Some people will dip their biscuits into their tea to soften it up, and some won’t. Birds will do something similar with their food.
This article is a look into why your bird puts his food into his water.
Table of Contents
Why does my bird put his food in his water?
If you’ve lived with your pet bird for a while you’ve probably witnessed the bird practicing some weird and odd behavior, one such behavior is the bird dipping its food into water.
This is why your bird may be doing this:
To soften the food:
Birds may be picky with their food and or picky about the texture of their food. If the bird isn’t picky about the food they are given then the bird may be picky about the texture of the food.
If your bird is smart enough to know that dipping its food in water will change the texture of the food then the bird will dip the food. Your bird will then fish the food out once it is a bit more soaked.
The bird may also be softening the food so that it falls apart easier when handled making it easier to eat. The bird may also do this if the pieces of food given are simply too big and need to be torn apart easily.
Unfortunately, your bird may leave some bits of food at the bottom of the water bowl because it can’t fish the food out or because the bird doesn’t want to fish the food out anymore.
This behavior is so common in birds that bird owners refer to this as the bird making soup.
What to do:
If you want to keep letting your bird drop its food into its bowl you can, but, the water will soon get nasty and start to smell awful the longer it is left in there.
You would need to change the bowl quite often if your bird does this.
Cleaning the food bowl on a regular basis will also keep bacterial infections from developing in the bird’s water and will help keep the bird safe and keep the bird from falling ill.
If the bird is doing this to soften its food then you can wet the food a little bit before serving it to him to see how he reacts to it.
If he is doing this, because his pieces of food are too big, then cup up his food into smaller pieces to see if he eats the cut-up food and doesn’t dunk the food.
If the bird does not even try to dig the food out once it is dipped in the water then this can mean that your bird is rejecting the food that it is given.
It’s fun:
Sometimes your bird will dip its food in order to soften its food or make it easier for its food to break into pieces, but sometimes, the bird will do this just because it is fun.
These types of birds are called dippers by some people and will dip anything into their food bowl, not just food.
They can dip other objects into their food bowls too and try to fish the items out, sometimes to no avail.
What to do:
This behavior can make for a very dirty water bowl so fishing the items out of the after bowl and cleaning the water bowl is the best you can do for your bird.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Do Birds Chirp In The Afternoon, Why Do Birds Chirp While Eating?, Female Budgie Rubbing Vent, Female Budgie Sitting In Food Bowl, Why Does My Cockatiel Sit In His Water Dish?