My bird hasn't had a bath in about 6 years.

cloudyhelium

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Jun 15, 2022
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Red-lored amazon hybrid
So I have an amazon hybrid, Babe and yesterday I learned that she's been in her cage for more than 6 years. This means no baths no enrichment no nothing so everything is very new to her and I'd like some advice on how to introduce her to water. She likes to mimic the sound of water sometimes though.

I also tried taking her out of the house yesterday when I went to the store to buy corn, and she did very well! She only yelled in my ear very loud but that was the excitement yelling ^^ (she liked corn by the way). Yesterday, I also build this "enclosure" in my room since I don't want to put her back in the cage, sleeping out in the cold (it's been raining a lot). Her wings are clipped so I'm building a little ramp so she can walk out and climb back up.

So far it's very boring, I've only added a perch so far but it's still a work in progress, plus she spends most of the day with me, and this is a place for her to sleep and eat, but it's still very boring. Yesterday was a very eventful day since I gave her a piece of wood as a makeshift toy and she did destroy it I was just SO happy:'))

Today I woke up to make her breakfast. I like to take her with me so she can watch me cook. Thing is that there is a thing that bothers her and that thing is my grandmother she absolutely HATES her guts, the few times I've got bitten badly it's because Babe doesn't appreciate her... Well... existing around her. If she's not with me, she's on the counter or a chair and she will actively try to go attack her. When she's with me she bites me, those are the times where I've seen what that beak can do. I try my best to ignore it and talk to her in the softest voice possible, so she calms down a bit.

My grandmother thinks Babe is a misogynist, believing that babe hates all women and tells them they are showing too much skin but she only hates HER she doesn't mind my aunt (her daughter), or my step sister who is a small noisy child. Now I know birds hold grudges and I know my grandmother hasn't been the nicest either, I also know birds can sometimes hate someone out of nowhere, but I have an educated guess.

My grandmother is a heavy smoker, a three paks a day smoker, and herself as a good addict she is, she gives no damns and zero fucks if you breathe her smoke. What is going out of the house to smoke anyway? She knows how harmful it is and has smoked with babies and small children around her (me included, been a secondhand smoker since the day I was born). Every time she's around Babe it's just more of the same, and I'm guessing this is why she hates her so much.

She tries to pluck her feathers after I take her away from my grandmother, maybe because she's trying to get the smell off of her, she also tries grooming my hair and clothes so, there are too many fingers pointing in the same direction-

I keep telling myself, only one more year, we're halfway through.

Here are some pictures of the boring enclosure.
 

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Tenleigh

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Jun 20, 2022
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Cockatiel
I would try a spray bottle. Put some water into the spray bottle and spray it on her gently. Birds can die with the chemicals that are in cigarettes. So your bird hates your grandma? I’m kinda confused
 
OP
cloudyhelium

cloudyhelium

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I would try a spray bottle. Put some water into the spray bottle and spray it on her gently. Birds can die with the chemicals that are in cigarettes. So your bird hates your grandma? I’m kinda confused
Yup, my guess it's because of the smell of cigarettes, I always try to get my bird away from her.
 
OP
cloudyhelium

cloudyhelium

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So your grandma hates your bird but your birds love her?
No, no. Maybe I didn't word correctly that part, sorry ^^U my bird doesn't like my grandmother and I believe it's because she smells like tobacco smoke
 

Tenleigh

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No, no. Maybe I didn't word correctly that part, sorry ^^U my bird doesn't like my grandmother and I believe it's because she smells like tobacco smoke
Then don’t be in the same room with the smell of tobacco
 

BirdyBee

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Then don’t be in the same room with the smell of tobacco
You should read the previous posts by the OP. They are trying to get the bird into a better situation, but their family is still abusing it. Their grandparents probably don't care about tobacco harming the birds, as they even smoked around little children.
 

texsize

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Yes mist bath is a good start.
All my Amazons like to get wet.
My yellow nape objects to the mist at first but enjoy’s it in the end.

Disliking your Grandmother is not nessissaraly because of cigarette smoking. My Yellow nape hates my wife and she has never done anything bad to him.

your enclosures looks nice but I have to bring up one problem. It looks a little dark and that can promote hormonal behavior and egg laying.
 
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cloudyhelium

cloudyhelium

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Yes mist bath is a good start.
All my Amazons like to get wet.
My yellow nape objects to the mist at first but enjoy’s it in the end.

Disliking your Grandmother is not nessissaraly because of cigarette smoking. My Yellow nape hates my wife and she has never done anything bad to him.

your enclosures looks nice but I have to bring up one problem. It looks a little dark and that can promote hormonal behavior and egg laying.
Yeah I thought it was too dark too my solution for now is to just keep the room's light on but I was thinking about buying a lamp
 

HeatherG

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Apr 25, 2020
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So I have an amazon hybrid, Babe and yesterday I learned that she's been in her cage for more than 6 years. This means no baths no enrichment no nothing so everything is very new to her and I'd like some advice on how to introduce her to water. She likes to mimic the sound of water sometimes though.

I also tried taking her out of the house yesterday when I went to the store to buy corn, and she did very well! She only yelled in my ear very loud but that was the excitement yelling ^^ (she liked corn by the way). Yesterday, I also build this "enclosure" in my room since I don't want to put her back in the cage, sleeping out in the cold (it's been raining a lot). Her wings are clipped so I'm building a little ramp so she can walk out and climb back up.

So far it's very boring, I've only added a perch so far but it's still a work in progress, plus she spends most of the day with me, and this is a place for her to sleep and eat, but it's still very boring. Yesterday was a very eventful day since I gave her a piece of wood as a makeshift toy and she did destroy it I was just SO happy:'))

Today I woke up to make her breakfast. I like to take her with me so she can watch me cook. Thing is that there is a thing that bothers her and that thing is my grandmother she absolutely HATES her guts, the few times I've got bitten badly it's because Babe doesn't appreciate her... Well... existing around her. If she's not with me, she's on the counter or a chair and she will actively try to go attack her. When she's with me she bites me, those are the times where I've seen what that beak can do. I try my best to ignore it and talk to her in the softest voice possible, so she calms down a bit.

My grandmother thinks Babe is a misogynist, believing that babe hates all women and tells them they are showing too much skin but she only hates HER she doesn't mind my aunt (her daughter), or my step sister who is a small noisy child. Now I know birds hold grudges and I know my grandmother hasn't been the nicest either, I also know birds can sometimes hate someone out of nowhere, but I have an educated guess.

My grandmother is a heavy smoker, a three paks a day smoker, and herself as a good addict she is, she gives no damns and zero fucks if you breathe her smoke. What is going out of the house to smoke anyway? She knows how harmful it is and has smoked with babies and small children around her (me included, been a secondhand smoker since the day I was born). Every time she's around Babe it's just more of the same, and I'm guessing this is why she hates her so much.

She tries to pluck her feathers after I take her away from my grandmother, maybe because she's trying to get the smell off of her, she also tries grooming my hair and clothes so, there are too many fingers pointing in the same direction-

I keep telling myself, only one more year, we're halfway through.

Here are some pictures of the boring enclosure.
I agree. It looks a bit dark in there to me. That darkness would have set off my female Quaker to lay eggs.

If you have just taken this bird in, she is more likely to lay eggs for you. Be careful with the dark and shadowy corners! Can you put up a light for use in the daytime?
 
OP
cloudyhelium

cloudyhelium

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Red-lored amazon hybrid
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I agree. It looks a bit dark in there to me. That darkness would have set off my female Quaker to lay eggs.

If you have just taken this bird in, she is more likely to lay eggs for you. Be careful with the dark and shadowy corners! Can you put up a light for use in the daytime?
I do actually I keep the lights in the room on, tho would you recommend maybe a bulb like the ones they use for reptiles?
 

𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖒𝖞𝕻𝖎𝖈𝖆

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I do actually I keep the lights in the room on, tho would you recommend maybe a bulb like the ones they use for reptiles?
No, not at all! Just a normal, yellow light. UBV or "special avian lights" can actually be harmful to birds and stress them out.
 

HeatherG

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Apr 25, 2020
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What I’m thinking is that you need to eliminate the shadowy areas we’re seeing. If they’re gone with a light on, great.
 

Laurasea

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A large casserole or serving dish and just start with a half an inch if water in it. Really splash around in it with your hand and see if thst will make her interested. Or drop a couple of plastic bottle caps in it. Mine get super excited by my splashing and want to jump in. You can leave it while you around and see if she will explore.

You can use natural branches from parrot safe sources to make perches. Of you find a really large one you can stick in a big bucket filled with rocks make sure it won't tip lay sheets of news paper over rocks so you can remove them and keep everything clean. For your own parrot stand.

You can use plain untreated cotton rope . But if chews it a lot not good for them to ingest fibers.


I love how much you are trying for this beautiful parrot.
 
Last edited:

MykaMom

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Aug 24, 2019
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So I have an amazon hybrid, Babe and yesterday I learned that she's been in her cage for more than 6 years. This means no baths no enrichment no nothing so everything is very new to her and I'd like some advice on how to introduce her to water. She likes to mimic the sound of water sometimes though.

I also tried taking her out of the house yesterday when I went to the store to buy corn, and she did very well! She only yelled in my ear very loud but that was the excitement yelling ^^ (she liked corn by the way). Yesterday, I also build this "enclosure" in my room since I don't want to put her back in the cage, sleeping out in the cold (it's been raining a lot). Her wings are clipped so I'm building a little ramp so she can walk out and climb back up.

So far it's very boring, I've only added a perch so far but it's still a work in progress, plus she spends most of the day with me, and this is a place for her to sleep and eat, but it's still very boring. Yesterday was a very eventful day since I gave her a piece of wood as a makeshift toy and she did destroy it I was just SO happy:'))

Today I woke up to make her breakfast. I like to take her with me so she can watch me cook. Thing is that there is a thing that bothers her and that thing is my grandmother she absolutely HATES her guts, the few times I've got bitten badly it's because Babe doesn't appreciate her... Well... existing around her. If she's not with me, she's on the counter or a chair and she will actively try to go attack her. When she's with me she bites me, those are the times where I've seen what that beak can do. I try my best to ignore it and talk to her in the softest voice possible, so she calms down a bit.

My grandmother thinks Babe is a misogynist, believing that babe hates all women and tells them they are showing too much skin but she only hates HER she doesn't mind my aunt (her daughter), or my step sister who is a small noisy child. Now I know birds hold grudges and I know my grandmother hasn't been the nicest either, I also know birds can sometimes hate someone out of nowhere, but I have an educated guess.

My grandmother is a heavy smoker, a three paks a day smoker, and herself as a good addict she is, she gives no damns and zero fucks if you breathe her smoke. What is going out of the house to smoke anyway? She knows how harmful it is and has smoked with babies and small children around her (me included, been a secondhand smoker since the day I was born). Every time she's around Babe it's just more of the same, and I'm guessing this is why she hates her so much.

She tries to pluck her feathers after I take her away from my grandmother, maybe because she's trying to get the smell off of her, she also tries grooming my hair and clothes so, there are too many fingers pointing in the same direction-

I keep telling myself, only one more year, we're halfway through.

Here are some pictures of the boring enclosure.
Hi, welcome to the flock! Sounds like you're doing everything you can at this point to enrich your bird and get her into a better environment.

She might just be bonding to you: this makes everyone else a rival. If she can't drive them away, she'll try and drive you away from them. This is why she's biting you. Yup, they bite HARD. The dark room isn't helping. More light is absolutely needed!

My Amazon prefers showers to baths. I've had zero luck with baths and he hates misters, too. Showers are his thing! I make sure it's on a 'misting' setting and keep my fingers between him and the water stream, so it's more like a gentle rain.

The aggressive preening might be eithe a stress response to others or boredom.

Toys can be improvised. Cardboard tubes, unsprayed bird safe tree branches, etc. The internet is your friend! Dollar store is a great cheap source, as are yard sales: think toddler toys.

Good luck!
 
OP
cloudyhelium

cloudyhelium

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Jun 15, 2022
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Red-lored amazon hybrid
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A large casserole or serving dish and just start with a half an inch if water in it. Really splash around in it with your hand and see if thst will make her interested. Or drop a couple of plastic bottle caps in it. Mine get super excited by my splashing and want to jump in. You can leave it while you around and see if she will explore.

You can use natural branches from parrot safe sources to make perches. Of you find a really large one you can stick in a big bucket filled with rocks make sure it won't tip lay sheets of news paper over rocks so you can remove them and keep everything clean. For your own parrot stand.

You can use plain untreated cotton rope . But if chews it a lot not good for them to ingest fibers.


I love how much you are trying for this beautiful parrot.
Thank you so much, Laura! This actually worked out to get her interest, you're a life saver! (Of course it didn't happen right away but still!) I'm sorry I saw it and forgot to reply
 
OP
cloudyhelium

cloudyhelium

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Jun 15, 2022
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Red-lored amazon hybrid
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Hi, welcome to the flock! Sounds like you're doing everything you can at this point to enrich your bird and get her into a better environment.

She might just be bonding to you: this makes everyone else a rival. If she can't drive them away, she'll try and drive you away from them. This is why she's biting you. Yup, they bite HARD. The dark room isn't helping. More light is absolutely needed!

My Amazon prefers showers to baths. I've had zero luck with baths and he hates misters, too. Showers are his thing! I make sure it's on a 'misting' setting and keep my fingers between him and the water stream, so it's more like a gentle rain.

The aggressive preening might be eithe a stress response to others or boredom.

Toys can be improvised. Cardboard tubes, unsprayed bird safe tree branches, etc. The internet is your friend! Dollar store is a great cheap source, as are yard sales: think toddler toys.

Good luck!
Thank you much, been looking for an explanation for the biting towards me for like forever!

And yeah I'm aware of how dark it is, I'm working on it!
 

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