Dirty Bird bath tips?

[Callistobass]

So Lola has been home for a few days now, and the number one "problem" area her previous owner told me about was bath time.

she is fearful of water and her bath spray.

I have had her by the sink (she gets as far away from it as possible) and have tried to show her how fun the water is by playing in it myself. So far, no luck..

Whenever I go over to her (because like I said, she is FAR away from the sink) she immediately says "cage" and puts her foot up.. sure this is adorable, but so is a CLEAN bird, I try to explain to her..

As far as the bath spray, we tried it last night and it was clearly the most traumatic experience of her life EVER! :icon_mrgr

She was damp, but she was so confrontational with regards to the spray, I couldn't really use it effectively (I didn't want to spray her in the face). I followed all the directions (held it 12-18 inches away, made the room warmer beforehand), and also tried the "raining" method, where I pointed the bottle so it would arch over her.

The previous owner said she never used any spray as a punishment, so I don't know if something else traumatized her or what.

Has anyone else had a dirty bird that doesn't want to get clean? What did you do to get your birdy into the water?

[Chariclo]

When Ramone came to me he stunk awful! And he was not at all interested in a bath either. I did put him in the shower for a total soak down a couple of times, but have found the spray to be much easier for him and me (he doesn't step up). Now he gets a misting every other morning after his breakfast. It's just part of his routine. He wasn't real thrilled at first, but has come to accept it. And he actually enjoys it now. I put a heat lamp on him until he is thouroughly dried off. He really loves that part.

It's a tough job being a parront - but sometimes ya have to do what you have to do. :icon_smil

[Callistobass]

I am not worried about making her mad at me.. if she gets a bath, but won't talk to me for an hour or two, I'll take that no problem.

It's just that she is a Congo Grey, and has had plucking problems in her past, and I don't want to stress her unnecesarily if I don't have to.

She is more than just water-shy.. she is water fearful.. it goes beyond her just being uncomfortable/shy with the spray - it is obvious she is terrified of it.

Every day I take her to the sink (well, down the counter from the sink) I show her how fun the water is. I am just wondering if anyone else has done/heard of another effective method to a really water-frightened bird

[Callistobass]

so we took a shower yesterday... it was at first met with great protest, but then finally a humbling accaptance.

I set up a perch in the shower and had the water hitting just at her feet (so it wasn't on her, but she could get in it if she liked)... she wasn't impressed with this, but sure enough about 30 minutes later I had a wet bird! hah!

The whole time I kept saying how much fun this was, and how good she was.

Lucky for us in the Chicagoland area, it was 70 degrees yesterday, and Lola's birdroom had a nice sun-bath, so it was nice to get some fresh air that was WARM (!)

Lola was upset with me later in the day, and even gave a little "graband SQUUUUUEEEZE" (she doesn't bite, she squeezes :) ) and she would only come out to meet my fiance, but by the end of the day we were on speaking terms again haha!

[sboggio]

It sounds like what we went through with our CAG Jazzy. She is still not nuts about baths, but really likes being dried off with the towel afterwards. Kind of a combination snuggle-dry off.
We also have finches that think they are labrador retreivers when we give them bath water. Jazzy watches them, and we are hoping she gets more inspired about baths.

[AinSophaur]

I just gave my IRN a shower. I use a mister. He twirls around with his feathers out. He is petrified of baths. He won't go anywhere near a body of water. Thankfully he tolerates the mister.

Here he is getting a shower.

[FlyHard]

If I think that Lukas (Blueheaded Pionus) needs a bath, I simply put some corn into the sink with the water running over them. The good side is that Lukas simply cannot resist corn :aiwebs_01

This way he gets water all over him, but still gets some reward for it. And after a little while he surrenders and starts taking his bath as he should :eusa_clap

/Lars