Spray bottle

[tfw]

We just got our new B&G macaw. We have had.him 2 days. He wasn't 'bathed' as regularly as he should have. I was going to spray him a bit. I did a tiny spritz in front of him, making sure he was watching what i was doing, and making sure it didnt touch him, and he panicked and flew down from the perch. He shook it off easily enough. But what is the best way to get him used to the spray bottle?

And that said, how does one get a bird used to a shower?

 

[SilverSage]

He may have been punished with a spray bottle so he may never get used to it. Consider trying a bath instead.

When I introduce birds to the shower I start by putting them on the shower rod while I shower for a few days/weeks until they are comfy, and then I just bring them in with me (don’t get soap on them).


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[clark_conure]

I also let my conures sit on the shower door rail with a towel over it when I shower....

sometimes the sound of the water....they chirp to join, now they are usually triggered by filling the ice cube tray at my downstairs "man cave" sink/microwave/minifridge.

A macaw may be to big to shower with, if they are interested put them on floor of shower? After you are done using human soaps and just soaking in the warm water. We still do that.

 

[SunnyGirl]

well my sun loves to sit in the sink with a shallow pool of water for the feets and just sit under running water from the faucet above absolutelly hates the spraying, she'll flip... but yeah, my fluff is a small one... maybe put your big one in the tub or shower and just let the water run?

on the 'bathe your pet in the shower' thing (not a bird but hilarious) - my friend is only able to bathe his dog (mixed breed bit big like a german sheppard) if he sits in the tub with him in his bathing suit... if it was not him I wouldn't have believed it at all, but yeah

 

[clark_conure]

SunnyGirl ...question...


flip....(sh**) or flips a table? (╯°v°）╯︵ ┻━┻

 

[ChristaNL]

My macaw has a showerperch, but (the serious soaks) usually sits on my fore-arm and plunks herself against my chest (when she not trying out the new birdbath).
She is a bathsponge-type of bird.

There have been a few times where she almost fell of my arm because she decided to take a nice warm nap ...
(and relaxed a bit too much)




How to get there?
Show your bird the bathroom first when there is *nothing* going on.
Just explore the room, let your bird get used to the way the sounds are different, maybe have fun with the mirror etc. try out the sink (if you have one)

If bird is allright with this (it may take a few runs or maybe one will be enough / depends on the bird) take bird with you when you take a shower.
(It helps if to make all the showers more or less identical: so...run the water first? keep doing that/ run away for extra towels, keep doing that etc.)
If you have other birds that love to bathe: take them all!!
they will learn from each other: if the resident bird does not freak out, new bird will settle down waaay faster.

If there is no other bird...make sure YOU are relaxed and not anxiously watching the bird all the time.
Get in there, close your eyes, and enjoy!!
(If you keep checking the bird, there will be a message "it is not safe, I need to stay focused and maybe run away, so stay alert!" you do not want to do that!)
If the bird does not freak out...try a bit of water, have a splash yourself and 'just happen' to splash your bird a bit...
watch the reaction and go from there.


Soms macaws loooove to run around in the shower (in and out of the spray) -just make sure they do not get overexited and go for your toes...
that is also a great game (if you are a macaw/ not so much if you are the owner of the toes) of course.


Just getting the temperature right may be a challenge... mine shower waaaay warmer than recommend (their bodytemperature), but since there is also a fair chunk of hydrotherapy involved with Sunnies wing she is allowed.
Too hot will possibly dry out the skin (loss of oils), too cold wil make the birds run away...

 

[SunnyGirl]

SunnyGirl ...question...


flip....(sh**) or flips a table? (╯°v°）╯︵ ┻━┻

well she's too small to flip a table across the room (not that she doesn't try when she can't get what she wants lol), so take a guess XD screaming her head off, wanting to bite, just angry fluffy demon... the water sprayer botle goes away, she turns nice again... sometimes while splashing around in the sink she manages to spray some water from her wings up and on her head and screams at herself

 

[clark_conure]

btw to what ChristinaNL said......my birds like no warmer than lukewarm and prefer roomtemp to even cooler to room temp water...WHICH IS INSANE...but hey it's what they like. I've had my birds a while now and they don't like the kind of hot shower we enjoy.

 

[GaleriaGila]

After 35 years, I have still not convinced the Rb of the benefit of showers or sprays...

He prefers a big shallow wok. My ol' man thinks it's funny to suggest that we heat some water up on the stove in that wok and see if he'd like to splash around in that. Ha ha ha.

But I digress.

I use the spray on him when he doesn't do a good job of soaking his tail, and the Rb just has to lump it. He howls like a banshee, but that just adds to his repertoire of dulcet tones around the house.

 

[noodles123]

I first started by showing my bird a glass pie-plate filled with lukewarm water (more cold than warm) and I would splash in it while she watched from her cage (I talked like I was playing and ignored her until she showed interest- supervise closely--you don't want chipping glass etc.
I wouldn't necessarily try any of this though until you have a bit more trust under your belt. Everything is unfamiliar right now, so in my opinion, you should hold off on non-essentials that might frighten your bird.

I spray her now as well, but at first, I sprayed myself with it in front of her many times.
She is better about it now, but our bond is pretty strong at this point too.

 

[tfw]

He may have been punished with a spray bottle so he may never get used to it. Consider trying a bath instead.

When I introduce birds to the shower I start by putting them on the shower rod while I shower for a few days/weeks until they are comfy, and then I just bring them in with me (don’t get soap on them).


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That would have been what I would assume if I heard someone say it, but I did not get that vibe. The couple I got him from are super loving and their breeders are happy and healthy. They did say they didn't give the baby as many spritzes as they should, so I think maybe the bird just isn't used to it (and not used to us yet). It's possible they did showers instead of spritzing. I'll have to ask them.

I'll have to try all these different techniques to see if I can get him to do showers.

 

[EllenD]

I would suggest that for a Macaw you buy him or build him yourself a shower-perch. They are very inexpensive if you buy one online, and they are actually quite easy to build. They are usually made out of PVC piping and fittings, and they have suctions-cups that attach them to the inside of the shower wall...Macaws in-general really do love to shower, and the PVC shower-perches work extremely well for them...

The best way to ease them into getting used to the shower is by first just putting them inside the bathroom with you while you shower. Start-out by just putting a perch for him in the bathroom and away from the shower, or let him perch on something in the bathroom that is away from the shower, and keep the door shut so he can't leave. Talk to him while you're in the shower, and if you just allow him to do this for a week or two, it gets them used to the sound of the shower, used to the steam, etc. And once you feel like he's very comfortable just being in the bathroom while the shower is running, then the next step is to either perch him on the shower rod, or even better if you have a portable play-stand or T-Stand (again very easy to make out of PVC piping and fittings and some Vet Wrap, and quite handy to have anyway), you simply move the stand right next to the shower door, or if you have a tub/open shower just move it near the back of the shower, in a spot where he can see you in the shower and see the water running...And do this for another week or two, all the time talking to him while you're in the shower...Then once he's comfortable that close to the shower and seeing the shower, that's when you want to put him on the shower-perch. At first you want to attach the shower-perch to the shower wall at the very back of the shower, totally out of the water and behind you...It really does help if you have a PVC T-Stand with colored Vet-Wrap around it and you move him to the same type of shower-perch, with the same colored Vet-Wrap. That way he will associate PVC piping with colored Vet-Wrap around it as being "his territory", and he'll always know that those are the places he's supposed to perch...And then just let him sit on the shower-perch inside of the shower with you, but without getting wet at first...and then just gradually start using your hands to kind of "spritz" him with the shower water, and each day move the shower-perch a little closer to the water-stream...A lot of the time they will actually start leaning forward and putting their heads, feet, etc. in the water, testing it out...Eventually you'll get to the point where he looks forward to taking a shower...I've yet to see a Macaw that doesn't LOVE taking a shower on their shower-perch, especially with their owners...

I have 2 shower-perches on my shower wall (they fold-up flat against the shower-wall when not being used), one of them is up higher and most of it is in the shower stream with a small area that isn't, and the other one is a bit lower and is totally out of the shower stream...They typically start-out on the lower one that is out of the shower stream while I'm taking my shower, and occasionally they will move to the other perch and take their own shower while I'm showering, then when they're done they'll go back to the other perch out of the water and wait for me to be done...Sometimes they sit on the perch that is out of the water and wait for me to be done, then when I get out I leave the shower running and they go to the other one, take their shower while I'm getting dried-off and dressed, and when they're done they go to the other perch, and then I turn the water off and get them all dried up...My Senegal and my Green Cheek absolutely LOVE the shower, they'd take multiple showers a day if i let them...My Cockatiel prefers a bath, so she gets a "sink-bath", and my Quaker hates water...She's weird, she just doesn't like it, although she does still sit on the shower-rod while the rest of us are in the shower, she wants to be there, but she does not at all want to get wet...weirdo...

It's all about trying different things to see what works best for your bird, and most-importantly going slowly and gradually acclimating them to it and making sure they are comfortable...But most Macaws absolutely LOVE to take full-on showers, every friend of mine that has a Macaw gives them a shower every single day, some of them with them and some of them by themselves. And they all have a PVC shower-perch for them and it works great.

 

[EllenD]

*****Important Warning For Everyone Regarding Letting Your Birds Sit On The Shower-Rod Or The Top Of The Shower Door***

Some of you know this, some don't, but my very first "pet" Green Cheek Conure (I had breeders before but not a pet GCC) was a Cinnamon-Turquoise female named Izzy...I got her when she was only 12 weeks-old from a great breeder, and she was a little sweetheart. She was my lone bird at the time, along with my 8 American/English hybrid Budgies...I had Izzy for about 3 months, and she loved the shower. She would get in with me on her shower-perch, and when she was done she would perch up on top of the shower-rod and wait for me to be done...

One day she did this, she got in with me, took her shower, and then got up on top of the shower-rod and waited for me to get out...That particular day I had thrown a wet washcloth over the shower-rod, and she was perched on the wet washcloth over the shower rod...Well, suddenly I saw the wet washcloth slipping off of the shower-rod and then heard the most horrible "THUMP"...She was wet, and the washcloth was wet, and when it slipped off of the shower-rod it ended-up on top of her and she couldn't fly out from underneath it, so she fell like rock to the bathroom tile floor from what, 7-8 feet up? I rushed her immediately to the 24-hour Exotic Animal Hospital 10 minutes from my house...She had a badly broken wing and a concussion (big lump on her head), and a bruised beak...This was a Saturday night, of course, so I was going to follow-up with my CAV first thing Monday morning. She had her wing wrapped against her body and was given Metacam, not much else we could do but watch her...She died late Sunday night/early Monday morning from inter-cranial bleeding (I had a necropsy done just to make sure it was the fall and not some underlying Avian Viral Disease that I didn't know about, since she was so young, and I wanted to protect my Budgies)...But the bleeding in her skull was very obvious...

****So, if nothing else I'd like to prevent this from accidentally happening to anyone else's babies...So if you let your birds perch on the shower-rod while you're in the shower that's fine, but make sure they are actually on the shower-rod and NOT on-top of a towel, washcloth, etc. that could slip-off the shower-rod and cover the bird up, trapping them and slamming them to the floor...