Budgies And Water

[puternut]

A lady neighbour has been talking and is a little worried about the budgie she has acquired fairly recently to replace a previous pet who passed away.

Her comments seem to be that whilst water is freely available to the budgie she has never seen him/her drink from it - unlike her previous bird. She also says she doesnt think it drinks at night as the water level barely goes down (evaporation?).

Is this normal / possible?

The bird eats well enough - propretary seed and occasional millett.

[rsvp]

puternut I'm not at all experienced with caged birds but would suggest that if the bird hadn't been drinking at all it would not have survived more than a short while. Most animals/birds take a while to settle in and feel secure in a new environment so maybe he/she is still settling in. I imagine it would be very difficult to accurately monitor the amount of water being used anyway - providing the droppings and it's behaviour are normal I personally wouldn't worry too much just yet. How brilliant your neighbour is so caring.

[viv38]

I always think is you're worried about a pet, a quick phone call to the vet wouldn't go amiss. Or you could check it out on Google for her.

[wildwood]

Budgies drink very little if they have a proper diet. The bird may also not be used to the drinking receptacle provided (font?) A small ramekin with water on the bottom of the cage will soon make it drink if it is thirsty.

In the wild, budgies may sometimes go without water for 4 or 5 days without harm. They get a lot of the required moisture from the seeds and stuff they eat. The droppings also contain an absolute minimum of moisture so not much is lost.

[lankeela]

Maybe some dampened lettuce pinned to the cage might give it some moisture.