Basic shower questions

[CaketheParrot]

Ok, so what started as a question about a toy lead me to discover my African Gray’s life is terrible, leading to I should move him out of the basement, leading to containing mess: while the Food is. A problem his feathers are as well so here we are talking about showering. I know how to do it while I’m doing it but here are some questions on when:

-does temperature of weather matter? My uncle hardly showers are paranoid because he’s always waiting for a hot date at the pier it doesn’t get cold, but I’ve seen a lot of stuff saying the parent should be showered every few days and that leads me to wonder what if the weather conflicts with that? Especially in the winter.

-what kind of water is safe? I want to start doing it more without having to bother my uncle about it so Cake can stay clean even if my uncle is a bit busy, but idk what water I can use. Tap? Bottled? Fish tank fresh water?

-along with the weather thing, what about time of day? How late can we shower him and still give him time to properly dry?

-I feel like I had more but these will at least help me better understand for now until I remember and can add in the rest later. For now thanks!

[banuvatt]

I think you are overthinking it, as long as the water is something you would take a shower in it should be fine. Just make sure the temperature of the water is not too hot or cold more lukewarm. Parrots will dry themselves if they are given the opportunity to bathe in the sun. (Now this does not mean leave your parrot outside in the sun especially by himself lol.) Just bathe your bird and leave him on a perch to dry in front of a door or window where the sun can shine through.

About the time of day just gives him a bath at the warmest hour of the day, high noon. This should give him plenty of time to dry off.

[CaketheParrot]

Phew! okay. BUt then I talked to my grandma about it as she took care of Cake for a while before my uncle did, and she said a problem would be the whole basement thing, and she and uncle are scared it’s not warm enough down there even though it’s summer (well, it’s pretty early summer, though, she said)and the temperature of the basement honestly feels fine to me. Certainly not as warm as outside, but just the same as the rest of the house. That’s fine, right?

[banuvatt]

It should be fine just put your parrot on a perch in front of a door or window so they can get sunlight and dry off their feathers.

[CaketheParrot]

Great! Thanks again!!

[banuvatt]

If you want there are shower perches that you could stick on your window or door. So you can bathe your bird while he is sitting on his perch. If you want to make one it doesn't cost that much to make from what I can tell. You just need some PVC pipe, elbows, a T, an end cap, and some suction cups.

[CaketheParrot]

Thanks for the suggestion, but we don’t really need one. Cake has a neighboring cage right by the glass door he likes to go to to shower

[Pajarita]

Nope, water should be always cold. Not freezing but most certainly not lukewarm (warm and cold water strip oil from the feathers and skin and that's not good), it should be cooler than room temperature or downright cold (birds love to bathe in cold water for some reason). But you can't bathe a gray who doesn't want to be bathed because, although you are trying to do a good thing for it, it becomes flooding and that's a bad thing for even a parrot that is deeply bonded to you and a TERRIBLE thing if the bird doesn't even like humans (like Cake). Grays are notorious for not bathing... they simply do not like it. Now, what you can do is spray the bird's feet and see how he reacts, if he doesn't mind, then move the spray higher so it hits the body as well but, if the bird steps back or shows any other signs of not wanting a bath, stop immediately. My Sophie Gray HATES baths and no amount of cajoling will convince her to get one and, on the few occasions that she would take a bath on her own, there is A LOT of preparation (stepping in and out of the bowl, turning round, walking away and coming back, etc) and A LOT of movement with her head dipping and wings fluttering but, after all her gyrations, she ends up with a wet face and nothing else
And that's OK because she is never really dirty.

The best time for a bird to get a bath is mid-morning, after breakfast and before the noon rest (parrots should not be bothered at noon).

The room temperature is important but if it feels comfortable to a human, it will be OK for a bird like an African gray. Of course, warm is better but if you put the bird's perch where it can be reached by sunshine, it's OK.

[CaketheParrot]

Nope, water should be always cold. Not freezing but most certainly not lukewarm (warm and cold water strip oil from the feathers and skin and that's not good), it should be cooler than room temperature or downright cold (birds love to bathe in cold water for some reason).

ooh this actually works out pretty well, cause I was testing teh spray botte today and I couldn’t get the mist to be warm no matter how hot the water was.

But you can't bathe a gray who doesn't want to be bathed because, although you are trying to do a good thing for it, it becomes flooding and that's a bad thing for even a parrot that is deeply bonded to you and a TERRIBLE thing if the bird doesn't even like humans (like Cake). Grays are notorious for not bathing... they simply do not like it. Now, what you can do is spray the bird's feet and see how he reacts, if he doesn't mind, then move the spray higher so it hits the body as well but, if the bird steps back or shows any other signs of not wanting a bath, stop immediately.

Good to know. I pushed a bit hard today. After a few tries I backed off, but I’ll be sure to be gentler next time. And include some treats in the process.

My Sophie Gray HATES baths and no amount of cajoling will convince her to get one and, on the few occasions that she would take a bath on her own, there is A LOT of preparation (stepping in and out of the bowl, turning round, walking away and coming back, etc) and A LOT of movement with her head dipping and wings fluttering but, after all her gyrations, she ends up with a wet face and nothing else
And that's OK because she is never really dirty.

good point, I guess there’s not much getting stuck to them that would make showering too urgent.

The best time for a bird to get a bath is mid-morning, after breakfast and before the noon rest (parrots should not be bothered at noon).

Ooh I did not know that. Maybe that’s why Cake was so much more agitated than during his last shower. 11 am showers it is.

The room temperature is important but if it feels comfortable to a human, it will be OK for a bird like an African gray. Of course, warm is better but if you put the bird's perch where it can be reached by sunshine, it's OK.

That makes sense. Thanks for all the advice!

[Pajarita]

Wait until he is done with his breakfast and out of his cage (they usually climb to the top of the cage and, if you put branches sticking out, they will climb on them, too) and always letting him know what it is that you are going to do (which does not mean having a long conversation with the bird, it means repeating the same word or short phrase over and over so he can make the connection between it and the action that follows - I show them the spray bottle and very cheerly sing 'I'm singing in the rain' for them -which my husband finds incredibly annoying because I only know two sentences of the whole song so I repeat them over and over and over -and I have A LOT of birds so there is A LOT of repeating ) before you start and squirt ONLY his feet. If he walks back or moves away from the spray of water, stop IMMEDIATELY and while still repeating the word or phrase, slowly squirt twice in front of his feet without the water actually reaching them and leave it at that. Do not insist. You should never, ever, ever force a parrot to accept something he doesn't want to or not give him the choice/opportunity to move away (this is one of the reasons why allowing them flight is so important, because when you take away flight, you take away the only way they have of getting away from danger or something they do not like). The trick is to very slowly and very gradually show him that there is no danger, no pain, no forcing him to do anything while getting him used to whatever new thing you are trying to get him used to.