Bathing

[Dave]

Do you let your budgies bathe? How often do you do this, and how do you go about doing it?

I have a little bath tub for my budgies that hangs on their cage door, but they don't go in. The best they'll do is take a drink from it, or put one foot in. I make it warm enough for them, but not too warm. So I don't know why they wouldn't go in.

We've only had one budgie who would go in. She passed away several years ago, but she loved to take baths. She'd come out completely wet. It was the funniest thing to watch.

[blueberrybuns]

Kiki hates bathing. If she liked it I would try to do it everyday but she does not so only when she is looking dirty I will put her in the sink and turn on the water very low and deflect it off my hand so it falls like rain on her. I think she might climb in her water dish sometimes though.

[Amy]

I have a bath for lily and billy that goes on the side of their cage but they've never taken much interest in it.

[Bea]

All my budgies adore bathing. A great tip: pop some spinach or celery leaves in the water, that's how i taught all my budgies to bathe! :D
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/Baby_Blinkie/baths051.jpg
(Blinkie's brother Jaz looking more like a duck than a budgie)

Blinkie's favourite way to bathe is under a running tap, especially when i'm busy washing his veggies. Though he also enjoys bathing in his little pink bath tub if i add some leafy vegetable to it or even just on a bunch of wet celery leaves.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/Baby_Blinkie/BathFun001.jpg
(Blinks in his little bath tub when he was a baby)
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/Baby_Blinkie/28052005011.jpg
(like i said, some wet celery leaves will get him all excited!)

[Dave]

Shane loved to bathe in celery. Then we'd get all excited he was taking a bath, so we'd stick their bath in the door and he wouldn't know what to do with it. He wanted to bathe, but I guess he was afraid of the regular bath.

And we've tried the celery/spinach leaves trick. It worked with a few of our older birds, but the birds we have today just reach for the celery without stepping in the water.

[Bea]

Well for budgies that just wont bathe themselves it's probably a good idea to purchase a spray bottle (that's NEVER been used for chemicals) and mist them with luke warm water a couple of times a week.

[Amy]

Well for budgies that just wont bathe themselves it's probably a good idea to purchase a spray bottle (that's NEVER been used for chemicals) and mist them with luke warm water a couple of times a week.

I used to do that with my old budgies its just Ive lost the bottle now!:rolleyes:

This morning while I was eating my breakfast I saw that Lily was trying to bathe in her drinking water!:p So I put the bath in the cage and I think she went in it for the first time ever!

[Dave]

I used to use the spray bottle and it never worked. I mean, they got so scared and they hated it.

[Bea]

you have to have it set on the tiniest mist you can, otherwise they don't seem to like it too much/

[Dave]

Okay thanks, I'll have to try it like that.

Should I shoot it out and let it fall down on them, shoot it up? What direction's best? I shot it out, but a bit down, so maybe it hit them too hard?

[Bea]

Don't spray it at them, spray it so the mist falls down on them.:)

[miss_missy]

i dont think my birdies have ever even seen a bath.. i bought them at a store. so they are not even close to training....:( but i try ... i get them out everyday... and they bite. and try to get out of my hands.... but i still try... but to the baths... do they get cold after they bathe.. do you have the house warmer. do you drythem off with a towel. or.. what..

[Sunny baby]

I found a spray bottle that has a very fine mist, some sprayers don't mist, so you may have to buy a couple before you find the right one.. I mist sunny once or twice a week, he doesn't put up a fuss but I still don't know if he likes it or not He's still trying to get used to everything that I do to him.:rolleyes:

[Bea]

You should bathe your budgie in the middle of the day so they have plenty of time to dry themselves properly. Also don't bathe them on really cold days unless you have good heating.

[miss_missy]

cold days, well we are in the middle of winter, and are heat is not very good. so i think i will mist them

[Budgiekin]

My budgies learned to bathe by teaching each other. I would bring them all out for playtime and put a bath tub on the floor. Kiwi, who is a pretty experienced bather would go over to the bath tub and then Aries would follow and copy Kiwi. When Kiwi drank out of the tub, Aries would drink out of the tub, when Kiwi would stepp in the tub, Aries stepped in the tub. It was really cute to watch! Essentially, Kiwi taught Aries how to bathe. It's interesting to see how much being part of a flock affects each others' behaviour.

I found the same thing worked when I was trying to get Skyla to incorporate pellets into her diet. I would put Kiwi's and Skyla's pellet cups side by side in their respective cages and when Kiwi would eat his pellets, Skyla would at least check hers out. Eventually, she started eating them. Now they always have a pellet snack together before they go to bed!

Here is Aries' first bath right after Kiwi taught him. . .

Step 1: Kiwi goes over to the bath tub:
http://i2.tinypic.com/opscoy.jpg

Step 2: Aries comes over to join Kiwi:
http://i2.tinypic.com/opsei0.jpg

Step 3: Aries looks into the bath tub:
http://i2.tinypic.com/opsf0w.jpg

Step 4: Aries steps into the bath tub:
http://i2.tinypic.com/opsfnr.jpg

Step 5: Aries loves the bath tub!:
http://i2.tinypic.com/opsg1t.jpg

Step 6: Aries sits on his perch all wet!:
http://i2.tinypic.com/opshhk.jpg

[miss_missy]

i love the pics. my bird steped into it.the male did, but it lookes like the girl had a hay day in the tub. lol