| My Blue Front Amazon , Joker, Tolerates the Blow Dryer and sometimes
seems to enjoy it for a bit. You may want to experiment with the
mister. I put the setting on my mister so that it is close to a stream
instead of mist. Also I sometimes hold it so that the mister is over
hims and the water comes down like rain.
Doug
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| Hi Jeanne,
The way you describe Tacos reaction to water is exactly how
my Sampson(Orange Winged Amazon) reacted when I first tried to give him
a bath. He wants nothing to do with standing water, and reacts
violently to spray bottles. So the first thing I did was to bring him
into the bathroom with me while I took a shower. I would set him on the
shower curtain rod and I would take my shower as usuall. After a
couple of times doing this, he would get very excited and would start
to spread his wings out. Then one day he flew down into the tub, thats
when I knew he was ready for his first shower. I point the shower head
as close to the drain as possible and turn the water on warm,not hot or
not cold, and set him down in the back of the tub so the water isn't
hitting him directly. He enjoys this very much, I think its because it
resembles natural rain fall. I know give him a shower every 10 days to
two weeks, I have tried to do it more frequenly but when I set him in
the tub he either grips my finger tightly and refuses to go in or he'll
go in and just stand there and does nothing. At first I was afraid the
hair dryer would scare him,so I would turn up the heat int the house
and let him stay on me till he was dry. But this is time consuming so I
got the hair dryer out and he absolutly loves it. He talks and sings
and makes all kinds of bird noises. Yes you do have to be carefull as
to not to burn them, what I do is I keep my hand right next to the bird
so I can feel exactly how warm the air is thats hitting his body. I
hope this helps you out. I love the way they look after they're dry.
All the feathers are clean and fluffy and it makes them look like show
birds.
Good luck
Mike
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| Our first cockatiel, Beau, LOVED the blow dryer. He would stand in it
as long as we would tolerate to hold it for him and he would let out
loud one and indignant screech when we'd take it away. It got so bad
that we would put him on a perch in the bathroom and lay the blow dryer
upright on a towel. There was many a time I found him asleep in front
of the hair dryer. Must have burned up one or two of them on that bird.
The pair we have now like it, but only until they're partially dry, then
they fly off. Sunshine (the female) used to flap her wings and tilt
into the airstream like she was flying.
Aren't birds great?
BJ
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| Re .2
What a great idea! I'm going to try the shower this weekend.
Actually, I take "boiling hot" showers so my HUSBAND will try the
shower this weekend. Just wait til he finds out what I've got in store
for him! He'll certainly think I've flipped my lid, but when it comes
to my birds, what's new?
Thanks for the tip, and let you all know how it works out.
Jeanne
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