Cruel to spray with water for discipline?

[Amanda_Bennett]

A spray bottle was used to "discipline" Zilla before I got her and it took me months to be able to mist her. Now she loves getting misted and refuses to go in the shower! She prefers a light mist until she is soaking wet to a heavy shower spray.

I would never use a spray bottle as discipline, timeouts work way better anyways.

 

[Birdman666]

Tell you what, my fids see the spray bottle and they open their wings and go "WEEEEEEE....."

Exactly. That's what's supposed to happen....

Not cowering, or becoming aggressive because you turned this into a war, and now he doesn't like getting squirted....

It turns what should be a huge positive, into a huge negative.

And it isn't even all that effective. There are WAY more effective ways of dealing with screaming.

 

[Kyoto]

I photographed a girl with her budgie yesterday, and it made me realize how quiet Kyo is LOL she had three of them and I couldn't get over the chatter they made! Kyo only yells when she is excited.

Kyo is not a fan of the sprayer, but she will sit on her perch in the shower with me, and really likes when I run the tap in the sink on low with cold water so she can bathe too I'm always a bit nervous in there with her though because well… she's still a nippy bird, and if she manages to fly to my shoulder I'm in trouble (lots of freckles that she feels need to go) .

I feel so bad for all the birdies that are taught to fear water She loves baths so much I couldn't imagine taking that away from her.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Using a water bottle as a punishment is just unnecessarily harsh to the bird, in my opinion. It's a shortcut.


There it is, in a nutshell. Discipline can be achieved with consistently applied timeouts as well. So why shoot the bird with a stream of water?

It's just easier, I reckon, to blast him from across the room rather than get up and put him on timeout.

Easier, however, doesn't always equate with better.

Couldn't have said it better myself. You never get a complete result with a half-hearted job. You get out of it what you put into it.

Skittles sees it as his 'job' to protect me and look out for me. I can't imagine how I'd feel if he saw his 'job' as staying away from me out of fear of being hit with a spray bottle.