# 9ish week old cockatiel not drinking water yet?!



## fuzzyfrogs (Jul 31, 2012)

Piper, my new 9 week old cockatiel who I got about a week ago is not drinking water yet. She eats millet and small seeds and spinach leaves. She refuses the hand rearing formula now, but I have not seen her drink any water and it's worrying me. She has stopped eating the formula for probably about 5-6 days. She is active and healthy looking but I still think she's too thin. If I hold her so her beak is above the water dish, she kind of attacks the water then tastes a little bit and sometimes swallows. She seems like she has no idea what it is or what she's suppose to do with it. How do I get her to start drinking by herself without attacking the water, and how do I encourage her to eat larger seeds and harder vegetables like carrots?


----------



## rashid100 (Oct 3, 2012)

Maybe u can use a dropper to make her drink for now... She will probably figure it out eventually... Also feed her veggies that contain lots of water.. 
Hope that helps


----------



## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Cockatiels drink very very little water each day. So it is likely that she is already drinking and you just haven't seen her yet. 

Also she is probably "attacking" the water when you hold her above it because she is frantically trying to hold onto something. Cockatiels don't like to be held in the air like that; please don't do this.


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

She's getting some moisture from the spinach leaves so she isn't completely dry. You could try floating some spinach leaves in the water to see if that attracts her to the dish.

I don't have a problem with you holding her up to the water dish so she can attack it and then get a drink, as long as she isn't excessively frightened or upset by it. She has to learn what the water bowl is for somehow, and soon. In the wild she would learn to drink water by copying her parents' example, so she may learn by copying your older birds. 

She'll learn to eat the bigger seeds and harder vegetables by copying them too. It takes time for babies to learn the more advanced eating skills, but they have a natural desire to do what the older birds do.


----------



## imonroe66 (Sep 15, 2012)

Joey is now 10 weeks old and he started drinking water by sitting on my hand by the kitchen faucet. I let the water run just a little and put my hand next to it and he started to drink some water. My parakeet loves to drink water from the faucet and sometimes even takes a bath in my hands right there so I thought I let Joey check it out and he also loves it. Matter of fact, every time he is on my shoulder and I am rinsing something, he slowly Slides down my arm to get him some water.


----------



## fuzzyfrogs (Jul 31, 2012)

Thank you for your answers.  Also, I hold her so that she is standing on my hand, but so she is above the water, so she is standing on something.  She doesn't get freaked out by the water, she just doesn't really know what to do with it. I am always introducing new fruits and veges to her but she doesn't really like any except spinach.


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Most cockatiels don't like fruit (it isn't part of the wild diet) so you don't have to try teaching her to eat it. They do like vegetables, but it can take a long time to convince them to try a new food. Just keep offering the veggies and she may eventually start eating them, especially if she sees the older birds eating them too.

If you make a habit of holding treats in your hand for her to eat, you can occasionally offer a new food this way and maybe she'll go for it. That's how I taught my birds to eat pellets.


----------



## fuzzyfrogs (Jul 31, 2012)

Most cockatiels I have had have loved fruit like apples, watermelon and mango so I always like to introduce a variety of foods. XD It must be weird that my tiels love fruits as well as veges.  She eats millet from my hand so I might try offering her pellets this way too.


----------

