Bath training for a mature bird?

[Melissa2013B]

Hi everybody,

Just joined up here and this is my first post. Looks like a nice forum! We live in the Denver area.

We got Lucy, our yellow naped amazon, around November of 2010. Since then, she's come a long way with getting closer to me, except for one thing - bathing.

Some background:

We're told that Lucy spent her first 8 years with a woman in Florida, then was rehomed to her last home here in the Denver area, where she spent 4 years with a woman whose boyfriend was guy in his 60's. She was primarily his bird.

She's about 15 years old now. When we first got her, the previous home had rehomed her because the woman said that Lucy bit her pretty badly on the face. When we first got her ( she's clipped ) I would take her for walks up to 2 miles, on my shoulder, when the weather was warm enough, and we still enjoy those. But she seemed like a "bitey" bird and people told us that amazons were that way, and a bit volatile in nature. For the longest time, I couldn't just sit down in a chair with her - she'd slowly crawl down my arm and then nail me on the upper or lower arm.

But over the past 2-1/2 years, we've gotten gradually closer and I recently started trying that again and we're fine now, I can actually sit with her and pet her now, which is very cool!

The bathing seems to be the last challenge.

I was told that she used to bathe by just going on someone's shoulder when they went in the shower. The problem is that I work until 10 PM sometimes and don't usually shower until around midnight, when the birds are long asleep.

We have a 3rd bedroom that's converted to a shower room for the birds, where I put the shower rod in the center of the tub, down at waist height, and adapted a sink sprayer to the shower head, so I can adjust it for a warm gentle shower for them. Our umbrella cockatoo Oz enjoys a good soaking bath or two, every 4 days. It keeps him wonderful with the dust and all.

But Lucy just doesn't like to bathe this way, and it's been a real ordeal getting her to. It usually goes for a few months, until I just have to get her in there, then she tries to bite, growls and fights me the whole way. There's no way to "make it fun". If I go in there with her on my shoulder, she's ok, but won't go down to the shower perch. If I try to keep her on my forearm and go in there, she tries to climb up, and if I try blocking her with my other hand, she bites.

Toweling has been one way, but she hates toweling and then winds up flying down from the perch anyway and has to be picked up from the floor and put back on. It's been a real ordeal, but she needs to bathe.

So does anyone have some worthwhile suggestions for how to accomplish getting her to cooperate and actually enjoy a good bath, like Oz does in there? ( She actually watches him bathe all the time, but won't do it herself! )

[Eurycerus]

There's a couple things I want to touch on. First I want to ensure that you know how dangerous it is top go outside with a parrot without a harness or travel cage. Even a clipped bird can get spooked and flap away into danger, whether that's a river, road with cars, a predator, or actually getting lost. I may have misunderstood but do be careful!

Some parrots don't like baths but might like to bathe in a different way. Try a mister bottle pointed up into the air so it sprinkles down. Definitely don't aim spray from a shower or mister bottle at a parrot otherwise they might get scared. Also toweling i don't think is necessary unless it's cold or your bird is sopping wet, even then if it's warm they're probably fine. Nika likes top bathe in her bowl and gets very wet but dries pretty quickly. If it's cold then they probably won't want a bath anyway. You could also try to provide a shallow tray of water and make it look fun to get into. Medium sized parrots like my parrots like to bathe in their water bowl so it would make sense that a tray or bowl large enough for an Amazon might be tempting. Good luck!

[CSLFiero]

yup, mister bottle. And it keeps you just far away enough that if she doesn't like it, she can't go for your eyes.

[marie83]

Stop forcing it on your bird, theres no need for towells and birds dont necessarily need to bathe as often as most people think they do.
Offer her large trays of water, try the misting, 1 spray at a time as others have suggested but dont force the issue as you may end up making her scared altogether

[Utoomom]

Hi! Maybe you could try a steam bath. Just turn on the hot shower and let the room steam up. She might enjoy the warmth and humidity without the actual water touching her. You U2 will love this! Mine does. It will sorta get her use to hanging out in the bathroom with out having an intrusive experience. Just a thought.. good luck!~~

[Eurycerus]

Hi! Maybe you could try a steam bath. Just turn on the hot shower and let the room steam up. She might enjoy the warmth and humidity without the actual water touching her. You U2 will love this! Mine does. It will sorta get her use to hanging out in the bathroom with out having an intrusive experience. Just a thought.. good luck!~~

Great suggestion. I do that with Nika. She looovvess the bathroom and whistles very happily while I shower. She's not super keen on actually being in the shower area but probably likes the sound of the water and the steam. :]

[Utoomom]

Hi! Maybe you could try a steam bath. Just turn on the hot shower and let the room steam up. She might enjoy the warmth and humidity without the actual water touching her. You U2 will love this! Mine does. It will sorta get her use to hanging out in the bathroom with out having an intrusive experience. Just a thought.. good luck!~~

Great suggestion. I do that with Nika. She looovvess the bathroom and whistles very happily while I shower. She's not super keen on actually being in the shower area but probably likes the sound of the water and the steam. :]

Awesome! it's really good for them to inhale the steam.

[Melissa2013B]

There's a couple things I want to touch on. First I want to ensure that you know how dangerous it is top go outside with a parrot without a harness or travel cage. Even a clipped bird can get spooked and flap away into danger, whether that's a river, road with cars, a predator, or actually getting lost. I may have misunderstood but do be careful!

I've been taking her for these walks, up to 2 miles, since we got her in November 2010. She loves them, and being out. In the summer it's almost every afternoon, but less in the cooler weather, unless it's at least 50 and sunny with little breeze.

Some parrots don't like baths but might like to bathe in a different way. Try a mister bottle pointed up into the air so it sprinkles down. Definitely don't aim spray from a shower or mister bottle at a parrot otherwise they might get scared.

Oz, our umbrella cockatoo, bathes every 4 days, with gusto. I adapted a sink sprayer to the shower head, with a reduction valve to cut down the pressure. This is in our 3rd bathroom, right next to the bird room, which we don't use for anything else. And I put the shower rod down the middle of the tub at waste height. Oz LOVES to bathe that way. I direct the sprayer all over him with nice warm water, lift his wings, etc., but with his head I direct it in the air over his head, so it comes down like rain. He loves it. And Lucy watches all this through the open door, but won't do it!

Also toweling i don't think is necessary unless it's cold or your bird is sopping wet, even then if it's warm they're probably fine.

Lucy HATES to be toweled. We had a friend come over and give her a bath, but she used a towel and toweled her first, and every time Lucy would fly off the shower perch. she'd pick her up with the towel and put her back, while keeping talking to her, but this woman has a way with birds, and every time I try that, Lucy loses trust and gets all crazy on me and we both have a bad time.

But I don't towel Oz after his bath, even in winter, because I use nice warm water ( test it on the back of my hand, so it's good & warm but not hot ) and we have an electric heater in the bird room anyway, which keeps it in the upper 60s all winter. And he dries quickly, yes.

Nika likes to bathe in her bowl and gets very wet but dries pretty quickly. If it's cold then they probably won't want a bath anyway. You could also try to provide a shallow tray of water and make it look fun to get into. Medium sized parrots like my parrots like to bathe in their water bowl so it would make sense that a tray or bowl large enough for an Amazon might be tempting. Good luck!

Tried that before, she wouldn't touch it.

It's like she dreads water, which is unnatural for an amazon, but then the jungle is usually roasting hot and they HAVE to bathe, while our house is never over 68, even in summer.

[Melissa2013B]

Stop forcing it on your bird, theres no need for towells and birds dont necessarily need to bathe as often as most people think they do.

Yeah, but when it gets to be 6 months?

Offer her large trays of water, try the misting, 1 spray at a time as others have suggested but dont force the issue as you may end up making her scared altogether

It's like she already is, and I don't get it.

[Melissa2013B]

Hi! Maybe you could try a steam bath. Just turn on the hot shower and let the room steam up. She might enjoy the warmth and humidity without the actual water touching her. You U2 will love this! Mine does. It will sorta get her use to hanging out in the bathroom with out having an intrusive experience. Just a thought.. good luck!~~

Oz, our umbrella cockatoo, loves to bathe every 4 days, like clockwork. We even put it on the calendar so we remember. He loves it so much, that he sometimes wants two baths ( when he gets all happy and dances up and down on the shower perch, he wants two! ) and then he even goes back in the cage and sometimes does an Irish dance in the water bowl after that, for sometimes 5 minutes. That's how we know he's Irish. We call it his River dancing.