Chicken baths - silly question

[mcjessen]

I have had four legged animals (cats and dogs) all of my life. When I envision giving a chicken a bath, I envision the chaos that ensues when giving a cat a bath. How easy is it to give a chicken a bath? Do they like it? Don't they flap their wings and get water everywhere? I know those seem like silly questions to some, but I've never bathed a chicken before. LOL!

 

[Crumbling Beauty]

I think that it depends on how docile your chicken is. I love to bathe and blow dry my cochins, but they're especially tame. Having a partner to wrap them in a towel and keep them calm while you change the water is a good idea. Remember that they need to be blown dry afterward, which can take some time.

 

[mcjessen]

Great, thanks for the info. I just envision the battle that happens when I give the cat a bath. It usually takes to people just to hold her. Then we end of laughing so hard because she sounds sooo pathetic.

 

[Crumbling Beauty]

If you have experience bathing cats, chickens should be no problem

.

 

[CCourson05]

Unless you are showing your birds, generally there is no need to give a chicken a bath..

 

[Country Heart]

In my experience chickens are way easier to bathe than either cats or dogs. Good luck with your chicken. Let us know how it goes for you.

 

[sweeterdeeter42]

I have given the most untamed chickens baths before. They usually dont fight it too much. You have to have control of their wings though. You could end up with a black eye if you dont. And you will want to trim their nails before you bathe them to minimize scratches. In the summer we would give them baths outside and put them in cages to dry outside under the trees. I have blow dried a few depending on the breeds. When I bathe them outside, I set up three tubs of warm water in a line, one for the initial wetting and soaping, one for the rinsing, and one for the final rinsing to make sure all of the soap is off. If they are white birds I have 4 tubs, with the third one being for adding bluing to the clean water to help them be whiter.
For some reason, they tend to want to put their heads in the water, so you have to be careful with that.