The time has come to give your baby parrot that first bath.
Baby parrots get dirty very quickly. It smells bad too!
As infants, they have not yet learned to clean their beak before grooming, so they often carry a large amount of food from beak to feathers while gaining their essential grooming skills. The little birds will need some baths before weaning. Unlike adult birds, they cannot depend on an abundant supply of dust to catch dirt and then fall off their body. Also, a baby’s feathers are not as protective as they would be for an adult parrot.
Baby parrots have a low resistance to germs and bacteria during their first year, that is, while their immune system is getting stronger. Be very careful with the bacteria present on our hands. The first thing to keep in mind when handling your little bird is that you have washed your hands well.
Here is one way to bathe your baby.
Before the royal fist bath, make sure you’ve planned a few visits to uncharted sink territory. Distract your baby’s attention by chatting a bit and telling him what you are doing until he is comfortable in this new environment. Less than a minute a few times will work better than going there for an extended period of time just once. This way, the bird will have time to recognize this unfamiliar environment, but it will not last long enough to worry him.
When the big day has arrived, prepare a large enough water dish or use the sink and fill it with about 2 inches of warm water. Gradually bring your parrot close to the water and arrange for a few drops of water to fall on its feathers and beak. If you get scared, don’t insist, take it with you and try again later until you get used to the sink. The main idea here is not to rush things, but to take your time so that the baby does not grow up being afraid of the water and / or the sink.
After a while, feel free to start squirting some water down his back. Keep talking to her all the time so that she feels safe and may not think about what is happening. Now try lowering your bird into the water so that the warm water reaches its feet, which at that time should still be resting in the palm of your hand. Then encourage her to get into the sink or bowl of water. However, be careful not to completely submerge your baby parrot.
Once it’s nice and clean, take it out of the water and wrap it in a towel to start drying. It is best to finish drying your birdie with a hair dryer on low setting. Here again you need to be careful to avoid any risk of overheating your fragile skin, and a good way to do this is to set the temperature to cold if you can, and also keep your hand between the air and the baby to make sure this follows. being a delicate process at all times.
Hopefully your little bird will enjoy this experience, and you will too, so that once the apprehension of the first bath is over, future baths and showers will be a lot of fun for you and your bird.
