Don't Wanna Bath

[judygram]

Josey my grey does not like taking a bath. She tries to bathe in her water dish but it is not big enough for her to do a thorough job of getting wet. So I am forced to give her a bath in the sink which she hates but I do anyway because I believe bathing is good for their skin. Would you give me some suggestions as to how I could get her to accept this more gracefully.:side:

[birdgranna]

Quinn hates to have a bath too, but...I have a square dishpan that I half fill and float a ball and some plastic toys in. He eventually will go in it and once he is wet, he goes to town having a bath. Mind you, he does not do this all the time and I am forced to get out "the mister" which he hates, big time.Jiggy will go in the dish pan most of them time. More than Quinn does. I mist my amazons as they do not like a bath tub but love misting. If my pics fit on here, which they never do, I would send you a pic of one of my amazons soaking wet...so cute.My conures love a bath and happily have one everyday.

[hveusnthbrige]

I'm a firm believer of the "Deal with it!" state of mind. Rains in the wild. Rains in the bath tub. Deal with it.

He hates it, but hey, in the wild rain is cold, in the tub rain is luke warm and soft. My tiels hate it, Mirek hates it. He's only had 1 bath yet, today, and so far he didnt like it lol. But that's too bad. He lives in my bedroom and I need to keep the dust down, so all my birds get a bath at least once a week. And when they look at me with those "I hate bath time." eyes, I look back and say "Deal with it."

But man, after he dried off, his feathers were so smooth and his head feathers were the softest ever. He was just in a state of bliss this afternoon getting a head scratch from me, making groaning noises and the possessed exorcist garble, haha.

So basically, bath time isn't any fun and that's too bad. But afterwards I make sure to give them extra special attention once they are dried off. That's pretty much how I deal with bath time.

[Lidia]

judygram wrote:

I am forced to give her a bath in the sink which she hates but I do anyway because I believe bathing is good for their skin. Would you give me some suggestions as to how I could get her to accept this more gracefully.:side:

Judy, I hate to break this to you, but you won't be able to do this for much longer. If she hates it now, she will hate it when she hits the Terrible Twos and she will take her revenge. Parrots never forget!
However, if it's any consolation to you, it's not necessary to bathe her and she won't get smelly, her preening will take care of all of that.

Most parrots produce an oil for preening, African Greys produce a powder to preen with. That powdery stuff that comes off their beak, near the edge of the nostrils, is the preening powder.

It is not good for them to be saturated with water regularly, as they don't produce the oil that other parrots do, so it can really mess with their feathers and their skin, especially if you have hard water. This can result in over-preening and even feather plucking over time.

You could try giving Josey a large bowl of water to jump in and splash around in, with toys.(Joshua still likes this from time to time). But I really would think twice about doing something that you have to force her to do. There is a good and logical reason for their not liking it.

Joshua, like so many greys in this forum flock, will bathe in his drinking water when he feels the need, but HATES being misted and I simply wouldn't even entertain the thought of bathing him because I know I would not have any hands left at the end of it.

So, he sits on the shower rail when I shower every morning and the small amount of steam from this (and the odd splash) does the same job as the hated bathing.

{Feel-bad-00020080}

To hveusnthbrige: In the wild, these birds don't come from a rain forest! They come from prairy lands and borderline woodlands where they feed off crops as well as berries, fruit and insects (and some carrion), etc. They would not normally get wet and can easily shelter under large leaves. How many wet wild birds have you ever seen?)<br><br>Post edited by: Lidia, at: 2007/07/16 10:37

[Bekkie]

My grey doesn't love to bath either unlike the ringnecks who will bath any time of the day,whether it's hot or cold they don't care. Lidia,the other day when I was sitting in he doctor's waiting room I read a magazine about rainforests and they actually showed the African Grey in there in the rainforests in the Congo.
B)

[Lidia]

Bekkie wrote:

I read a magazine about rainforests and they actually showed the African Grey in there in the rainforests in the Congo.
B)

Well I take back what I said about rainforests then, as I was obviously wrong! :blush: The stuff about powder (greys) versus oil (other parrots) still stands.
What were they shown doing?<br><br>Post edited by: Lidia, at: 2007/07/16 16:52

[Bekkie]

It was the magazine of National Geography and they were showing all the different birds and animals in the different rainforests in the world. Unfortunately I did not have time to read everything

[danmcq]

Judy - Good News!!!

You will definitely be a proud "Bite" owner soon.

When Josey decides one day, that the bath is not going to happen!! :woohoo:

I am glad everyone is telling the likes and dislikes of their respective Greys.

It sounds like most absolutely abhor water, but will put up with it only because they love You. :-)

[judygram]

Thanks Dan for the "good news", I think you are looking forward to my first bite, just kidding.
I will continue the sink bathing all the same though, but I am thinking of putting a big leaf of cabbage that is very wet and maybe she can roll in it, might be fun.

[Tari]

It took me 6 months to get my grey to take a bath. In the mean time she was misted. I would put a bowl of water in the cage with some veggies in it that would sink. I did this in the mornings for about 30 min before the first feeding. She would have to get wet to get to the veggies.
Now she well jump into a bowl with no problems and get a bath.
I dont like the idea of forcing a bird to do anything.