Bird's Who Do Not Like to Bathe

I was told Calvin, my elderly special needs Mealy Amazon, didn’t like spray baths, bathing in general, by the rescue. I had to unfortunately force him into the bath twice, one when I first brought him home because of how dirty he was and another time cause in the middle of the night he fall off his perch right into poop. Other than that, I’ve been hands off with showers until I could train with him.

I walked by to go to my office and saw him playing in his water bowl. I saw him do this one other time, I grabbed the spray bottle on mist, and he saw the bottle before I sprayed and immediately stopped. Today, I thought to try one more time; if he didn’t like it, I wouldn’t again till training.

I’m glad I did. He loved it! He won’t be as animated because of his deformities from physical trauma, but his subtle body language and continuing in the bowl showed me that he liked it.

I first started spraying up into the air to let the fine mist fall on him. Then, I sprayed indirectly above him so what was falling was bigger and more of an impact than a very very fine mist. By the end of this, I was misting him with the sprayer directly! He was fluffed up, rubbing his head on his wing, slight flapping, and bathing himself as well, clear signs he was enjoying it!

After, he got a big treat (a walnut, they’re heart healthy!) and I just let him be!