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Bath time

Elby

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Christina
Hello everyone! As I mentioned in my intro thread, I’m a bird owner by accident who is just winging it and figuring things out as I go. I have a Lilac Crowned Amazon that I inherited about a year and a half ago. He’s incredibly sweet and tame and I think we’ve bonded quite well. One thing I’ve yet to figure out is bath time. Everything I’ve read says they love baths, but he doesn’t. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. I’ve even watch tons of YouTube videos.

I bought a spray bottle - he hates that. I ran just a tiny stream of water in my sink, set him in the bottom and he just tries to climb out. Same with the bathtub. The only thing that seems to semi-work is letting him hang out on top of the shower door while I take a shower and get wet from the steam and spray. He’ll hang out and doesn’t get agitated, but he doesn’t enjoy it. He bathes himself in his water bowl, so I know he knows what to do. Help?
 

sunnysmom

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You could maybe try a shower perch with her if she seems to kind of like the shower?
 

Clueless

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No worry!

Sounds like Secret!

MC loves a bath. Secret endures it. UNLESS. ...... the bird wants one. I have a shallow heavy crock bowl I put in the floor of the shower. I put Secret on the edge with the shower running on a fine mist that DOESN'T TOUCH the bird. Part of this is just for the sound.

By the way, temperature?

Secret likes luke warm water.

MC likes cool water temperature.

If you use a water bottle, mist in the air above the bird and let it fall. Secret will climb into the bowl and dunk her head. When she opens her wings up, I mist above her.

I try for once a week. If it's 2 weeks apart, Secret isn't as bad at enduring.
 

redindiaink

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Every so often I catch Bug enjoying a bath in his water dish, but the rest of the time he just sits like there tolerating the baths I give him.

Could try running a vacuum, for some reason it inspires some birds to bath.
 

Rain Bow

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This may sound dumb but...
I have a Mexican red headed, I think that our birds are very similar except your guy has a bluer skin tone to my guy who has a peach. Like many Zon's he didn't like baths/misting when I 1st got him. Buddy was an inheritance for us & the :heart:of our lives.

Buddy will bowl bath if he's left to his own devices. It takes weeks & the proper indoor temps. I misted him & got to get him to like it by spraying myself in the face & making a loud party out of it when he was new to our house (raising volume of radio, singing & dancing & thinking... I hope no 1 can see me) :lol:. I fear a spray bottle may have been used as a punishment @ some time in his life, as he was very afraid of it. He actually loves it now.

I don't think he knew any bathing besides his water dish. Going in the bath tub was a new adventure for him. I bathed him there similar to how a parrent would bathe a small child. Scooping water over him, making a waterfall w/ the tub nozzle & my hand, trying to "get"/"persuade" him to bathe like he does in his bowl. Nada! He seems to enjoy the time but he hasn't been overly joyed. Just likes the attention, I believe.

Finally, It dawned on me that although he bowl bathes for me, I'm unsure he had even seen a bath tub before coming into our home. He was probably never taught how to bathe & he was given as a smaller birb baby, probably close to weaning.

Slowly but surely he has learned by bath tub flying, (standing on my hand w/ his wings spread out, & moved front to back of tub) sort of like ice skating/sailing via my hand. He's gotten more confident w/ this. I'm hoping in time the rest will come to him when he's there w/out my help, while I watch him. I've only gone thru all this as our bathroom isn't really up for bird fluffing & shaking soaking wet. 'Cause of how the walls designed (they can't really get wet above the tub area).

I've tried temperature changes & none seems to matter for us but like @Clueless stated, it can br dependant on the fid it can make a difference, (based on my research). Try to keep in mind that every birds an individual & just like people there are things they enjoy, things that they tolerate & things that they just :wtf:&:mad:. If you have the ability to shower him, I too would recommend a shower perch... I'd start w/ just having him step up on it, if he seems scared of it. Slowly build up to the rest over time.

Good luck. :goodluck:

:grouphug:
 

Elby

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Thanks, everyone, for the replies and suggestions. I think I’ll try the shower perch. The thing that baffles me the most is that he never opens his wings during bath time, even if he doesn’t act upset or agitated.

I’ve tried different water temperatures for both the spray bottle and even two water when trying bathtub and sink baths. I thought maybe my house was too cold so I took him outside with my spray bottle. Worst idea ever as he kept divebombing into the grass and ended up all muddy and gross. I’ve tried spraying both above and below him. He just hates it and runs from me if he sees the spray bottle. So that’s out permanently

I put him on the floor of my shower once while I was taking a shower and he just climbed on my foot like he was taking refuge or something. He ended up even more soaking wet than he otherwise would have, but it made me feel sorry for him. He was passed around amongst my family members for the past 15 years before coming to me and while he didn’t have a forever home he certainly wasn’t abused by any of them. I don’t know anything about where he came from originally to say if he was abused or had a bad bath experience, but it’s been a long time so.

Anyway, a shower perch seems like a good idea I haven’t tried. I think I’ll look for on the next time I’m at the bird store. However, I’m certainly open to any other thoughts or ideas if someone has them.
 

Fuzzy

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Bobbie (Red-lored Amazon) has taken quite a while to enjoy showers. Like Elby she would just sit there with wings closed tolerating the spray. As has been suggested try spraying into the air and letting a fine mist fall back on her. Even now, Bobbie will start to open her wings and enjoy a shower if I spray her very gently and slowly. Ollie (Orange-winged Amazon) on the other hand loves to be sprayed with as much water as possible, but with him too, when he first arrived, I used to spray gently into the air and letting a fine mist fall back onto him.

Also try turning on the vacuum cleaner. The noise gets Kobe (Pionus) immediately begging to be sprayed. I have noticed too it sends Bobbie to go bathe in her water bowl. Now that you have two birds, try spraying them together - one might teach the other that it's not so bad. That's what I do with Ollie and Bobbie. Like Rain, I whoop it up too - my attention is reinforcing to all of them, so hopefully I end up reinforcing open winged shower action! Chico (Panama Amazon) still mostly hates being sprayed... I try to do it very gently.
 

Anita1250

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I use the shower perch on my 36 yr. old BFA Sam. He goes crazy for his bath now. It used to be that he hated it and only bathed in his water bowl. Through several years of trying, we have gotten to the point where he enjoys it. I started by misting him on his cage. I used a spay bottle on the day the cage needed to be cleaned anyway. He would somewhat enjoy it, but not overjoyed. Now with the shower perch and the spray bottle, he loves it. I think it takes a lot of time to get them used to whatever way you do it.
 
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