likely to dump, rinse, and refill a bowl than take out that contraption and clean it
• If and when they DO use the waterer to rinse out their beak, pieces of food get sucked up into the tube and can get slimy and harbor bacteria, so it needs to be cleaned just as often as a water bowl, if not more. Also, it just seems like it'd be more of a hassle

All in all, the upkeep outweighed the conveniences for me. Honestly, my bird doesn't make a stew out of his water - he hardly dumps anything in there at all, so there'd really be no reason for me to get one anyway. I know other birds are messier, though, so I'm not saying that it's useless, just not for me And because I change water at least twice, sometimes three times a day, I don't add anything to my water. I've heard that some people add grapeseed oil, though.

LYZ....I am thinking more like these plastic kind of waterers. They seem a little more simple to use for my needs...if they work and don't leak.

I have one of the ones you pictured and I sometimes use it, sometimes don't. Cheney Bird won't touch it so he gets just regular dishes. The budgies use it when I remember to put it in there instead of their regular water dishes.

This container is for food. I have two in budgies cage: one for food and one for water. Easy to clean. They are in opposite sides of cage and I have no problem with fids making it dirty. I clean water container daily anyway. Another good option for small birds like budgies is, that you can hung that container as high as you want.
Chico has normal, bottle container. I try it with budgies before, but they didn't use it.

I use plain hamster bottles for smaller birds - finches to indian ringnecks. I use rabbit bottles for the larger ones - CAG on up. I hang it so the drinking wand is over their regular water bowl. I also have water bowls so they can bath and dunk. The bottle's for back up clean water at all times.

Water in the bottle still needs to get changed out regularly. I do it twice a week. I have two sets of bottles and bleach/disinfect one set while the other set's in use.

Biggy on the tube getting stuck w/ junk. You need to check every day that it's not plugged up. More than one bird's died from not being able to drink because the tube's plugged.

Sister Owl - the ones you're looking at, the little reservoir gets really slimy and gross so get two sets so you can clean and disinfect one while the other's in use. Baby bottle nipple brushes work well for cleaning those reservoirs.

I have a water dish in each cage and a Lixit water bottle on each cage as well. I think of the bottle as a backup, in case the sitter forgets to change the water or something else happens. Scotty knows how to use his, but I'm not sure Scooter has ever figured it out.

I change the water in the dishes at least once a day, the bottle usually when I do a significant cage cleanup. Since they are rarely used, the water stays fairly fresh for a week or so.