bath time tips???

[bookworm0550]

anyone have any ideas on how to get Joey to bathe? he seems to hate it though his breeder said he always did bathe. how warm should the water be? any advice would be helpful.

[linda040899]

As long as water is available, lovebirds will bathe when they want to. The most favorite bathtime for most of mine is as soon as I give them fresh drinking water! Not sure why, but many will take a quick drink and then proceed to follow up by drenching themselves in their water cups! I don't use specific bath dishes, as I've found it's an exercise in futility!

If you are using a water bottle, you can also offer a water dish, at least for part of the day. One thing that seems to excite my tame lovies is the sound of running water when I'm washing all the dishes. If they want to bathe in my cupped hands, I set the water for barely warm.

[Pips mom]

That's funny.....Pip is like that too. He will always run right over when I bring a fresh dish of water and grab a drink right away! As far as bathing goes, as long as he has a dish of water available to bathe in, I'd be willing to bet that one of these days he will dive right in!

[chromasnake]

It took Yellow Bird a LOOOOOONNNNGnnngg time to start bathing. Not even watching Apple do high dives and backstrokes right in front of him did any good.

But he does like bathing in the fresh water dish now, and in summer I put shallow bowls of water in the cage. He and Tourmaline never wade in, like Apple does (and my Birdie did), but perch on the edges, dip heads in, and splash a lot. Yellow Bird also hated--passionately--getting misted but after a time didn't mind me flicking water on him with my fingers. He usually tells me when he wants to bathe--in actions rather than words. (Apple simply says "Apple bath? Take a bath?")

[momo]

I would mist your lovie every day anyways, elmo sometimes will run away from it.. and sometimes will sit and love it.. he loves it at the moment cause he's molting..

Although they may seem to hate it.. the other day after a mist (he was quite wet, and I missed the day before's bath session...), i went to show elmo his new water bowl straight after our misting.. and then he just jumped in!!.. Ive only see him he do this one other time.. its hilarious..

He would flick his own head in the water but thats as far as he goes.. but he obviously enjoys having his little misting.

I would say mist him with a bowl of water near by. I try to make it as though it's raining and elmo will shake his feathers and put his face up to the water with his eyes closed.. its very cute.
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Update.. this morning I gave elmo a little bit of a mist and held up his bath.. he proceeded to only bath in the water while I was misting him..

[bookworm0550]

i bought a red shallow dish for Joey today and he was walking around in it, drinking from it now and then. I'll settle for that :)

[momo]

Itll take time.. but give him a mist every now and then..
when he goes into molt he will lurrveeee water..

[Jally]

My guys seem to like their bath water cold. Brrrrrrrrrrr!! LOL I have no problems getting Peanut in the water...I have problems keeping him OUT of the water! All the birds seem to think we run water only for them to take a bath...forget about those dishes piling up in the sink! LOL

[HaleBoppPeachyluv]

lol... with the exception of current sunnybird, the lovies have been fine with a dish or cupped hands under the running water.... sunnybird is my first bird that INSISTS on jumping IN the sink and running under the water.... and she gets sooo wet!