Is My Parakeet Drinking?

User Question
We bought 2 parakeets a week ago and It seem that they don't drink water at all,is it normal? what about fighting-they follow eachother quite often cuz i see lots of feathers flying around (male and female,i guess). One more question: those tiny feathers, are they gonna fly like that everyday, cuz my room is full of them, are they gonna loose feathers like that daily?

Lisa's Answer
I'm sure they are drinking water, as long as you are keeping fresh water in their cage. Be sure to change it if it gets stuff in it, because just like humans, parakeets don't like to drink slimy water. Most animals are sensitive about eating in front of strangers and parakeets are no exception. They are probably drinking when you're not around. They don't drink non-stop, maybe just once or twice a day for 5 seconds at a time. So they can easily be doing it when you're not there.

Following each other is normal, it's what birds do. Birds are flock animals. But if they are ATTACKING each other and pulling out feathers it's time to get them separate cages.

I have a whole page on feathers -

http://www.lisashea.com/petinfo/basics/feathers.html

It's the middle of spring right now so most parakeets are busy losing their heavy winter feathers and growing out their lighter summer feathers. So it may just be regular molting time that you are watching. Most cages come with a fabric / mesh band that you wrap around the lower part of it, to keep in loose feathers and such. If you don't have one for your cage, it might be time to get one. Or just vacuum more often than usual for now until they get through the molting period.

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