Cleaning up for a show - can't get her white! Ideas?

[BarefootMom]

When we had White German Shepherds we used whitening shampoo from WalMart (don't remember the brand- but it worked really great!)

echoing the above posts BLEACH??!?!? Why? Would you wash your hair with bleach? Poor Poor Poor Bird!

I have also heard that ACV works wonders, do you have hard water?? Soft water is better. Dawn Dish soap works well too.

Make sure youd ry the birds really well (can take several hours)

oh and chorline and feathers makes a yellow, so you probably made your bird even more yellow with the bleach

 

[Stumpfarmer]

One thing that needs said (besides the "don't use laundry products on animals thing: it never works, honest") is that persistant yellow stains on white animals are almost always from bedding material or unpainted wood; I had my first 4H calf turn orange after she was bedded in mill sawdust containing western hemlock, and other woods can have the same effect. I'd look into human hair care products meant for white hair as well as those meant for show-ring animals. The gold standard used to be a soft soap from Orvus, but that was a while ago.

The other thing is that you might need to leave this girl home and let her recover the oil balance in her feathers, for the sake of her health and appearance. Feathers, like hair, are made of protein; laundry soaps are designed to wash cellulose (cotton, rayon) and petroleum based polymers (nylon, acrylic, polyester, et'c and so on). The only laundry products which don't do chemical damage to hair and feathers are the ones specifically sold for washing wool and silk, and even those may be too harsh for repeated skin exposure.

In the all way too many years I showed cattle, I went from using liquid laundry detergent to cheap bulk shampoo to show animal specialty projects as my cows and I learned the hard way what works: I'm here to share the products of my own mistakes!

 

[lockedhearts]

I show Paint Horses, I live in GA in the middle of Red Clay Central. I have 3 Words for you...... Wisk Laundry Detergent! I use it on my horses and I used it on my White Bantam Cochins when I showed birds. It takes very little, is not harsh and does not have the oops factor of leaving a bluish or purpleish hint from the whitening shampoos.....
You can also add a capful of Blueing to the rinse water.

 

[debilorrah]

I would encourage you to think a little more thoroughly in the future. Bleach is damaging to clothing, so I can imagine it did the same thing to the birds skin. You are going to need to rub that vitamin E oil in right down to the skin.

 

[SunAngel]

I am very surprised the bleach didn't kill her. My Mom locked our German Shepherd puppies (about 3-4 months old) in the laundry room when we went somewhere for the day. We came home that day to the boy still alive, but the girl dead. Somehow they had knocked the bottle of bleach down off a high shelf (still have no clue how they reached it). There wasn't even that much spilled, but it was enough to kill a big baby like her. I can't imagine what damage it could do to birds. I am pretty sure Tide wasn't much better for her skin/feathers. Hope your girl will be ok and you can get her feathers back to normal for the show. We always used the whitening shampoo for dogs on our Wh. Shepherds...worked great.

 

[ultasol]

Quote:
Ok guys,.. I use the tide with colorsafe bleach alternative on my whites.... avoiding vent and eyes, and it helps. I've heard good things about the cowboy magic product to remove manure stains, but haven't personally tried it. There are some stains that just won't come out. Here is what I do....
1) check bird for mites. Trim nails and trim beak and use file to sand into pleasant shape (do it now in case you nick the quick and get bleeding)
2) If bird has mites, wet bird and bathe initially with adams flea shampoo; if not, get bird wet and use a little diluted liquid dishwashing detergent to wet feathers down to skin, this makes everything else easier and you use less product.
3) use tide with bleach alternative (colorsafe) diluted to about 1/3 strength and lather bird avoiding eyes and vent. Leave on 2-3 minutes.
4) rinse bird in warm water.
5) IF the bird is a silkie I do this a day or two before the show, I also add a rinse including white vinegar, 3-4 tbs per gallon, before a final rinse,.. not concerned about preserving oils
6) Blowdry.

If the bird is a featherfoot and dirty I will use a toothbrush to clean foot feathers.

It's worked for me. My whites were all molting for this spring show, but my white silkies did well in the fall.

 

[Timmy]

OK so I'm thinking that they weren't trying to hurt there bird and you don't need to do any more yelling at the old computer monitor. As far as the bird goes for soap I use borax, and woolite ( I don't know if that's spelled right). After you wash them you need to rinse they in clean water or water with some white vinegar in it then clean water. The vinegar stops the soap from removing any more oils. Some bluing may also help with the white feathers. If the birds not clean do it again until it is clean. The thing with white birds is they are a real pain like you said the brassy color is from corn and sun not dirt. It's in the feathers not on them and honestly I don't know that you can wash is out. In the future your white birds need to be in conditioning pen that limit sun light and have there diet monitored better. I know you said you don't feed scratch, but read labels layer pellets are mostly corn. It's also important to remember show prep starts months before the show not days.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Never mind...

I can't read this early in the morning...

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

If that much bleach hasn't already killed your bird, she likely needs a vet trip. It's toxic.

Otherwise, bleach will further the yellowing. I don't know how to fix that, short of letting her molt out the damaged feathers.