dipping food in water

[beakie]

hello,
My little love bird has an unusual habbit and i wonderd if anyone elses does the same thing. (s)he takes food from the food bowl and dips it in the water before eating it. I have to change the water several times a day because its always got frut/nuts/seeds/pelets in it! she wont eat it if it falls in the water but only when its been dipped. she drinks out of the water bowl fine and i have moved the bowl to the other side of the cage. she picks up the food climbs/flys over to the water bowl and dips the food, then goes back gets another bit and repeats it.
shes also getting very protective of her food bowl. Her buddy colin the GCC can still feed out of it when they are out together but shes getting very upset when i take it out to clean it or refill it. She has always slept in it and i did wonder if she thinks of it as a nesting area.
i call her a she but i have no idea what sex she is. anyone have something simmalar going on?

[Gill]

Bobble my girl scuffs around in the food bowl alot, like she would in a happy hut and Sticky my boy eats his sunflower seeds over the water bowl but I think it is because hes learnt that if he drops them he can get them back as supposed to dropping them through the grate! Some days there is loads of food in their water bowl! But they dont get upset when I take the bowl out, they see it as a "get ready to escape, mummy will be opening the cage door again any minute!" moment!

[dieflying]

Notorious lovebird behavior. Mine won't eat some of the harder pellets in her seed mix unless she lets them soak for a minute or two. Whatever birdy, as long as you're eating! At least you'll know they are hydrated!

[beakie]

yeah! first lovebird i've had. so different to my conure, tiels and senegal. its nice to have a little monkey in the house again. Colin is behaving like he did as a baby again :)

[kimsbirds]

Happens with my current birds, and all previous birds did it too...I think it's a given!! LOL

[thebubbleking]

Sunshine my male makes soup constantly i'm just waitng to hear a high pitched "bam!"

[momo]

Elmo CONSTANTLY puts things in her drink bowl.. and in my CUP!!.. Lately she has taken to drinking what ever mummy is drinking rather than going to her own food bowl..

I got so annoyed with it in her cage, I gave her a water tube rather than giving her a water bowl. But in her food/water stations around the house, she has a water bowl.

[Enko_chan]

Yeah, Freyja and Odinn make birdie soup constantly. I have to change their water several times a day.

[LovelySydney]

This hasn't happened to me until recently...except gus takes only one type of treat and puts it in the water - I think they are organic raisins. He's very meticulous about it!!

[nacho135]

Nacho NEVER did it until I brought my eclectus home, who is known for doing this. I think he picked this up from her haha

[StormyMom]

My lovebirds dont do it but my Ringneck does. She is notorious for it. Im constantly changing her water! One way to stop is is to get them an actual water bottle, but im afraid mine wont know what it is.

[Flapjack]

Jack adores her bottle, but the other two don't use one.

What's really gross is when they put pellets in the water, and then take a bath in it before I get home to change the water. EEEWWWWW!

[Enko_chan]

Freyja and Odinn refuse to drink from a silo or bottle. I also tried putting multiple water receptacles in their cage- as well as at each "play station" in my room, but they muddy every last one of them up. Odinn took part of a millet spray from me to hide and eat it, or so I thought (I'll give him a small piece with a few lobes on it when he does something good, and he takes it away to eat it) but this time he went and threw it in his water dish. He looked up at me as if to say "YES! I did it! Look at your clever boy!" The only time they'll forsake millet is to dunk it or throw it on the floor.

I caught Freyja bathing in a really rancid "birdie soup" that I'd put down on a lower shelf the day before and forgot about (I have about 20 different crocks, so one missing dirty one out of sight can happen, I clean their cage daily and their water crocks many times a day.) I took her in the shower to clean her off! They won't drink out of the water dishes once they put food in them, but they will both poop and bathe in them.

I've begun to put one crock WAY on the other side of the cage from the food, and they usually leave that one alone in terms of putting food in it, but that one has become the crock of choice for bathing.

[CompassionAk]

I used to have a Quaker and I always wondered what was up with all the junk in his water dish till one day I caught him holding a pellet and dunking it in the dish like it was a cup of coffee.He was sneaky about it too,he'd never do it when you were looking.I miss that lil bugger =(

[beakie]

awww, great to hear they all do it! little love bird is currently climbing back and forth with food to drop in the bowl :)

[lemonypickett]

At least yours dips it and eats it! Jimmy ruins he and Eddie's water everyday. He brings all kinds of things over to deposit in the water.

[beakie]

mine does seem to eat alot of it. i caught it fishing in their earier for a raison that had sunk!! i'll try adding a few more bowls to see if that helps. she wont drink out of them once is been made into mud.

[LoveBug12]

I find food in my lovebirds water also. Even worse though, Junior always poops in it! :rofl:

[bookworm0550]

oh goodie, thought it was only my joey who did this. i have never seen him in the act though. i will come home and his water bowl is just a mess. sometimes he'll drop a colored popsicle stick into it as well so when i get home, not only is there food, poop, and toys in his water bowl, but it'll be colored too. it's even better when his beak has a tint of color to it (kinda like when we are done w/ a popsicle and our lips are the shade of the flavor we just had).

[wilkiecoco]

kiwi does this only with broccoli and snap peas. He dips them delicately, keeping the pieces in his mouth, and then eats them. I guess I don't clean it enough for him!!! :)