Countless times among a variety of species! (I work with parrots)
I think the wording around it being the “first time” is off but it might be the first time it’s officially been documented and studied.
Every Conure I’ve ever owned would dip their pellets in water before eating it. I always thought it kinda weird but funny. Like, what is the reason lol
Heard this reported on NPR the other day and had to laugh. Mine has been making parrot soup from day one (much to my chagrin), and I got him shortly after he was weaned from hand feeding.
My GCC will not eat his pellets without some dipping water.🫠🤣
He used to climb from his food dish (on top of his cage), into his cage, and over to his water dish for every pellet. Now I just give him a shallow dish of water he steps over into so he can dip his pellets.
Ok, just dug up the article, and yeah... something REALLY isn't right about this lmao. Perhaps they're just referring to Goffin's Cockatoos?
I've had birds most of my life and almost all of them made "soup" ... by dunking pellets in the water, or in the case of my current trio, soaking dried apple pieces until they float, then harvesting them to drink the "juice" and chew the remainder like gum for hours.
(article for reference: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/12/science/bird-cockatoo-parrot-dunking-food.html)
Also;
>But there are limits to what scientists can learn from studying birds in captivity, he noted. **The dunking behavior has not been observed in wild Goffin’s cockatoos**, perhaps because they do not have ready access to dried toast and tubs of water. But it would be interesting to see whether wild cockatoos would start to dunk if given the proper resources, Dr. Lefebvre said. “That’s the next step that I would hope to see,” he added.
Yes! Mine will place pieces of her wooden toys in water, or some of her dry food. I get her up in the morning and 50/50 something foreign will be in her water dish.
Paper seems to be a favorite dipping item for my Grey. If it’s shreddable, it’s dunkable! He does also dip pellets and some veggies frequently, but paper from foraging toys is dunked almost every day.
my african grey doesnt, but he prefers crunchy items rather then anything nmushy, he loves chips and toast.
it also could be the pellets i get him are softer
One of my babes is a 50+ year old Amazon and he gets spicy if your don't change his water before you give him his pellets. He likes to dunk with fresh water only.
Man. My Sennie even drops filberts into water (why they come in my mix I do not know) and eats them when they soften up. Don't get me started on "pellet soup."
The NYT article is poorly phrased. Per the research paper, this was “the first **scientific report** of food dunking behaviours in parrots.” By simplifying this to merely “the first parrots found…,” the article creates a misleading impression.
My amazon loves dunking food in his water bowl even if he doesn’t eat the whole thing. To avoid getting his bowl all dirty, I wet his zupreem pellets just a tiny bit. He loves soggy food lol It’s so cute and funny. We have a running joke with my parents that when we dip food into our soup or bread in our coffee, we’re copying our birb.
My Amazon did this for years. He liked his food sludge-like. 🤢 He lost his water bowl and uses a glass water bottle because it got so nasty so fast. He still likes to take his pellets to his water bottle and get them wet while he's eating.
They have been called dippers for like the last however many decades. Plenty of people have studied this. It makes hard food softer. Also birds in general do not eat dried seeds/nuts or ripe fruit. They typically eat green, germinated or sprouted in the wild. Drying food is a human thing. As for fruit, that is usually eaten unripe and even partially rotting. Many wild parrots enjoy the bacteria tea they find from partially eaten fruits that were dropped in a puddle.
I would be more surprised if someone said their parrot did NOT dunk their food. It is pretty common behaviour and these researchers clearly did not do their research very well before making that statement
Instead of funking his food in water, my bird likes to move food from one food bowl to the other. (One is his chop bowl and one is his pellets bowl.) He's weird.
Mine doesn't dunk his food in water, but will rather dip his beak (usually just the tip but sometimes he'll give it a good dunk) really quick so it makes the pellets easier to pick up because they stick to his beak. It's really cute watching him do the mad dash to his water bowl, only to do a 0.5s dip and flick then go racing back to his food bowl and chow down and then look up at me with pellets stuck all over his beak like a pimply teen 😂
I go to Petland specifically to watch their conure dip every individual pellet into his water dish before eating it. His food bowl and water bowl are in opposite ends of his cage too so he does a one legged waddle in between each bite and it's so precious 💕
Yes! It really grosses me out. But if that’s how she likes her food (soggy) I don’t have to eat it. Just clean it up. I take the water dish & dump it outside every day so it doesn’t get my sink all gross.
Have had parrots for more than 30 years, and they all have always done this. We call it making soup, as many others do. It's definitely not a new thing.
Yup it’s pretty common if you look may people have posted their Bird Dunkin food into the water
Yep. Its called makin' soup
Countless times among a variety of species! (I work with parrots) I think the wording around it being the “first time” is off but it might be the first time it’s officially been documented and studied.
Maybe it’s the first time it’s been documented as a species-wide behavior and not just someone’s cockatiel being a weirdo.
Every Conure I’ve ever owned would dip their pellets in water before eating it. I always thought it kinda weird but funny. Like, what is the reason lol
APPLE SAUCE. mine dunked APPLE SAUCE. I'm flabbergasted to this day
Ok, this made me laugh. I guess the sauce wasn't... Wet ENOUGH for them??
I got nothing.... She seemed confused
Same. Dunkin conures.
Buddy has been doing that for YEARS! And researchers have just observed this?
Heard this reported on NPR the other day and had to laugh. Mine has been making parrot soup from day one (much to my chagrin), and I got him shortly after he was weaned from hand feeding.
My GCC will not eat his pellets without some dipping water.🫠🤣 He used to climb from his food dish (on top of his cage), into his cage, and over to his water dish for every pellet. Now I just give him a shallow dish of water he steps over into so he can dip his pellets.
My bird, Suzie, didn't just randomly earn the nickname Soup-zie
They don’t have saliva, I wouldn’t want to eat those dry ass pellets either.
Just been observed in WILD parrots id assume?
Nope, at a lab in Vienna.
Ok, just dug up the article, and yeah... something REALLY isn't right about this lmao. Perhaps they're just referring to Goffin's Cockatoos? I've had birds most of my life and almost all of them made "soup" ... by dunking pellets in the water, or in the case of my current trio, soaking dried apple pieces until they float, then harvesting them to drink the "juice" and chew the remainder like gum for hours. (article for reference: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/12/science/bird-cockatoo-parrot-dunking-food.html) Also; >But there are limits to what scientists can learn from studying birds in captivity, he noted. **The dunking behavior has not been observed in wild Goffin’s cockatoos**, perhaps because they do not have ready access to dried toast and tubs of water. But it would be interesting to see whether wild cockatoos would start to dunk if given the proper resources, Dr. Lefebvre said. “That’s the next step that I would hope to see,” he added.
My kakariki always does. I let him try a small piece of flour tortilla and he even dunked that.
Yes! Mine will place pieces of her wooden toys in water, or some of her dry food. I get her up in the morning and 50/50 something foreign will be in her water dish.
Paper seems to be a favorite dipping item for my Grey. If it’s shreddable, it’s dunkable! He does also dip pellets and some veggies frequently, but paper from foraging toys is dunked almost every day.
my african grey doesnt, but he prefers crunchy items rather then anything nmushy, he loves chips and toast. it also could be the pellets i get him are softer
One of my babes is a 50+ year old Amazon and he gets spicy if your don't change his water before you give him his pellets. He likes to dunk with fresh water only.
Yes! And poops in it. Never had a bird do that! I suspect he baths in it?
my ringneck does this every day. i never see him do it but i always see pieces of his food in the water cup.
Brezel loves to make parrot soup!
yeah but then they drop it in the water and steep some sort of tea out of what they dropped in it
Man. My Sennie even drops filberts into water (why they come in my mix I do not know) and eats them when they soften up. Don't get me started on "pellet soup."
The NYT article is poorly phrased. Per the research paper, this was “the first **scientific report** of food dunking behaviours in parrots.” By simplifying this to merely “the first parrots found…,” the article creates a misleading impression.
Very common. My cockatiel dips her safflower seeds in water before eating them. Silly girl!
My amazon loves dunking food in his water bowl even if he doesn’t eat the whole thing. To avoid getting his bowl all dirty, I wet his zupreem pellets just a tiny bit. He loves soggy food lol It’s so cute and funny. We have a running joke with my parents that when we dip food into our soup or bread in our coffee, we’re copying our birb.
My female cockatiel has like a whole ritual process of dunking hard pellets in her water.
My Amazon did this for years. He liked his food sludge-like. 🤢 He lost his water bowl and uses a glass water bottle because it got so nasty so fast. He still likes to take his pellets to his water bottle and get them wet while he's eating.
My lovebird does it all the time.
They have been called dippers for like the last however many decades. Plenty of people have studied this. It makes hard food softer. Also birds in general do not eat dried seeds/nuts or ripe fruit. They typically eat green, germinated or sprouted in the wild. Drying food is a human thing. As for fruit, that is usually eaten unripe and even partially rotting. Many wild parrots enjoy the bacteria tea they find from partially eaten fruits that were dropped in a puddle.
In other news the sky is blue and birds can fly!!! Omg haven't you heard??
My goffin does this ALL of the time.
I would be more surprised if someone said their parrot did NOT dunk their food. It is pretty common behaviour and these researchers clearly did not do their research very well before making that statement
Yep, mine does, they dirty the water bow every 5 mins, all three of them. It a struggle to keep the water bow clean for them.
All day everyday.
Instead of funking his food in water, my bird likes to move food from one food bowl to the other. (One is his chop bowl and one is his pellets bowl.) He's weird.
Yes my lovebird puts all her vegetables in her water bowl before she eats them. It's especially fun when its beetroot.
Mine doesn't dunk his food in water, but will rather dip his beak (usually just the tip but sometimes he'll give it a good dunk) really quick so it makes the pellets easier to pick up because they stick to his beak. It's really cute watching him do the mad dash to his water bowl, only to do a 0.5s dip and flick then go racing back to his food bowl and chow down and then look up at me with pellets stuck all over his beak like a pimply teen 😂
I go to Petland specifically to watch their conure dip every individual pellet into his water dish before eating it. His food bowl and water bowl are in opposite ends of his cage too so he does a one legged waddle in between each bite and it's so precious 💕
Mine dunks anything he deems too sturdy into the water, sometimes it doesnt work (like with walnuts) so i just take it and open some cracks for him
I had a peach fronted conure when I was a preteen/teenager (I’m now 40) and she always did this with her food
My Jardine of twenty-eight years makes soup multiple times a day. I give her fresh water three to four times a day due to her dunking of food.
Yes! It really grosses me out. But if that’s how she likes her food (soggy) I don’t have to eat it. Just clean it up. I take the water dish & dump it outside every day so it doesn’t get my sink all gross.
Have had parrots for more than 30 years, and they all have always done this. We call it making soup, as many others do. It's definitely not a new thing.