Photo by Jamieleigh Location: Erie, PA Showering: Blue throated macaw "Jinx", Camelot macaws "Comet" & "Tusa"

Sometimes you have to make showering a game in order to get your bird to do it. This is how my mom initially got my galah, Bondi, to shower. She would play the "sink game" with her where she'd run the faucet and Bondi would get splashed a little, and then start running through it, having a great time. My mom was there to encourage her and splash her to get her more and more into it. It was adorable when I first saw it, and Bondi will still do it back at their house. If your bird is refusing to shower or bathe for you, try making a fun game out of it.

Photo by Jamieleigh Location: Erie, PA Showering: Camelot Macaw "Tusa" 

I did this in the amazing shower we had available to us in Erie, Pennsylvania. I found it the night we got in and took full advantage of it with my flock! Here is a video of the game I played with them... which consisted of having them run to me through the water, or fly to me through it, and then being their shower perch until I didn't want to risk my camera getting any wetter than it already was!

And remember my motto; if you want your bird to do something, you better make it fun!

Article by Jamieleigh Womach. She has been working with parrots and toucans since the age of 17. She isn’t homeless but is home less than she prefers to be. She travels the world with her husband, daughter, and a flockful of parrots whom she shares the stage with.