The quaility of my water?

[Asue]

Normally, Mikey will dive head first into the kitchen sink when I'm washing food dishes. After he gets wet and is mostly dry, I notice that sometimes he's got what looks like dark wet marks. Like the feathers aren't dry or something. When I mist him,( with bottled water ) it's normal. Is this discoloration because of the unfiltered water from the sink?

I can't really discribe it... but it does look like he's got oil stains on his feathers when he bathes in the sink.

[bellarains]

Not sure if it's water quality, but you can have it tested. If the water quality is bad, you don't want them drinking it either.

I have a water purifier on my kitchen sink, as this is where I get my birds drinking water from, and they too like to bathe in the running water there. That is something you can get to ensure they are getting good quality water also.

[LauraO]

I would say that Mikey gets a lot wetter when he is in the sink. It's harder to get really wet with misting as the water shoots up and comes down onto them and since birdies are naturally waterproof, they have to open their feathers to let the water in. My African Grey is the worst. I can squirt and squirt and squirt til' my hand hurts and the water's all squirted out and he's barely wet at all.

I don't know where you live but it's a good idea to check the water quality as bad water can cause lots of health problems with lovies. Hawaii has pretty good water but the piping is the problem. I used to live in Honolulu and never had a problem with tap water, but once I moved to Ewa Beach, the west side of the island, my lovies started getting lots of bacterial infections. The problem stopped once I started giving them bottled water. Now, with water being SO EXPENSIVE here, I just boil water and that's worked great as well.

[sdgilley]

I'd bet Laura is right that your lovie is just getting wetter in the sink than by misting. Peepo, my hen, bathes in my hands under running water. Her color gets very dark until she shakes off that water onto my neck and shoulder! :rofl: Some days she gets more drenched than others. My boys bathe in their water dish, and if they do a good job, they turn dark until they dry themselves.

Unfortunately bad things in water don't usually show up to the eye. My water at home tastes good, and seems clean. The water at work is clear as can be and tastes horrid. Sometimes it's not so much the water as the pipes. One place I worked you had the to let the water run for all the rust to get out :x . Needless to say, I didn't touch that water except to wash my hands.

[Janie]

Laura, do you and Suzanne have the SAME bird????? Check those avatars! :lol

If Mandy's water is bad, I guess mine is too.....we're in the same area, just a few miles apart.

[sdgilley]

You can have your water tested pretty easily. But wet feathers look dark, so I'd bet that is why Mikey looks funny wet.

Laura has a pretty green masked!

[LauraO]

The lovie in my avatar is our Squeaker. He was definately a green masked and very beautiful. We had that old guitar hung on a wall and he LOVED it. He would spend hours in that very spot sleeping and resting. He also loved to slide downt the strings and hang out inside the guitar. By the time he passed away, he had put a few inches of nesting stuff he found around the house in that guitar.

[Asue]

Hey Janie, my apartment is three days older than dirt. I won't even drink water from my sink! :x I just spend a few bucks a month on spring water.