To darn cold here.... frost this morning! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

what kind of shower do you have? is it installed in your outdoor aviary?

I just don't spray my birds when they are out and it's not definitely warm

I used a hose on my aviary cockatiels. I'm pretty sure Carolyn does the same.

The hose is a little too intense for them so I use a large plant sprayer that uses air pressure to deliver the water. It's similar to this:


I only use it outdoors because I don't want to have a gallon of water getting on the bird room carpet. Sometimes when it's too cold to go outside I'll mist them lightly with a small hand-held sprayer. But they get a better bath when they're outdoors.

Barbara (a member who's no longer active) made a great indoor bird shower using an aquarium pump and some other equipment. You can see a video of it in the second post at this link: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1714&start=20

When spring hits us and the weather is somewhat sunny I start putting baths in the aviary. I do that in the mornings and not more than 2 hours.

In the mornging to give them time to dry up and not go into a cold night wet.
Only 2 hours cause I don't want them to start drinking from the (dirty) bathwater (they pooped in)...

But since my birds are outside all the time I guess Vitamin D is not an issue for me.

Birds in outdoor aviaries should get all the vitamin D they need. No one really knows how much outdoor time a bird needs to get vitamin D. I've seen estimates ranging from 30 minutes a day to 30 minutes a week. The amount of UV in the sun's rays depends on factors like latitude and what time of year it is, so it varies from place to place and season to season.

I have been showering them out, to my surprise, pika seem to like it!

yes they need Vitamin D but you have to be careful with birds that are lutino. I lost my beloved Rocky from skin cancer. My vet said it was due to sun exposer. and wetting a lutino bird would call in more sun exposer then what maybe necessary. according to my avian vet they only need 10 to 20 minutes in the sun to get enough Vitamin D plus they must have calcium source, because the vitamin and mineral work together hand in hand.
and word to the wise any type of glass will not allow the nature form of Vitamin D thru the glass.

No one really knows how much sun exposure birds need. 10 to 20 minutes works for many humans, but we have a lot more exposed skin than a bird does.

Thanks for the advise, I try to shower them at least three times per week outside, and mostly its around 10 am, and not longer than maybe 15 min of sun exposure,