Riamfada's first shower by Shan Lung courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing on Flicker
Several days of thunderstorms have caused my bird’s waterbowls to be suspiciously empty the last few days. I suspect there’s been massive bathing parties while I’m at work, so I’ve left bathpans at the bottoms of their cages…not that they’re being used… Apparently, there’s something irresistable about bathing in the drinking water.
Even the grey, shunner of unwanted water loves to get down in his water bowl. He also enjoys sitting in the shower and getting the occasional spritz, but mostly he likes to choose his own bathing moments. The Senegal and red-bellied are more likely to go for a good soaking, but Ty has his doubts about the necessity of bathing.
Every parrot is different though. Take for example this little guy here, with his head upright, neck stretches, eyes not quite completely round, he looks pretty okay about his shower. I’ve heard many grey owners, however complain that this is never the case with their own birds.
So should you make a bird who won’t bathe wash off the dust? Do birds need baths or not?
There’s no doubt that the bathing is a healthy habit. Feathers have a lot of detritus lurking in their layers and a good bathing washes the unwanted and unhealthy away. Rainforest parrots, who would be subject to frequent soakings in the wild whether they were willing or not, seem to be the most amenable and even joyful about a bath. Perhaps greys, who frequent a dryer habitat just don’t embrace a cloudburst in quite the same way. And on top of this, every parrot is an individual and the sum of their experiences. Some birds don’t find bathing a joyful experience and it only takes one bad experience with a misting or in the shower to shift this attitude toward pure hatred. All the same, baths are good. Should you make your bird bathe though? Absolutely NOT. The good news is that you CAN train you bird to happily take a shower.
How to Train Bathing
Start with a spray bottle set on a fine mist and introduce bathing slowly. Mist away from your bird, if he sits calmly and unconcerned, say “good” and reward with a treat. Mist a little closer and do the same. Continue until you are gradually rewarding your bird to sit calmly as the spray get closer. If at any time your bird looks uncomfortable or leans away from the water, back off and start from the last position he was comfortable in. You want your bird to learn that water is a positive and that sitting calmly gets him a reward.
Once you are right next to your bird with the sprayer, continue spraying and hold a treat where he can only get to it by getting into the mist just a tiny bit. When he leans in say “good” and let him have the treat. Make sure the “good” coincides with leaning into the water. This is the behavior you are rewarding. Then gradually ask him to go a bit further every time. Once he seems comfortable stepping into the spray and then getting a treat, stop holding the treat out. You want him to understand that the cue for stepping into the water is you spraying. You can show him the treat, but see if he will step in without being led. (You can always go back a few steps and lead him in if he doesn’t get it or forgets.) When he does step into the spray on his own, praise and reward.
From here you can approximate by lengthening the time in the spray and the number of times you spray in similar small steps until you’ve trained your bird to bathe. This may take one session or several months, but it’s worth the effort. Because he has made the decision on his own to walk into the spray for treats and because bathing has been paired with positives, a treat, or even just your praise and excitement if he isn’t interested in food, bathing itself will be a positive and welcome experience.
Good luck with your bathing beauty!
I like this post, Rebecca! I especially like the emphasis on paying close attention to body language. That is really paramount in this training to maintain a high level of trust. I change training showering up just a little. Instead of moving the mister closer to the bird, I let the bird move closer to the mister by targeting in small approximations. I see this as letting the bird make the choice of coming toward the water, rather than the water going toward the bird.
very good information. I have 2 cockatiels who hate bathing, I am sure they probally had bad experiences with it, or none at all. They came to be absolutely filthy!!! They do tend to wash their faces in the drinking bowl, which is the only reason they have a bowl rather than a bottle. I have tried misting but they act as if the entire world is coming to an end. So I have left it alone for now. I will try the methods you outlined and see what results I get, they are extremly good eaters so treats go a very long way with them!
JJ– It’s just the difference between what I would personally do and what I would suggest a client do. The train is desensitizing and then training approximations to the bathing. I just started the moving the bird part a little later, but it’s basically the same.
You are asking the bird to sit still for a reward as the misting gets closer. He has a choice whether or not to move away. Stay and get a reward, move away and don’t a reward. He’s still completely in control. More importantly, the trainer is forced to look closer at his behavior. The point of doing it this way is to give a new trainer the opportunity to really dial in and react appropriately to body language the demonstrates discomfort.
My choice to train starting with desensitization was also because it’s an easier train for someone who hasn’t done any R+ training before and sets both the bird and the trainer up to succeed a little better. Plus it’s easier to see the body language and understand whether or not the bird is comfortable this way and can be a less frustrating train if the bird is nervous of the spray bottle. But of course either way works. If I were training it myself, I would probably do it the way you just described.
Absolutely Rebecca! I wasn’t criticizing your approach (I hope it didn’t come across that way!). I don’t think there is anything wrong with either method. Using desensitization is a good exercise in learning to read body language, and you’re still pairing it with R+. You also just gave me a nice lesson in stepping back and looking at the situation when training the trainer to help ensure they succeed!
Yeah– come on my blog and out-train me I’ll pop you in the nose, boy! LOL
No offense taken.
I have personally found a key aspect to bathing is discovering what each bird prefers.
I currently have 6 birds and they all have different bathing preferences:
Marnie – CAG: Shower, spray bottle or in the outside cage with the hose on mist
Lucha – Lilac Crowned Amazon: Shower or outside cage with hose on mist
Darwin – greencheek conure: dish of water on a platform perch, but not on the ground, or in my hands under a slow running tap
Ndeke – lovebird: dish in the cage
Pip – Caique: outside cage with the hose on mist, rarely in the sink with the tap running
Jim – cockatiel: water bowl
Now I need to train my Jenday Conure about water restrictions and how hour long showers are not going to happen! She LOVES showering and tries to ‘walk backwards’ down my arm when I try to put her back on her shower perch after shower-time. She’s also tried putting her beak on the shower-perch and ‘pushing backwards’ so she ends up back in the spray, cheeky thing!