cockatiel bathing?

[cockatiel92]

its been the 4th day in a row that iv put water out for my cockatiel but he wont come into it to bath. is this normal. what are ways to get him to take a bath.

[catschair]

My tiels like to be misted; actually they demand to be misted. If they see the sprayer (or even the hose) they will come and call until they get a shower!

[cockatiel92]

iv tried misting he dosent like that either.

[Jannabellsmom]

I started Jannabell on a very gentle mist. I also read in a book, and so, I made little cooing noises when I did it like "ooooo oooooo, it's raining... ooooo ooooo oooooooo". I think that helped and now shes so cute when I mist her, lifting her wings and tilting just so to get wet all over.

[BigBird]

My cockatiels outside love having a bath, but when we had inside ones they never took to it.

The ekkie on the other hand is another story!! I now have to get up 10 minutes earlier in the morning so I have enough time to blow dry my bird! Alexis trots up to the corner of her cage when Im doing my hair, i turn the hair dryer onto her and she wiggles her tail, then jumps in her bath, gets out with wings stretched and I have to dry her then she comes up to the corner of cage top again, wings out and shaking those tail feathers, jumps back in the bath, comes back up to the corner, when she';s had enough she spends the rest of the time staring at herself in the mirror!

[KimM]

My tiel loved baths, but it HAD to be one particular dish or he wouldn't do it. LOL A white corning wear pie dish with a blue flower in the middle of it. Weird bird!

[cockatiel92]

hmm maybe the dish isnt deep enough or maybe its too deep ill have to try different one to c.

[Oviraptor]

When you mist your bird try not to spray him directly. They seem to prefer the water falling down on them as a gentle mist.
Making cooing happy noises DEFINITELY helps too!

I don't know if its true or not, but I read somewhere that the reason why many cockatiels do not like bathing is because they are desert birds.

[Eliza]

See if you can get your hands on a Misty Mate Cool Blast Mister (Amazon.com: Misty Mate Cool Blast Mister: Sports & Outdoors).

I picked one up last summer at a discount store. The mist is very gentle. Beetle didn't much care for it (he preferred to bathe in a water dish) but a 'tiel I pet sit would go CRAZY for it (in a good way). He's hang upside down, doing the bat-wing thing and chortle his head off during a good misting.