New birdie showering question!

[meganma1994]

I have had my eclectus for almost a month now, he’s been adjusting really nicely, talking and sqwaking, preening, all normal behaviors. I can tell he’s still unsure about a lot in my house and I’m wondering when I should start introducing him to showers here. His old mom used to just put him in the bathtub on a perch and use the detachable shower head. I don’t have one of those in my showers, and she said that he hasn’t really been “into” showers in a while (like spreading his wings and stuff). I tried with a spray bottle a little bit ago and he definitely didn’t like it, he flew to the other side of the room. How do I go about re-introducing him to showers and getting him comfortable here? My boyfriend might be allergic to his feathers so I’m trying to do this as soon as possible. Also for the bridie so he can be clean! Thanks!

 

[munami]

One thing you can try is giving him a shallow water dish and see if he's into it. Many people have also reported when vacuuming, their bird goes into a showering frenzy. If he's not into a spray bottle, you could attempt to try a mister? Same concept but it's just one button instead and there isn't a spray noise every time.

The shower perch isn't too hard to make though. You can easily make one yourself if you have the right tools because the actual materials aren't too expensive. If you aren't handy, your local bird store might sell a shower perch.

 

[meganma1994]

I have a perch for him, and i was going to get like a suction one for the wall from amazon, I was going to get a mister bottle too! As of right now he’s scared of the vacuum, he will move as far away from it as possible when I vacuum around his cage. I gave him a water dish one time too and he didn’t seem too interested, but i will keep trying those things! If he’s not into the misting and afraid of it should I try every day or give him breaks? How do I acclimate him to that. Or just throw him in the shower lol, I don’t want to traumatize him though.

 

[Ellie777Australia]

I have had my eclectus for almost a month now, he’s been adjusting really nicely, talking and sqwaking, preening, all normal behaviors. I can tell he’s still unsure about a lot in my house and I’m wondering when I should start introducing him to showers here. His old mom used to just put him in the bathtub on a perch and use the detachable shower head. I don’t have one of those in my showers, and she said that he hasn’t really been “into” showers in a while (like spreading his wings and stuff). I tried with a spray bottle a little bit ago and he definitely didn’t like it, he flew to the other side of the room. How do I go about re-introducing him to showers and getting him comfortable here? My boyfriend might be allergic to his feathers so I’m trying to do this as soon as possible. Also for the bridie so he can be clean! Thanks!

Hi meganma1994,


It looks as if you have made some progress with Ozzy since the initial New Ekkie Owner post/thread. His diet is better?


Back to the 'bathing' situation, it seems that the shower perch and shower head approach would be most similar to what 9yo Ozzy is used to. Hope you both work this out as I'm sure he'd be a bit desperate for one by now.


Regarding your boyfriends 'allergy to his feathers', as I stated in the New Ekkie Owner post, Ekkies are rare in that they have oil glands versus dander for preening. Hence the potential for over-oily feathers with human touching etc. This also makes an Ekkie the 'least allergenic' parrot species according to my research.



All the best in getting Ozzy all cleaned up

 

[charmedbyekkie]

We started off with using a tripod perch (his training perch actually), but then he prefers to sit on the towel rack now. And when he really gets into it, he flies to sit on our heads.

It's all about making them feel safe. So us showering at the same time makes him feel like this is a safe place since we're "letting our guard down". His first few showers with us consisted of me just chatting away (integrating his favourite words). I pretended to have a lot of fun in the shower, splashing and chatting, occasionally sprinkling some water on him.

It also varies with the temperature and type of water. Lately Cairo likes to start off with a slightly warm continuous mist up under his wings. Then when he wants to get into it, he'll fly directly under the shower head, which is definitely not a mist and is warmer than room temperature.

And in terms of showering, it should be at the very least once a week. Some people say every other day for ekkies. For Cairo, it's about 4-5x a week. It helps with them preening and cleaning themselves, and it helps relieve irritation from molting old feathers and growing pin feathers.