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Realized I was cleaning my bird bath with soap for two years straight.
After a blue jay kept sneezing at my feeder I looked it up and found out soap residue destroys the water tension and can actually make birds sick, has anyone else made this dumb mistake with their bath?
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the_grace9d ago
Oh gosh, I did the exact same thing for over a year... I thought I was being so thorough keeping it clean with a little dish soap. Then I noticed the robins were acting weird, like they'd take one sip and shake their heads. I felt so bad when I found out, it totally makes sense now that water tension thing is real. I ended up having to scrub the whole bath with just a brush and water, then let it sit for a few days to dry out completely. Now I just use a stiff scrub brush and hot water, no soap ever...
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kevin_west8d ago
The robins shaking their heads like that is honestly kind of haunting. Birds are usually pretty straightforward about their business, so seeing them that bothered means something was really off. You must have felt terrible when you put it together. The water tension thing is no joke, soap residue can mess with how they drink and preen. Scrubbing it down and letting it bake in the sun for a few days sounds like the only real fix. At least now you know, and the robins probably appreciate the clean water more than ever.
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