Bathing an african grey!

[hassan94]

Hello!
I Seem to be having a hard time to bathe my 5 months old parrot. The only thing that he will bathe in is his waterbowl, which is not a very perfect place to bathe. I have tried in a bigger bowl or the sink, but he does not seem to like it, he just gets scared.
Any help is appreciated!

[Polarn]

introduce a stationary second waterbowl (like a stationary birdiebath that you remember to clean as often as the waterbowl, couse it may just be the new object that is not familiar enough to expose yourself as you do when taking a bath, increasing your weight by becoming wet etcetera. there is a reason for a bird to poo before it takes off ya know I would atleast try it.

[hassan94]

nice, Thanks!
Should i put the bowl inside of his cage and then move it out when he gets used to it?

[marie83]

nice, Thanks!
Should i put the bowl inside of his cage and then move it out when he gets used to it?

Other way round, put it at a safe distance until your greys comfortable and progressively move it closer until its inside the cage- unless of course you prefer your grey to bath outside the cage.

[cml]

Perhaps you could try to train him towards showering rather than bathing?

We got Leroy used to it by putting a perch (movable perch mounted on a tripod) in the bathroom, and at first letting him just sit there while we showered. Then we started spraying him with the showerhead, until he was comfy with that. (at first we only showered half of the perch so he could choose if he wanted to be in the water) Then it was a just matter of moving the perch closer and closer to our tub/shower, until it was actually standing in the tub. After that we moved him to the wall mounted perch on the wall in the shower.

And yes, the first steps means there will be water EVERYWHERE in the bathroom. Its worth it though. Both our parrots LOVE to shower and especially Stitch. There's nowhere else he's as happy as in the shower, singing and talking away =)!

[hassan94]

Interesting Cml,
I do want to try that..
My gray is not afraid of the shower place, rather he likes to sit on the frame of the shower place. Will it work if i put a perch inside of it and start by spraying water around the perch? then gradually move it closer to my gray?

[cml]

Interesting Cml,
I do want to try that..
My gray is not afraid of the shower place, rather he likes to sit on the frame of the shower place. Will it work if i put a perch inside of it and start by spraying water around the perch? then gradually move it closer to my gray?

Maybe, I cant tell as I dont know anything about your parrot ^^. But it sounds sort of similar to what I did, so it might work!