Birds benefit from regularly taking a "bath", which serves two purposes. First, it allows the bird to have a needed cleaning of its feathers. Second, it lets the bird follow its natural behavior and in the cleaning, drying and preening burns a lot of energy.
Many birds will use their drinking water if they have no other options for bathing. Some birds will bathe by rubbing in your wet hair or on wet lettuce leaves. Others enjoy getting wet from the spray of a misting bottle. Some will bathe under a running faucet, spray or shower.
My Senegal has gone through a progression of bathing. I purchased a shower perch and have always bathed him in the shower. At first I used a misting bottle and Pepper did not enjoy the experience. After about six weeks, he came to enjoy the misting and would dance around in the mist.
Pepper on his shower perch.
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I progressed to turning the shower on, but not having water directly hit him. This did not get him wet enough, so I continued to use the mist bottle while he was in the shower. I progressed to taking my shower at the same time and for about three months everything went well. Then, I purchased a "bathing spray" made by a well known avian product company. I used it instead of the misting bottle while in the shower. The first two or three times everything went well. After each bath Pepper would look cleaner and had no "bird odor" I could smell.
Then everything changed. Usually, I would go to Pepper's cage and say "Pepper, you want a birdie bath?" and he would come running over and jump on my finger. This time he ran to the upper corner of his cage, turned, and faced me. I could easily tell that he did not want a bath and I didn't force him to bathe. The next time I tried to give him a bath, the same behavior continued. After a week, I took him out without asking if he wanted a bath and placed him on his shower perch. He looked agitated, but I continued. I repeated his past baths, but used both the mist bottle and the bird bathing product. Again, he did not show pleasure in the bath.
It's been nine months since then and I haven't used the bird bathing product since. Pepper continues to dislike his baths, even though I'm back to using only the mist from the shower and the misting bottle. He doesn't mind the mist from the shower, but this doesn't get him very wet. If I use the misting bottle, he is agitated or sits totally still as far from the shower spray as possible.
I think I'm using the misting bottle properly. I fill it with hot water, not scalding but a little more than warm and spray him with the finest mist it produces from about four feet away. I let the mist gently fall down over him. I hope to get him back to enjoying his soaking baths again.
I've tried placing a bathing bowl in his cage, but he doesn't use it. About once a week he'll bathe in his drinking water on his play gym, never in his cage. This usually only gets his head and a little of his upper front and back wet.
It's now June 2006. I've been able to get Pepper to accept going into the shower. I don't use the spray bottle, so he doesn't get as wet. He only gets the mist or whatever bounces onto him. But he gets a bath about four times each week, always by his choice. Hopefully, he'll progress to tolerating getting wetter as the heat of the summer arrives.
It's now August 2006. I've seen some improvements in Pepper's attitude towards bathing in the shower. I used to keep his shower perch low on the wall, just above the top of the tub. I now place the shower perch higher, about five feet from the bottom of the tub. He now gets hit by more mist and fewer large drops. During showers, he walks around on his perch looking for ways to play and doesn't simply sit as close to the wall as possible.
This summer (2006), I've finally seen what a bathing bird having fun is all about. Even with the showers Pepper gets, he still bathes in his water cup on his play gym at least twice a week. When doing this he becomes an energized mass of feathers. He fluffs into a round ball of feathers, rattles off all sorts of sounds, hops around his water cup and the top of his play gym with total enthusiasm, while often dunking his head into about one-half inch of water, then coming up and shaking it all off. He'll continue this until his water bowl is empty. Usually at the end of this the feathers on the top of his head are soaked and all sticking straight up, while most of the rest of his body is totally dry (though my walls are covered with water drops). After watching this bath, I clearly see a happy bird having fun.
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Images of Pepper bathing in his water cup on his play gym.
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Start by bending over and fitting as much of your body as possible into your cup of water.
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Then stand up, scream and flap your wings as much as your happy heart wants.
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Shake and fluff to spread all the water around.
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When you're dripping wet and there's no more water left . . . look at dad to bring you more.
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