Читать книгу Birds For Dummies - Gina Spadafori - Страница 97

Your cage probably came with bowls for food and water, and these containers are likely to be perfectly fine for your bird’s dining pleasure. Look for bowls constructed of stainless steel, crockery, or high-impact plastic. They should be dishwasher-safe, because you’re going to be running them through the hot cycle — a lot.

We don’t recommend galvanized crocks or bowls — they can oxidize, are harder to clean, and pose some potential toxic risks to your birds.

Dishes seem to inspire a lot of creativity on the part of manufacturers, who do their best to come up with designs to minimize mess, stand up to the abuse some parrots can dish out, and retain an attractive appearance and washability. Experiment with dishes all you like until you find the combination that works best for you and your bird.

The workhorse of the cage is always going to be the plain dish, and we encourage you to keep a few of these on hand so your bird isn’t without food and water when you’re cleaning dirty ones. With larger parrots, make sure the dishes are not easily upended, picked up, thrown, or broken. Although bowl tossing may be a lot of fun from a bird’s point of view, damaged crocks can be frustrating and costly.

Birds can drink water from a dish or from a water bottle the way guinea pigs and rabbits do. If you choose to use a water bottle, make sure your bird knows how to use it, and check the spout frequently with a touch of your finger to ensure that water is still flowing. Dehydration from water deprivation can rapidly deal a lethal blow to birds.

Some bird keepers prefer bottles because it’s harder for their pets to dirty the water supply — some birds actually poop in their water dishes, or they love to make “soup” by carefully carrying their food over and dumping it into their water bowls. Don’t let the relative convenience of the water bottle give you an excuse to change it less frequently than you would a water dish. Water bottles need to be emptied, cleaned, and refilled daily with fresh water. (Keep a bottle brush handy for cleaning.)

Many birds enjoy using water bowls as bathtubs. For them, the water bowl is not only a location where they can get a drink; it’s also a place to get gloriously wet and freshen up.