Aussie Finch Forum

Ah lucky garyh, saying those sort of things is likely to send Finchy away and never to return to this post and answer the questions

Actually, looking at Vette's figure, if we ballpark it around 7.5ml/day/finch, that's quite a lot isn't it, for a tiny finch? That would be like us drinking about 23L/day.

Though at the water fountain mine do really seem to down quite a lot with each visit, and they must generate a lot of heat with wing muscles, so I wonder...

Some of that will be evaporation and "splash", so the birds will not be consuming all of it

Cheers
Brett

BrettB wrote:Some of that will be evaporation and "splash", so the birds will not be consuming all of it

Cheers
Brett

Think you would be right BrettB

Except that in Vette's case a drip bottle is being used, so they won't be able to do that flick/beak wash action they do with regular gravity drinkers, and there'll be very little evaporation.

Vette, is it wet below the drinker bottle? Do you think they spill much?

Finchy wrote:Except that in Vette's case a drip bottle is being used, so they won't be able to do that flick/beak wash action they do with regular gravity drinkers, and there'll be very little evaporation.

Vette, is it wet below the drinker bottle? Do you think they spill much?

It is ball type bottle drinker in glass with metal tube (rabbit guinea pig type)....just changed water and parrot finches keep their beak against it and more then one drop flows out, so I'm thinking they are trying to make it a bathing situation as well....

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology
Volume 77, Issue 3, 1984, Pages 453–458 - Daily energy expenditure and water flux in black-rumped waxbills (Estrilda troglodytes)
Wesley W Weathers, Kenneth A Nagy

"3. Daily water efflux averaged 291 ± 36 ml (kg day)−1, equivalent to 41% of the total body water pool per day.
4. Daily water influx, 222 ± 58 ml (kg day)−1, was 24% lower than efflux, indicating that these small seedeating birds were unable to meet their water needs without drinking under the conditions of our experiments."[/i

] - I don't exact;y understand what this means and can't be bothered working it out on a Saturday afternoon.

http://www.lafebervet.com/avian-medicin ... the-finch/

"Water intake 250-300 ml/kg BW/day Zebra finch and other desert birds are an exception, and some finches can go months without a direct water source."

Iaos has it there- 250-300 ml/kg/day or 2.5-3 mls/10gm finch .

Assuming that most finches weigh 12-15 gm, this equates to between 3-4.5 mls/day.

These "avearage" figures assume an ambient temperature of 21 degrees (room temperature).

Then you have to take into account individual species' adaptations to arid conditions, local weather conditions, whether the bird is breeding, feeding young or moulting etc etc.

Hope that helps your calculations Finchy- hope it doesn't do your head in!!

Then you have to take into account individual species' adaptations to arid conditions, local weather conditions, whether the bird is breeding, feeding young or moulting etc etc.

And there diet as much of the water requirement comes from food

Cheers
Brett

R J Murray believed that a Gouldian consumes about halve an ounce of Water a day, approx.15 ml
I know that the experiment was carried out with single Birds in single in Cages,
I dont recall what time of the year these tests were conducted, ie Somer, Winter, or that the Water has been with held for some time
Does it really matter how much or how little any Bird drinks as long as they don t go without it?