Speaking of wet birds, I recently got my hair cut and the stylist used a mister on me that was REALLY nice, with a very fine spray and a sort of vacuum pump action that made it spray longer with each pull of the trigger than you get from an ordinary sprayer. So naturally I wanted to get one to spray the birds with, and they sold me one for 8 bucks. I think maybe it was the last one they had for sale to the general public, and it seems like these sprayers aren't easy to find online. This ebay seller is apparently sold out (and was charging more than double what I paid): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hair-Tools-Spra ... 1966261054

But if you see one of these for a good price, grab it! It's a wonderful bird sprayer.

They've kinda been like that for a while now, even before the shower. No idea why, but I'm glad the swelling went down. I just hope it stays like that.

That looks like a really good sprayer! Mine doesn't spray very fine mist, which is probably why Lucy doesn't like it much. I'll have to keep an eye out for that

Here's a picture of her that was taken before the shower, yesterday. Notice how the nostrils are swollen here, too, while she's dry.


I'll get a picture of what she looks like now, after I come home from college. I can't tell for sure, but I think the drainage might have stopped, too.

They look OK to me, the same as the rest of my flock. You can see that Vlad's nostrils look similar in my signature, the other pictures don't show it as well. If you google for cockatiel nostrils and then click on the Images link at the top of the results, you'll see a gallery of photos with both normal and abnormal nostrils. They normally stick out some and look pinkish or grey depending on what color the bird is. When something is wrong they get very red and/or swell up massively. Sometimes the cere will flush pink temporarily after exertion, the same way that our faces flush when our hearts are pounding.

Then I wonder why they shrank, when she got dry? Once she did get dry, they got smaller than in that picture.

Is it normal for them to expand and contrast? They're actually starting to swell again, but they're still not as big as before.


(I think she was in mid-blink for this one, because her eyes are nice and round as usual, even though they don't look like it in the picture)

I've also noticed that the shape of her crest has changed. She's also been very hyper today. Just had to get into everything. I had her out as I ate my lunch, and she was busy running around on the table. I even had a nutriberry for her to eat, and she didn't really bother with it until I was almost done. Clearing her nose up must have made her feel so much better. Taking her in the shower with me seemed to give more benefit than I expected.

I have to admit that I've never paid much attention to all the variations in cockatiel nostrils lol. They're hard material so I wouldn't expect water to have much effect on them, but who knows. It's even possible that the change was just a variation in perception.

I don't know whether the shower would have had any effect on her respiratory system at all, but it definitely does good things for their skin and feathers. In the wild they don't get rained on very much, but they do get a bath when they wade into a pond to get a drink. This is a flickr image so it won't display here, but you can follow the link to see the picture:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/marj_k/86 ... otostream/

Well I don't think the water itself did anything for her respiratory system, but possibly the steam. I know when my allergies act up, it always clears my nose. That's why I was wondering if it made her nostrils expand, because of the heat.

I have noticed while looking at pictures of wild cockatiels, that they enjoy getting into the water while drinking it. They must really like it. kinda like how I see more birds out while it rains, than while it's dry. I definitely know some of them sure like bathing in the pond.

My babies learn to drink while wading in a shallow bowl of water that I put out for them. The joy of wading comes first for them, and dipping their beak into the water is secondary.

Odd. I gave her a shallow bowl once. She drank out of it, and that was about it. When she did get in, she stood really tall like she was trying to keep from the rest of her getting wet, and walked right through it.

Maybe she just wasn't feeling it, that day? At one point while in the shower though, she decided to try and drink some of the water coming towards her. Kinda funny to watch.

The only time I've seen my tiels use a dish instead of a mister was when I was deep cleaning their cage inside and took a bowl of water and a toothbrush to the grate. The tiels were walking around and boink, Jaid jumps into the dirty poop water and has a splash.