I am NOT taking a bath! FOGHETABAOUTIT!

Birdman666

Well-known member
Sep 18, 2013
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San Antonio, TX
Parrots
Presently have six Greenwing Macaw (17 yo), Red Fronted Macaw (12 yo), Red Lored Amazon (17 y.o.), Lilac Crowned Amazon (about 43 y.o.) and a Congo African Grey (11 y.o.)
Panama Amazon (1 Y.O.)
I am not taking a bath. I don't want to and I'm not gonna....

I just told you... I am NOT taking a bath...

I AM NOT TAKING A STUPID BATH...

Okay, let's go take a bath...

Trust me, this one's a visual... :D

We have played this same game, every bath day for about 11 years now...

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tg90576etw"]TUSKOUCH - YouTube[/ame]
 
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That's not actually dancing. When a CAG gets poofy, and does that stuff, IT'S A WARNING...

That's the CAG equivalent to a macaw or an amazon going "big bird" on you.

He didn't apply any real bite pressure. He didn't break the skin. He was just doing his best to bluff me out of a bath...

It was just hard enough to voice his displeasure and try to get me to back off.

And then I made him do it anyway.

When I say firm hand, one shake of the rope, or shake of the playstand, or shake of the cage, and he knows we're done playing.

Notice how nice he stepped up once I did that? He knows full well I'm no longer playing.

If he didn't step up at that point, I would just go and get a towel and hold it up.

Tusk, Do we have to do this the hard way?!

At that point, the foot goes up...

LIKE I SAY, EVERY WEEK FOR AROUND 11 YEARS NOW WE PLAY THIS LITTLE GAME. HE HASN'T WON YET... BUT WE STILL PLAY IT EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Now those three weeks or so, where I was having problems with him NOT going back to his cage, when he was doing that nonsense, only applying bite pressure.

And I bled every time... and trust me, that bird has a beak like a scissors. (So, we all deal with attitude every once in awhile, and occasionally they let you have it. Goes with the territory.)

THIS is just the "normal" I don't wanna do something...
 
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I want videos of your Macaws! CHOP CHOP

I only have my camera person with me for one more week, and she's a teenager, so getting her to do ANYTHING, much less something you ask her to do... can be problematic.

She doesn't respond as well when I shake the rope or get my towel... :p
 
LOL! Always Tusk, the renegade. And OUCH! Did he draw blood?
 
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LOL! Always Tusk, the renegade. And OUCH! Did he draw blood?

No. Not even close.

That was just a hard pinch.

It looked more dramatic than it was.

What makes this one funny to me, is my other four get poofy at bathtime and it means something entirely different.

Sometimes I make fun of him, singing the old, "We shall not be moved... We shall not be moved..." (Civil rights protest song.)

You HAVE TO have a sense of humor.

And when I put him under the water, it's the wicked witch of the west number:

"I'M MELTING! MELTING!"

I'll fall down laughing if he starts doing those on cue...
 
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OUCH, Mark!!! :eek:

You've got some dance moves, I see. :21:

I just mimic him to show him that he's not intimidating me at all...

The side to side head thing is "NO, NO, NO, NO, NO..."

The up and down poofy bounce thing, is "I DARE YOU TO STICK YOUR FINGER UP HERE..."

So I did.

Shaking the rope? That's human for "OKAY, YOU GOT ME. I DARE YOU TO TRY THAT AGAIN!"

He didn't.
 
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By the way, the bird "sounding the alarm" in the background is Tusk's little buddy, Lila, my 43 year old lilac crowned amazon.

I'm messing with her buddy bird, and she is warning him I'm coming for him... :D

I get the same response if I pick him up, and don't take her...
 
Lila is Tusk's BFF, right? His partner in crime for organized plots like remodeling molding right?
 
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Lila is Tusk's BFF, right? His partner in crime for organized plots like remodeling molding right?

Yep. Those two stick together like glue.

Now, I can pick Lila up, and take her somewhere, and she's fine.

But if I pick Tusk up? And don't take her? That amazon alarm call you hear in the background starts, and doesn't stop until I either bring him back, or pick her up too... She becomes quite distressed!

That two to three week period of time where Tusk flew off, and didn't come in from the tree?! She had her beak pressed up against the window... Waiting for him to come back.

Lila was kept with a gray, who she had this same sort of bond with, when I got her as a rescue. We WARNED the guy not to separate them... But he kept the gray and got rid of her. She transferred the bond to Tusk...

His gray immediately began plucking... :mad:

I could NEVER separate those two!
 
Birdman my grey does exactly that when I clean his cage and finished hoovering I go upstairs to put the shower on as soon as I appear he's ready to strike I have to distract him all the time wait till he's calmed down then trick him onto my hand. Do all greys hate getting showered even if I spray him he hates that worse I can only spray him in cage coz he goes crazy so all that bobbing up and down is a warning.
 
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They either love it or they hate it. I'll have to look for my old photos...

Tusk pitches a fit every bath day, and always has.

Nope. Don't still have the picture. Somewhere I have an old photo of a CAG who used to get into a half full sink, roll over on his back, and float around in the tub.

Mine is not that!
 
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My TAG Smokey, <God rest her soul> didn't like showers or baths either..in her house,out of her house,outside in the grass or a tree..NOPE!
\She would pull her arms tight to her body,and lower her head,and I'm using a misting bottle,she'd just sit there shaking her head.
I ended up just putting her in the bath tub,using the shower head on a mist,with luke warm water,and just drench her.

BUT..as soon as she was dried off,and back in her house,she'd run right to her water bowl and dip her noggin in it and wiggle her arms..go figure? Maybe she thought she was getting "dirty" when she was getting showered?? lol I don't know.

Jim
 
If he didn't step up at that point, I would just go and get a towel and hold it up.

Tusk, Do we have to do this the hard way?!

At that point, the foot goes up...

See, Willow doesn't *usually* bite if she doesn't want to be picked up, (almost never bites me, she knows I don't play.) But she tends to give my mother a hard time about stepping up when I'm not there....especially when it's time to get back into the cage.

BUT.....as far as towel, I have found leather work gloves to be MUCH more effective.

To the point that my mother literally just picks up the gloves, from the other side of the room....

And the foot goes up, lol

"I surrender!" :D
 
If he didn't step up at that point, I would just go and get a towel and hold it up.

Tusk, Do we have to do this the hard way?!

At that point, the foot goes up...

See, Willow doesn't *usually* bite if she doesn't want to be picked up, (almost never bites me, she knows I don't play.) But she tends to give my mother a hard time about stepping up when I'm not there....especially when it's time to get back into the cage.

BUT.....as far as towel, I have found leather work gloves to be MUCH more effective.

To the point that my mother literally just picks up the gloves, from the other side of the room....

And the foot goes up, lol

"I surrender!" :D

Too funny Tom lol..

Smokey was one of those wild caught babys...someone robbed her from her nest,using gloves, <I presume> and the sight of gloves latterly made that poor girl shake and growl :eek:
I never used them on her..with Jonesy, I don't know..he will not step up when he is on his roof top. His finger nails are tightly wrapped around his roofs shingles,and even when I gently put my hands around his body to lift him off,he refuses to let go,then he'll try and take a good chomp out of my fingers :( Maybe I'll try gloves the next time.

Jim
 

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