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I've never had a parrot that LIKES bathing. The parakeets I had when i was a little kid hated bathing, the parrotelts did, the cockatiels, and Sky hates bathing too. Any of you run into this weirdness? Is this normal? should I force him to bath?

I wouldn't force him to bath, could do more harm then good.

Have you tried misting him with a spray bottle?

Given him a large bathing container in the cage?

Every time it rains, my aviary birds are out in it, summer OR winter! BRRrrrr.

They also try to hog the hose when I am changing their water and bath in the spray.

You could try having a shower and let Sky watch you, (might feel a bit weird having a bird watch you bathe ) Sky might eventually decide that water can be fun and join in!

My IRN indoor fella hates showers / mist bottles.. he will only bathe on his own efforts... in water trays / bowls.

I would not force your bird to bathe, they are quite capable of looking after their feathers if they have a water bowl and they do not like anything else.

I cannot take a shower without Kiwi on my shoulder and getting completely soaked. She would stand on the shower curtain perch for a minute or two and I'll spray her a bit with my hand. Then she inevitably jumps in, gets completely wet, and hurries off to the towel and start drying her head...

Spit hates spray water bottles and he refuses to have a shower unless he's in his cage. If hes outside he just climps up to the shower curtain rail and watches the water. We take the metal top half of his cage off the bottom plastic tray, and put the metal half in the bath tub with him in it. we remove his toys but leave some perches in. we put the shower on and move the cage so only half or one end of it is under the water incase he wants to get out. he slides along the bars of the cage with his wings open and runs under the water. we've found this is the only way we can get him to take a full bath, and i think he finds it quite fun. ill try get a pic

Blue hated baths too at first. I stopped using his small coop cup for water and made him a tub out of one of those plastic microwavable bread pans. I decided where to put the "tub" in his cage where he wouldn't be perching above (and thereby pooping into) it. Then I held the bread pan up against the cage bars to mark the spots where I needed to drill my 2 holes. I drilled them toward the top of the pan to eliminate a potential leakage problem. Then I used an emery board to smooth the rough edges of the plastic. Four large washers and 2 bolts with nuts were perfect for attaching it to his cage. It's easiest for me to have it on the front wall of his cage interior so that I can easily reach it to remove and wash it daily. Then I just filled it about 1/3 full of bottled water. After the first week or so he started bathing in it. Now he actually takes a bath every morning while I make his breakfast.

Here's a picture of Blue's tub.

What a great idea, and very easy on the purse.

Well done!

pinkdevil wrote:I wouldn't force him to bath, could do more harm then good.

Have you tried misting him with a spray bottle?

Given him a large bathing container in the cage?

Every time it rains, my aviary birds are out in it, summer OR winter! BRRrrrr.

They also try to hog the hose when I am changing their water and bath in the spray.

You could try having a shower and let Sky watch you, (might feel a bit weird having a bird watch you bathe ) Sky might eventually decide that water can be fun and join in!

Sky has been in the shower with me many times. He wants nothing to do with that. However, if I put a small saucer with water, that got him standing in it at least. He wasn't actually bathing, but he did at least stand in the saucer.

Sky seems to like rain ok. I've taken him out during summer rainstorms before. He'll be ok for a couple minutes, but when he's had enough, he'll try to hide in my shirt.