Conures love to take baths and/or showers. Bathing is important for the bird’s health and comfort, especially during molting season. You should give your parrots a bath or shower several times a week. Stewie started taking little baths in his water bowl, but the bowl was too small for Stewie to fit his entire body in. So he’d only get his front wet.
So cute! He’d make these really happy, chirpy (almost purring) noises when he was getting wet.
I tried introducing larger containers into the cage so he could take a proper bath, but he ignored the bowls, tupperware, large plates… And my attempts to spritz him with water from these containers did not meet with approval.
Today I took Stewie into the bathroom while I took a shower. I didn’t take him into the shower because I thought that might be too aggressive. But I did get a pump-style spray bottle and misted him thoroughly. He didn’t act like he enjoyed it, but he didn’t try to run away or react negatively. I played in the spray and cheered like a bozo to show him that it was a fun thing. I think he’s probably going to get cleaned via misting from now on.
Important: it’s important to spray up into the air and let the mist fall down on the bird. Never spray water directly into the bird’s face.
You might also try running a light stream of water in the sink and placing a bowl in the bottoms for Stewie to sit on. My Yoshimi (a fancy green cheek conure) enjoys running through the water and dunking her head on her own, or spalshing her body into the bowl and jumping out again. Overall her baths are no longer than 5 minutes – but she will climb down my shirt herself to get into that sink when its bathtime!
He won’t allow me to place him in the sink, and he doesn’t get the concept of baths anywhere besides his drinking water. Otherwise I think it would be nicer to have him take showers in the sink, since that would give him more control over how wet to get and where.
I’ve been bringing Stewie into the shower now and he’s pretty okay with it. He hangs out on my arm so he’s not directly under the shower stream but gets wet via water bouncing off me and the walls. It takes him a long time to really start getting into it (i.e., lifting his wings and walking under the water)… often longer than I’m willing to spend in the shower if I’m getting ready for work 😉