Dirty Birdy

[JanMarie]

Hi, I am sure this has been posted before BUT I'm still going to ask...what if your CAG HATES baths, misting or anything that involves "wet". She will get into her water dish occasionally, it's small and the only thing that gets wet is her feet and my home. I have tried a bigger bowl that looks like her water dish in the bottom of her cage, etc. I have had her a year and she is not having any of it...she is NOT at plucker and her feathers are shiny and healthy looking and.... she's a dust bowl. Should I not worry and just let nature take it's course? When I do spray her with Aloe juice, it rolls off of her and she screams. I don't want to upset her. I have done the months of trying to get her in the shower step by step that I read about...nope, screams at that too. She is 9. I can't touch her either to lift her wings etc because she will remove a finger...so I have an untouchable CAG, who hates showers, bathes, misting :mad:....any suggestions?

[Dave007]

Hi, I am sure this has been posted before BUT I'm still going to ask...what if your CAG HATES baths, misting or anything that involves "wet". She will get into her water dish occasionally, it's small and the only thing that gets wet is her feet and my home. I have tried a bigger bowl that looks like her water dish in the bottom of her cage, etc. I have had her a year and she is not having any of it...she is NOT at plucker and her feathers are shiny and healthy looking and.... she's a dust bowl. Should I not worry and just let nature take it's course? When I do spray her with Aloe juice, it rolls off of her and she screams. I don't want to upset her. I have done the months of trying to get her in the shower step by step that I read about...nope, screams at that too. She is 9. I can't touch her either to lift her wings etc because she will remove a finger...so I have an untouchable CAG, who hates showers, bathes, misting :mad:....any suggestions?

 

 

1----- http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?189753-Bathing-possible-method-1

 

2----- http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?189752-Bathing-possible-method-2

[JanMarie]

THANK YOU!!!!!! I just tried your suggestions, put her in the (clean) sink, filled to top of legs and sprayed her with cold water and then some aloe juice...she was madder then the devil but she actually got wet!!!! I soaked her feathers and quit worrying about her being upset, when she spread her wings (to try and fly) I got under those too. The dust on the top of the water looked like someone sprinkled flour on top. She is still mad but that's ok, she doesn't like me anyways...and I think the health benefits of her getting a bath are greater than her being a bit miffed. She is 9 and I noticed at the bottom of her belly when she was wet there weren't any white down feathers...so either a lot of molting or possible plucking from being so dry? You can't tell the white foofies are missing when she is dry her grey feathers covered it..it wasn't until she was wet that I saw this. What do you think? She eats Harrison's high potency (was on just seed when I got her) a bit of fruit and hates hates veggies. She would rather starve than eat them.

Edited July 5, 2014 by JanMarie

[Dave007]

THANK YOU!!!!!! I just tried your suggestions, put her in the (clean) sink, filled to top of legs and sprayed her with cold water and then some aloe juice...she was madder then the devil but she actually got wet!!!! I soaked her feathers and quit worrying about her being upset, when she spread her wings (to try and fly) I got under those too. The dust on the top of the water looked like someone sprinkled flour on top. She is still mad but that's ok, she doesn't like me anyways...and I think the health benefits of her getting a bath are greater than her being a bit miffed. She is 9 and I noticed at the bottom of her belly when she was wet there weren't any white down feathers...so either a lot of molting or possible plucking from being so dry? You can't tell the white foofies are missing when she is dry her grey feathers covered it..it wasn't until she was wet that I saw this. What do you think? She eats Harrison's high potency (was on just seed when I got her) a bit of fruit and hates hates veggies. She would rather starve than eat them.

 

Yes, she's mad and will always get mad. She may get loud, may seem aggressive, may squawk or growl. Like what I said in those others posts, all of that is normal when it has to do with a bird that doesn't wanna be bathed. I don't think she's plucking because you never saw those areas until now. The white fluffy feathers don't fall out at the exact same time and if she was plucking, believe me you would have seen her doing it. I doubt that her diet has anything to do with anything that going on concerning her bathing. The dust you see floating is called dander and it comes from the top of all waterproof feathers. The dander is natural but messy when bathing. So, if you're uncomfortable with your bird's noise, try something else. To this day my birds still squawk, screech, growl but afterwards they're happy as pigs in shit while they're drip drying and preening. They enjoy staying wet. Plus, they're clean.

 

 

PS--remember, NO TOWEL DRYING or BLOW DRYING. Let your bird stay soaked.

Edited July 5, 2014 by Dave007

[JanMarie]

The growling didn't bother me a lick, I am just so glad you posted those two links! I am relieved that it probably isn't plucking...and now that she is dry I can't see the bald spots where the white fluffies used to be...I put her in her cage, completely soaked, turned her vitamin D lamp on and let her pout and dry...first time that I know of in a year or her entire life that she had a proper bath!...again thank you for coming to my rescue!

[Muse]

The growling didn't bother me a lick, I am just so glad you posted those two links! I am relieved that it probably isn't plucking...and now that she is dry I can't see the bald spots where the white fluffies used to be...I put her in her cage, completely soaked, turned her vitamin D lamp on and let her pout and dry...first time that I know of in a year or her entire life that she had a proper bath!...again thank you for coming to my rescue!

 

They sure can make it a nightmare to give them a bath! We just took in a wild-caught 25 year old Amazon reported to be incredibly vicious. I 'offered' him a shower and he went crazy, cooing like a dove and hanging upside down with wings spread - loving every minute of it. Then I forced a shower (ordered by the vet) on Miss Megan. She growled and screamed and screeched. I expected animal control to come kicking the front door in to save whoever I was torturing. The next morning she gave me a really good hard bite on my forearm for my troubles. She's such a vindictive little bird. I sure wish she'd take a lesson from Rasa, the Amazon. Peck, our other Grey, doesn't go crazy over showers but he does cooperative and fluff to get the water under the feathers. Megan is the only bird that is a complete stinker about baths. And I considered making a sign like what you have on your avatar for her. I'd only need to make two zeros and number about from one to seven.... lol.

[SRSeedBurners]

I've found Amazons take to the water much better than Greys. Mine used to hang upside down and flap just like you are describing. Neither of my Greys have 'liked' taking a bath. Our Caique goes nutters for a spray on bath. Our Jardines sees every bowl of water as an opportunity to take a dunk but not so much thrilled with a spray on.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Some greys... won't do the bath or shower. No mater what I do or try... its not going to happen! She gets warned, time for a shower. I give her a shower and Sophie screams " NO ROMMMMM" I am empathetic... but it gets done. Its been an ongoing process for years, so I always am empathetic, but I am not sorry for giving her a bath. She understands the difference! She is gonna get showered. Nancy

[JakeGrey]

Thank you for the great information on this thread. I have an Eclectus (SIE) and a CAG. The SIE loves, loves, loves (did I mention, loves?!?) taking a shower. After he is done dancing and flapping and running in and out of the spray, he sits right under it and falls asleep. Unbelievable! My CAG on the other hand ... not so enthusiastic. I have the same challenge as JanMarie, my CAG will try to stuff his body into his little water cup but will never use the large cups, bowls or other tub-like devices that I have made available. It's too late tonight, but I am definitely going to try the sink method tomorrow. I have no doubt he'll be mad, but I'm Mom to two teenagers, so "mad" is a familiar response to things that are good for you. lol. We just put up an outdoor aviary and I was planning to put a sprinkler next to it. Figure it would be like a cold rain shower outside in the woods. We'll see how that goes over, too.

 

JanMarie, looks like you have an Ekkie and Grey, too. Not sure your experience, but mine couldn't be more different. I hope the new bath idea works for you and your Grey. I'm crossing my fingers for mine!

[Muse]

Today I had a really DIRTY birdie... the morning started out well. I brought Megan in while I prepared breakfast (no cooking, just chopping) and she sat on the stand and threw all the food out of the food dish. Peck chose not to join us today, and that was fine. I get about three fourths done with breakfast and Megan tries to insert herself in the small "locking crock" water dish on the play stand. I think OH YEAH! And grabbing the sprayer, I get her to take a few squirts while playing in the dish and I manage to get her pretty wet. I am using the aloe juice, and tea brewed with chamomile and rosemary then cooled with a little water mixed in. I was feeling pretty happy about this because I got her daily shower without a huge fight, which means I probably wasn't going to get a bite later.

 

So I finish the bowls and carry hers and Pecks in to their bedroom. I set her on her door perch and get the dirty water bowl out (mistake #1) then put her food bowl in, thinking she will go in after it. Wrong. She climbs to the top, and while I am opening Peck's cage, takes said bowl of water and dumps it - on me, the cage, the floor. So I grab Peck's dirty water bowl, the remaining dribble in her bowl and go back the kitchen for the two bowls of clean water. I come back and and Peck, who was sitting on HIS cage when I left the room is now on TOP of Megan's cage with a very evil look on his face. I look down, and poor Megan - he dropped a huge morning poop right down her back. He had every chance to do this on the rug in front of his cage (where he usually does it) but saved it and AIMED it and got her square in the middle of her back and all down both wings.

 

Of course, the really bad news was that she now needed another shower. Yeah. That went over really well. Not.

 

I'm still waiting for the retaliatory bite that I know must be coming.... hehe.

[Elvenking]

I had the EXACT problem you did with my Isaac. Same thing with trying in his bowl. I would see him looking like he was into it and put a little "pool" out for him. I ended up just having to spray him with a spray bottle. Everything else was a bit risky. I would try to hold him and get in the shower...got some of my worst bites that way. He figured I wasn't getting the picture I guess. LOL. Anyway...he is funny now....he just kind of climbs around for a bit now trying to get away, then he sits on the edge of his water dish and lets me spray lightly on his tummy as I tell him what a good boy he is. I then take him out of the cage and sit him on the perch where he shakes out....then shivers for a few minutes like a Chihuahua. He goes right to singing and whistling after that....I think he is okay.