# Cockatiel excessively soaking tail, etc. in water bowl.



## Pikarya (Jan 29, 2012)

So our tiel has a habit of keeping his tail in his water dish constantly and its causing his tail to become reddish yellow and frayed.

Is this a sign of something? Or is he just doing it and not noticing. I'm thinking of removing the large water bowl and switching to smaller bowls.

Other than the tail issue he's been doing great (I've been training him to eat millet out of my hand and next week I'm going to try to perch train him.


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## lordsnipe (Nov 11, 2010)

Colbie used to do it when she was younger, but as she's grown older, she has better control of her climbing and tail. If your tiel is a young bird, I wouldn't worry about it too much.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

I think he's just doing it and not noticing. He's probably there because it's a comfortable place to sit, so if you start keeping the water in a different place it might solve the problem.


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## DyArianna (Aug 7, 2011)

I'm a little confused on how this can cause the tail feathers to turn reddish? How often are you changing the water.. and what type of water are you using (well water or tap water or bottled water).. oh, and what exactly are you using for a bowl?


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

The water can wet red dye off the surfaces of toys or perches and can turn the tail red from the dye bleeding.


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## DyArianna (Aug 7, 2011)

Ahhh..good point. Brain is tired tonight. lol


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## Pikarya (Jan 29, 2012)

DyArianna said:


> I'm a little confused on how this can cause the tail feathers to turn reddish? How often are you changing the water.. and what type of water are you using (well water or tap water or bottled water).. oh, and what exactly are you using for a bowl?


Water gets changed two times a day (tap). Should I be using bottled?

And yes, he is still very young. Probably only 8-9 months old.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

The rule is: give your birds the water you drink..so if you drink your tap then they can have tap, but if you only drink bottled they should get bottled too. Mine usually get filtered tap from the fridge's system.


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## Pikarya (Jan 29, 2012)

I'll change it up starting tomorrow. We only get Deer Park (or the cheap Nestle bottled water).


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## Szafije (Jun 8, 2011)

You can also try to buy a Brita filter or filtered bottle and use it with the tap water


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