Preparations

This weekend is the "Avian Adventure" seminar, sponsored by The Gabriel Foundation. I have a lot of respect for TGF's rescue work with parrots , their dedication to the welfare of parrots and education of parrot caregivers.

I will be giving a small presentation on Sunday. I have been putting the finishing touches on it this morning, so I can practice later. It will be a small group, so we will have fun with questions and discussion.

Merlin gets to go and help me out, so he has to get ready, too. He is going to the clinic a little later for a "soap bath". I put a couple of drops of Ivory or Dawn dish soap into a sixteen ounce cup of water, then use that dilute solution to bathe Merlin. I do this no more often than every one-two months. Merlin gets plain water baths once or twice a week. A little soap is occasionally necessary because he is handled and petted so much. The oil from our hands soils Merlin's feathers and that oil needs to be removed to keep his feathers healthy.

Merlin isn't crazy about his bath, but he tolerates it well. We put him in the stainless steel tub we use for bathing pets at the clinic; then we proceed to hose him down ;>) Merlin flaps and runs from one end of the tub to the other as we spray him. Afterwards is OUR favorite part of bath-time, as Merlin snuggles into his towel and cuddles with us. Ah, there is nothing like a clean cockatoo!

Sunday Bath

I just put the two big birds to bed and am sitting here, drying off. Miss Shelby, our Bare-eyed cockatoo decided she was ready for a bath right before bedtime and we both got soaked ;>)

I have learned to always give my birds a choice; this empowers them to control their environment (something we all strive to do) and is a fantastic trust-building tool for all concerned. When I open the bird's cage, I ask them to step up and if they don't want to do so (extraordinarily rare occurence for my guys), they don't have to. If the house was burning down and I HAD to get them out, I would get them out and it would not affect our relationship of trust since we have such a strong foundation.

Well, bathing has never been on my birds' list of favorite things to do, so I have had to get creative to make bathing a positive experience and something they would choose to do. I have noticed that for about the last year, Shelby likes to drink water out of my cup. Of course, I let her; this has led to her occasioanlly dunking her head in the cup and getting her crest wet. Shelby responds well to drama, so I praise her enthusiastucally to reinforce this behavior. Her head dunking has become more frequent and more pronounced, now accompanied by wing flapping and bowing to the water. Shelby has progressed to the point where she will dunk her head into any container of water I am carrying.

Tonight I wanted to see how far she would go, so I got a medium sized mixing bowl, filled it with lukewarm water and went to get my Shelby-girl. I was holding the bowl against my chest and Shelby was on my shoulder. She was a but hesitant at first, then, with some encouragement from me, she began dunking. This time, Shelbs went all out! She was flinging water all over herself and me and the kithcen, then running up to my shoulder and flapping her wings over my head. I am laughing like a fool and she is saying "Peek-a-boo" and "Hi baby" while dunking, flipping and flapping. You haven't lived until you've taken a bath with a Bare-eyed!

We both had a great time and it was good, clean fun ;>)