Can a Parakeet Drown By Accident? (Solved)
Can a Parakeet Drown By Accident?
Any container of water can be considered a natural hazard to the parakeet, whether it is a bucket of water deep enough or leaving the parakeet near a sink full of water.
The parakeet could accidentally fall into any pool of water and drown, even if it is not very close if it is within reach and they can accidentally fall in and get caught while flying.
Safety measures should be taken into account when keeping a pet parakeet in the home or apartment, especially since the kitchen and bathroom are particularly dangerous spaces for a parakeet to drown accidentally.
I have known tragic stories where some people leave buckets of cleaning water near where their parakeets are outside their birdcage, and these have drowned accidentally.
Parakeets can be very curious birds, any container with water and that has a considerable depth should be covered in case you have to leave it very close to where the parakeets are.
How deep can a bowl be for a parakeet to accidentally drown?
This is a matter of logic, if a container does not contain enough depth for the budgie to be fully immersed, it is unlikely to drown accidentally.
Although the shape of the container should also be taken into account, a budgie could drown in a container that is not necessarily very deep, that could happen in case the budgie loses balance and falls headfirst and cannot get out.
Parakeets don’t need too much water
Budgerigars come from Australia, which is the continent with the least rainfall in the world, except for Antarctica, so budgerigars are totally accustomed to environments with very little water.
The parakeets are used to long periods of drought, although obviously, water is a fundamental part of all living beings, it is not necessary to exaggerate leaving large containers of water in their environment.
In the midst of such a hostile environment, the parakeet is one of the native birds best adapted to its environment. Its nomadic and gregarious lifestyle leads it to wander from south to north in small flocks following the rains.
In their natural habitat, parakeets detect rain hundreds of kilometers away, since water allows the plants that feed them to mature.
Their travels are facilitated by an extraordinary capacity to withstand the lack of water, to the point that, given certain conditions, they can subsist without it for up to thirty continuous days, making use of the water reserves stored in their bodies, released in the digestion process and known as “metabolic water”.
Obviously, a domesticated parakeet is no longer adapted to last so many days without drinking water because of the changes due to its condition and environment, but in any case, domestic parakeets drink very little water.
The lack of water makes the budgerigars’ instinct to save energy optimally, the budgerigars spend most of the hot days hidden and quiet among the trees, looking for food in the mornings and evenings mainly.
How can you give a shower to a parakeet without running the risk of drowning it?
As previously mentioned, it is not necessary to provide too much water to keep a parakeet clean, and although clean drinking water should be provided daily, it is also not necessary to provide large quantities.
In the case of a shower, many budgies love to be sprayed with water, this can be done with any soft stream sprinkler and cool clean water, this is especially fun in hot weather.
Alternatively, you can shower your parakeet in the kitchen sink but only turn on the mixer faucet to the point of dripping, without leaving strong jets or water accumulation.
These are two safe and reliable techniques of how to shower a parakeet.
In the event that you do provide the parakeet with a drinking bowl, make sure that the bowl is not too deep, but also, consider the possibility that if the bowl is too awkwardly shaped the parakeet may slip out and accidentally fall in headfirst.
Ideally, use a fairly flat, very shallow bowl that is stable enough, but also does not offer the possibility of the budgie falling headfirst into it.
How much water can a parakeet drink daily?
The amount of water that the parakeet can consume daily will depend on the ambient temperature and humidity, but as an average, we can say that an adult parakeet can drink up to 5 ml of water per day.
This is barely a tablespoon of water, so as I mentioned previously, it is not necessary to leave large containers of water in their cage.
It is also probable that you do not see the parakeet drink water almost never, this does not mean that the parakeet does not drink water, they drink very little water, and they do it briefly in sporadic moments when they feel the need.
In case you have budgies that really do not drink water for any reason, you can supplement this with foods such as cucumber which has high water content, and also with fruits such as melon.
