The reluctant bather

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Scotty seems to know naught about bathing. Not like Scooter who happily splashes away when he's in the mood. He's been sprayed with a bottle, but apparently never much enjoyed it.

Well, yesterday we finally got the stainless steel cups for his cage -- we'd been using big old plastic ones, these are actually MUCH smaller -- and when I gave him fresh water, he immediately dived into the tiny little cup! I tried to capitalize on that by taking him out and offering him: the sink, a bowl, a shallow baking dish... but no, the tiny little water dish seems to be the only thing that piqued his interest. Maybe he was done for the day? Bill put him under the sink faucet today and he tolerated it, but I'd like to see him enjoy his bath time. Any ideas?

[Michael]

Truman is the same way so I just got him a bigger bowl and put it in the aviary

[pchela]

I need ideas too. None of mine like to bathe.

[Michael]

I need ideas too. None of mine like to bathe.

I don't think that should come as much of a surprise as they are all Poicephalus. Unlike many of the Arini which come from plentiful water in rain forests, the Poicephalus generally inhabit woodland savannah. This is generally a drier equatorial climate with milder amounts of rainfall.

To this day, Kili doesn't enjoy bathing/showering one bit but will tolerate it. But she shows not one ounce of satisfaction. At least Truman likes bathing in his bowl...

[lzver]

Lucy and Jessie both take a bath in their water bowls when they feel like it .... from what I can tell its once or twice a week. They could be doing it while I'm at work and I wouldn't know.

I do mist them at least once a week as well ... more often in the summer when its hot and also in the winter when its really cold outside and the air is dryer in the house. They tolerate misting, but don't really love it.

My guess is, if they don't like bathing, they're never going to love it. They may learn to tolerate it though.

[pchela]

What I really want to know is how often we should bathe our poicephalus? Everybody says that they should be bathed at least 3 times a week but surely the different species have different needs? Just how much rain does a woodland savannah typically get?

Supposedly Jardine's love to bathe but I have yet to see evidence of this. Pippin will give himself a bath in his water bowl occasionally... maybe once a week or less.

[Michael]

I think the woodland savannah gets rainfall by seasons. It alternates a dry period and a wet period. But once a week rainfall or less sounds reasonable in general.

BTW my Cape likes bathing much more than Senegal. I don't know if it's because of how he was raised or because he is a Cape. However, he still doesn't exactly love it like I've seen videos of Amazonian parrots doing.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I wonder why Scotty did not want to bathe in the big plastic bowl, but dived right into the small stainless bowl? Issue of familiarity?

His approach was definitely similar to Truman's!