Bathing your bird (CAG)

[DRB]

How often should a bird get bathed, and at what age should you start doing so?

Thanks.

 

[SailBoat]

With a new arrival, whether older or younger, bathing more commonly starts with very light misting, but never directly at the parrot. Better to start and continue spraying up over the parrot so as to allow the 'mist' to fall gently down from above. This separates you and the spray bottle from the source of the falling mist.

With new arrival Adult parrots, providing a pie plate like source with room temperature water will allow them to wade into the water and splash to their hearts content. Note: the size of the parrot defines the size of the water source. Goal here is a wider / shallow water source as to a deep / narrower source. With rehomed parrots, its more a matter of finding what they like.

Showering with humans: This can occur once a trust bound is established. Commonly, you will need a gentle 'light' spray of water and normally cooler rather than hotter water. If your parrot just does not like this, stop! If there is a joy in sharing a shower, enjoy! Just remember that you are the one that has to wipe-down the shower afterwards.

When to start with a baby, commonly once a full or near full plumage is in place.

This depends on the parrot and the level of dust they can create. At the very least once a week, at the very most a couple times a day.

 

[flyingron]

We try to get Bacca wet a couple of times a week. I built a perch out of PVC pipe in the shower (plus we have one that suction cups to the glass). She's not overly fond of it but she's gotten more tolerant. Mostly she's happy to sit there while I'm washing myself. I take the hand shower and let it loft onto her and sometimes spray her from below.

 

[DRB]

Perjo is 15 weeks old, so she's fully feathered, no idea if she's been bathed from the aviary I got her. Time to start I suppose.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Yes, now's a great time to start.

I agree with Sailboat, I'd begin with a super light misting and see how she likes it.

My fids get a super thorough soaking at least once a week (more often while they're molting).

 

[DRB]

So I took her outside on Easter (65 degrees out) and had her in her travel sleep cage and misted her pretty good. She didn't hate it, not sure if she liked it, but she also didn't seem to know or associate the misty spray with me doing it.

Today at 9 am I tried to place her in a Pyrex glass bake ware filled with an inch of water and she freaked out, flew out of the room.

Just now at 12 noon I see her dipping her head in her bowl and wiggling her head around splashing water everywhere, and she kept doing it, and seemed to like it. Now I'm confused. I think she was trying to clean her beak off as she just ate some dandelion and hard boiled egg yolked mix.

Weather won't be nice enough for another week to get her outside to spray mist her again.

 

[LilChodi954]

I have a shower perch and I take them into the shower. You can try misting her in the shower or give her a full soak. Though my CAG dislikes showers, she will let me lift her wings to get wet.

 

[DRB]

My shower is small and kind of meh (needs remodeled) and I'd worry if she got spooked she just fly around into the tile walls or into the shower curtain and just scare herself more.

I think I'm gonna have to do this outside with her in a cage and just keep with it.

 

[Christinenc2000]

BB Hates water. Ok so not hate anymore . Just dislikes it. I bought a pump bottle from Pet Smart. Its like a garden sprayer. Pump it up and pull the trigger. Less noise so less fear.

He still holds side of cage but now instead of yelling he talks to me. Yup cusses some but mostly telling me how pretty he is. . This is the only picture I could find . The one I bought only holds 16oz

 

[DRB]

Decent temperature today, not a cloud in the sky so I set Perjo out in the sun for ten minutes then misted her up good. She seemed to run from the direction the mist came from but wasn't vocal at all. I take that as a small stride forward to a true bath. I did it right after I saw her seemingly try to get herself wet from her water bowl.

 

[Scott]

BB Hates water. Ok so not hate anymore . Just dislikes it. I bought a pump bottle from Pet Smart. Its like a garden sprayer. Pump it up and pull the trigger. Less noise so less fear.

He still holds side of cage but now instead of yelling he talks to me. Yup cusses some but mostly telling me how pretty he is. . This is the only picture I could find . The one I bought only holds 16oz

These are great, Christine! I have a similar model that came with a long hose and nozzle. Had to shorten the hose a bit to make it look less like a "snake." The fine mist is less threatening to birds averse to water, but my TAG remains the biggest hater of moisture!!

 

[Birdman666]

My CAG gets weekly soakings whether he wants to or not. (Trust me - IT'S NOT!) Even after more than a dozen years of doing this dance, he still tries to "bluff me out of" a bath.

http://www.parrotforums.com/congo-timneh-greys/56621-i-am-not-taking-bath-foghetabaoutit.html

THEN HE GOES AND TAKES ONE...

(AFTERWORDS I GET THE STINK EYE!)

 

[RavensGryf]

I have a mister bottle too. Raven and Robin HATE water on them. They hate it in any way. I'm glad I'm not the only one who "tortures" their bird on a regular basis. The Pois are a little dusty, but can go longer than Raven. Raven my Pionus is so super dusty. Not as much as a Grey, but much more noticeably dusty than the others and usually has a matte finish.

 

[DRB]

How wet do you get the bird?

 

[saracuse]

We have a training perch in our shower for Tiki. She prefers to just hang out on my hand the whole time shes in the shower with me. She didnt like the bowl and didnt like the sink, so i figured might as well just jump right in. Now she loves it.

Off topic...has anyone tried those bird bath sprays like Miracle Care Feather Glo Bird Bath Spray or something similar?

 

[Birdman666]

Don't know if you were asking me or Raven...

Mine sits under a rain forest shower head for a few minutes, until he is completely soaked.

 

[DRB]

Gave her two spray downs in past 4 days. Was silent on Thursday, quite vocal is her displeasure today. She got wet thought, that's the goal.

 

[Weezerj]

Loki likes misting....he's not so sure about the shower.

I just want to remind those using sprayers or minsters to remove all the water when you are done. Bacteria will grow in standing water and you don't want to use left over water from your mister. Loki likes to catch some mist in his mouth during misting....

We do no less than 1/week, twice if we can.

I just lay down a towel and mist on a pvc perch....this way I'm not counting on nice weather (which is seldom in Pacific Northwest)

 

[DRB]

59 degrees out at 10:30am, was out doing minor yard preening, misting some plants with garden hose and the light bulb went off.

Bring Perjo out here in her cage, ignore her and continue misting the yard.

Oops I'm so sorry Perjo, you're getting all wet from the over spray. Oh my look at sopping wet you are.

Worked, perfectly, she didn't completely enjoy it, she tried to maneuver around the cage a bit, but no expressing any discontent vocally at all.

She really needed it too, she's been picking and very dusty, I think she's sneezed once a day for a week now, might have been b/c of that.

 

[LeaKP]

Yeah they need it. Nigel is just 15 weeks old but now that his big boy feathers are in will be getting used to showers. Their feathers do so much better with a shower and it cuts down on the dander. Most of mine have loved the shower but on occasion there's been the ones who prefer the hard road and have "accidental" showers as in "oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were getting wet."