blue front bath and behavior questiins

Hello my blue front precious does not respond well to bathing with a squirt bottle, I have tried putting a bowl of water big enough for her to sitstand and she showed no interest. Any tips on making bathing a happy time...I have had smaller birds for years but precious is newly adopted..I've had her a couple months and we have really bonded..

Also I have some issues with her calling she has become so attached that when I leave the room ..she calls for me and she will not stop till she sees me ....it does not bother me so much as my it does my husband... So any tips on that would be great too thanks

Is it possible she was disciplined with a spray bottle in the past? It's very common with rescues, and she may think she's being punished. There are a couple more methods of bathing to try before starting the difficult process or re-training a bird who was previously punished with water. You can try turning on the tap to a lukewarm temperature in a slow stream and setting her in the sink or allowing her to come in the shower with you (my blue fronts preferred method of bathing, one may not shower in this home without a certain green friend). Many birds are never bathed, so it may take one who was never punished with water time to get used to it too.

As for contact calling, this is an amazon thing. Try calling back, just a whistle or something. She wants to know your safe and is trying to establish vocal contact with you. This is how they find their flock in nature should they become separated or notice a flock member is missing. Mine usually quiets right down after I whistle back at him.

Like kids, you cannot keep some out of the water and others will not go near it. Some Amazon love water bowls, others misting spray and still others love to share a shower with us. What your Amazon will gravitate too is still to be found.

Leave the larger water bowl for your Amazon to consider, just may not be interested at this moment. The humid weather of summer will satisfy some Amazons others will splash extensively year around.

Misting bottle can cause problems, since it may look more like an attack than a bathing opportunity. Remember, the bottle's spray unit needs to be set to mist. A stream of water will work against you. However, having said that, someone will post that their Amazons love a stream of water. With the spray bottle set to mist, try mist up over your Amazon, not at them, so that the mist falls lightly from above your Amazon.

Like children, for most, bathing is an event that is found to be enjoyable.

Contact calls, contact calls, contact calls. You have just spent how much time getting your Amazon to enjoy being with you and now you leave the room. Surprise, your Amazon wants you to return and spend more time with him/her. And being fast learners, they figured out that lots of vocalizations will get back in the room. Quickly, this becomes a very fun game for the Amazon. When you leave the room, let your Amazon know - I'm going into X room and I'll be back. Then every so many minutes you call out your contact call. Big point is, do not run back into the room and do not keep a constant discussion going. Your contact call and your Amazon's contact call should be occasional status checks ( I'm OK are you OK?).

Every Amazon parent will develop their own contact call, which is specific to them as will every Amazon develop a contact call, which is specific to them. It can be a couple of words, a favorite section of song, etc... This is a very important parenting tool for that time your Amazon has gone 'Walk About' and you're looking for them. If you have developed a specific contact call, your Amazon will response with theirs and it makes it easier to find your Amazon under the table, etc...

Try these:

1. A hose with a mister setting on it.

2. A sink. (Just turn the water on cool/lukewarm and set the bird down in the sink.)

3. The shower. (Again, cool/lukewarm stick the bird under the water.)

4. One of those personal misters (the kind people use to cool down in the summer) that attaches to a hose. Roll the cage outside, Set next to the cage, turn the water on.

Kiwibird said:

As for contact calling, this is an amazon thing. Try calling back, just a whistle or something. She wants to know your safe and is trying to establish vocal contact with you. This is how they find their flock in nature should they become separated or notice a flock member is missing. Mine usually quiets right down after I whistle back at him.

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Yeah, if you develop a personal contact whistle with you're bird, they'll generally use that...

and if you make it a funny one... then you don't mind so much.

Sally has always done the "Tarzan whistle" with me...

But you can just make some distinctive short and sweet whistle call, that your bird will recognize as you, and that generally solves this problem.

My BFA didn't do contact calls...

She launched herself to my shoulder and stuck her head in my eye socket...

When I was home, she was rarely far enough away that she needed to contact call. She was a "velcro" bird.

Love the idea of the personal mister. Non-directional and if there is a light breeze, set it just up wind and let the breeze carry it over the cage and the Amazon. Amazon gets a shower and the cage gets prepped for a good cleaning. Now that is productive!

SailBoat said:

Love the idea of the personal mister. Non-directional and if there is a light breeze, set it just up wind and let the breeze carry it over the cage and the Amazon. Amazon gets a shower and the cage gets prepped for a good cleaning. Now that is productive!

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Well, what's funny is my zons will actually waddle over to it, and stick their face dead center of the thing... PURE BLISS!

But then, all but one of mine could probably get several baths a day... and not mind it one bit.

Thank you guys souch for the info...I will try the bathing techniques and contact calls and see if that helps...she is re homed and 11 yrs old I have had her a couple months now and we have really bonded so I just don't want to do anything to mess that up.

My BFA will attempt to bathe by dunking his head in his bowl, but I will often take him into the shower with me. Sometimes I'll just hose him down if he really needs it. Sometimes he's great, others he's a terror. At 30+ I don't expect him to like it anytime soon.

As for contact calling, he does it frequently, but like others have said, we whistle back and forth.

Amy LOVES a misting bottle! I can take her outside,and set her on a low tree branch <about chest high to me> and squirt away.
She will spread her arms and tail,fluff up her head and twist and wiggle and mumble away lol. I can use two bottles worth on her and she wouldn't care.

I have tried one of those perch thingies that you can stick to your shower wall and use the shower head on "spray,but it is not the same thing,and it seems the perch isn't long enough for her to get comfy enough to extend her arms.

In the winter time, I just place her on the bath tub bottom and use the shower head, but she really doesn't enjoy that.

Jim

Bath time and cage cleaning are a simultaneous event at my house.

About every two weeks, I roll the cage outside, remove the litter tray, and commence to spraying with the hose. I first blast the parts of the cage where the bird is not sitting, in order to remove crusty stuff or at least soften it up. Then I switch to the shower setting and give my bird a good bath. I'll usually wedge the hose into place somewhere on the top of the cage and leave it running for about 10 minutes or until the bird has gotten tired of frolicking in the water. Then I resume blasting off the remaining soft stuff, and I let both bird and cage dry out in the sun before rolling them back inside.

My bird loves this event, and as soon as I move the cage a few inches toward the door, he starts going nuts with his full vocabulary and pleasure behaviors. Strangely, though, he rarely tries to bathe himself in his water bowl. I guess we do this often enough that he has been spoiled by getting proper showers.

Bathing! Oh my gosh there are so many things I haven't been doing! (I inherited my grandparents' BFA.) Now that I think of it, I remember my grandpa spraying the hose to make it rain on Feygele, but the bird hated it. I think I'll try a spray/mist bottle first, and if he doesn't like that I'll try some of these other ideas.

MayaFeygele said:

Bathing! Oh my gosh there are so many things I haven't been doing! (I inherited my grandparents' BFA.) Now that I think of it, I remember my grandpa spraying the hose to make it rain on Feygele, but the bird hated it. I think I'll try a spray/mist bottle first, and if he doesn't like that I'll try some of these other ideas.

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I would do one really good soaking in the shower to get any crud off of him, like old feathers or any poop on his bottom, and then next time take him out in the sun while it's still warm and mist him, maybe give him his favorite treats before and after.

With him being totally soaked down, it'll give you a good chance to look at his body to see if anything else is going on that you can't normally see. I take reference pictures now and again for anything I want to watch on mine.

I didn't want to go from 0 to the shower, since I'm positive Feygele's never been in the shower. Instead I sprayed the hose at the trellis above him and made it "rain" quite a bit. He didn't freak out at all. I couldn't tell if he liked it or was tolerating it. But he definitely enjoyed his post-bath peanuts.





I tried to get my dog too while I was out there with the hose, but he escaped.